My Philosophy Behind Drawing Trees - The Zen Behind Chaos and our Innate Connection With Nature

Ever since I was a small child I’ve enjoyed drawing trees - I used to do it daily in my school textbooks when I was bored in class. Now that I’m older, I see the philosophy behind it. There are no rules in the structure of a tree - the way the branches grow is completely chaotic. The leaves decorate the ends of each branch and twig completely randomly in an explosion of green.

I think my fascination with trees comes from my innate desire to create. Trees are both complex and simple, and the art of drawing a tree is incredibly zen to me.

A part of that fascination with trees comes from a human desire to connect with nature. I think even a man living in a penthouse in the middle of the city, surrounded by man-made wealth, has a desire to escape into the forest. Perhaps, at the core of most people, there is a desire to live in a cabin in the woods - but most people wouldn’t cope without a sense of purpose. We can no longer settle for survival and supporting the community as our sense of purpose. In western society, we have a lot of purpose.

We’re told we need to consume to be happy. We can’t simply build a log cabin and forage for food. We need to go to school, get a degree, get a high paying job and meet someone who has done the same thing so they can help you buy a house that has already been built for you. For people who devote their lives to art, this gets even more complicated, because not only do you need to invest in adequate training, you need to build a career before you can get paid a sustainable living for that job. Your measure of success is no longer “can I survive comfortably?” It is now “Can I survive comfortably, make an impact with my art and support the global economy?” When you lay it out like that, it doesn’t look too complicated but there are many more steps that hide behind this.

I think the best way (for some) to escape this pressure for a little while is to pursue something creative and meaningless - something you can enjoy doing, but you’re not doing it for profit or acclaim. I drew this the other day and I realised that this is what I used to do - I haven’t tried drawing trees for years and it’s interesting to see how my trees have changed after so long. Before they looked like gum trees, now they look like apple trees. There are also fewer leaves on this tree, so it looks like I’m going to need a bit more practice in patience!