Trees in Spring

Trees are always wonderful subjects for painting, and Spring offers up some of the best opportunities for tackling them. All the Seasons are about transition, and like Autumn, Spring is the time with the most movement and variation. The various species of tree come into leaf at different times, and in my local park it’s usually the central weeping willow which gets its leaves first. On one occasion I actually met the lady who had planted it with her dad when she was a little girl many years before, and she had the deepest love for the wonderful old tree. My kids in their childhood were also enthusiasts for it, my daughter scaling its boughs at the drop of a hat.

The trees below are all Spring painted pieces. The weeping willow by the lake is from an outdoor sketching workshop I did in Reigate Park just over a year ago, before we found ourselves confined to the local streets. It’s a quickly done little piece, trying to capture a bit of the delicacy of the early spring growth.

Red Cherry blossom is spectacular when it lasts, and impressive as well when it comes off in drifts at the end of its flowering season.

White Cherry is not always so common, but my local park had a few – the one below is a young tree, seeded from its much bigger parent on the other side of the fence in the picture.

This last painting is a study of a famous Chesham landmark, the Memory Tree. It’s a wonderful, freestanding oak on a path just above the town, and locals, I believe, attach little mementos to its branches at various times of the year. It’s a picture I’ve used when teaching watercolour, and has a nice, panoramic sweep to it with the distant rolling hills. Very early spring with a nice, fresh sky lightening the scene.