Dr Megan Spiers

What’s not to love about painting trees? Even better, painting trees in the beautiful surrounds of Canberra’s Australian National Botanic Gardens. I was invited to demonstrate acrylic sketching techniques as part of NatureArt Lab’s course promotion event on Saturday 21 April at the Earth Festival – celebrating sustainable living with a great vibe, music, good coffee and healthy food choices on the shady Eucalypt Lawn.

I introduced the acrylic demo with a statement about our relationship with trees and my appreciation, as an artist, for forests and the environment. The Japanese philosophy of shinrin-yoku or “forest bathing” is a brilliant way to address the worries and concerns of modern life by immersing ourselves in nature and silent contemplation. In a similar way, sketching plein air can be a form of meditation. When artists are immersed in the moment, we produce our most authentic response to what we see.

On Wednesday 2 May, I will introduce the “STEP into plein air” event at the National Arboretum on behalf of NatureArt Lab. The three-hour art workshop is held during Canberra Tree Week and takes place amid the beautiful local endangered trees and flowering plants of the Southern Tablelands Ecosystems Park (STEP), Forest 20.