Opening at The Minories, Colchester

The show at the Minories features the Arborealists, a group of artists specialising in depicting trees.

In this show, we are exhibiting work about Staverton, an ancient deer park on the borders of Suffolk and Norfolk. The oaks there were pollarded until the end of the eighteenth century. Since then, they have been left to grow freely and the park is now a landscape of massive trunks (many trees are between 500 and 1000 years old) and a riot of writhing branches.

The group was approached by renowned tree expert George Peterkin, MBE who had carried out a survey of the trees in the park in the 1960s and had maintained an interest in the location ever since.

Since 2023, we have been visiting the park on a regular basis and the work on show is our response to this unique habitat.

I will be showing wintry watercolours in russets and greys (from a freezing January visit) and some experimental intaglio etchings using the inside of TetraPak drinks cartons, of some of my favourite oaks.

The exhibition opens on Thursday 5th March 2026 and runs to Sunday 3rd April. I will be at the opening event on Saturday 7th March, from 4pm. Please do come and say hello.