From September 23, 2026 until October 4, 2026

Drawn to Trees: John Blandy RCA


John Blandy has spent his career studying trees as subjects returned to again and again, season after season, year after year. He works entirely on site in pastel, he completes each drawing in a single sitting of around two hours, capturing a scene exactly as it appears before the light changes.

The exhibition includes a selection of studies of trees in Primrose Hill, Regents Park, Hampstead Heath and Queens Park

Through years of returning to the same trees, Blandy's pastels build into a record of place and changing seasons, offering a timely angle on climate and sustained attention to the natural world.

Opening Hours:
Wednesday, Thursday Friday 12:00 until 19:00
Saturday Sunday 10:00 until 18:00

What sets Blandy's practice apart is his commitment to repetition. Rather than moving from subject to subject, he will draw the same composition for weeks, months, or years. Regulars at Queens Park remember him standing before the same lime tree (Lime Tree Series 1997 - 2020) almost daily as he tracked it through every shift in season and weather. This sustained attention turns each drawing into part of a larger record; a diary, made mark by mark, of a place, a tree, through the passage of time. Over years of close obeservation, this work becomes a quiet record of our changing climate.

"I find something new every time I look" Blandy says. Even after six years with the same apple tree, he continues to discover fresh details in its light, its structure, and to explore new ways to interpret what he sees onto paper.

About John Blandy RCA
John Blandy has always been drawn to trees; his studio is the outdoors, wherever he sets up his easel, paper and pastels. A founder member of the Arborealists (www.arborealists.com), a group of artists dedicated to painting trees, he has exhibited regularly nationally and internationally.

Blandy was Artist in Residence at Wytham Woods, Oxford, from 2015 to 2021 (www.wythamwoods.ox.ac.uk) where he followed five “iconic” trees from the woods. His work was featured in Broadleaf, the magazine of the Woodland Trust, in Spring 2025 (www.woodlandtrust.org.uk).