Joan Skelton Smith, Cliveden Tree. Courtesy Natural History Museum Tring

Art inspired by some rather special trees in the Chilterns is going on display at Tring’s Natural History Museum from September 1 to 30 2007.

The touring exhibition, entitled Perspectives: Special Trees of the Chilterns, includes work by two artists local to the area who have been inspired by the arboreal delights of the home counties’ hills.

Artist June Kingsbury graduated from Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College in 2006 with an MA in Ceramics and Glass, has exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts and won a number of awards. She works mainly with glass and ceramics in her studio near Henley-on-Thames.

“”My earliest memory is of walking with my father, filling my pockets with Cepaea nemoralis, a brightly banded snail,” says June. “I now remember this, as once again I find these snails in the Chiltern beech woodlands.”

“For this exhibition my work documents a 4km walk through Hambleden Valley. Repeated every day over the course of one year, it reflects on the earlier walk made with my father.”

“I find the beech trees with carvings on particularly thought provoking and have featured a number of them in my work.”

Artists June Kingsbury and Joan Skelton Smith. Photo: Liz Manley

Fellow artist Joan Skelton Smith, meanwhile, works with cut paper, steel, polystyrene and video. She lives in Haddenham, Buckinghamshire, and is currently at Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College, having first studied art in the United States.

She, too, has been inspired by childhood memories of the woods.

“My interst in woodland imagery recalls childhood experiences which had a profound impact on my life,” she says.

“I found solace and refuge climbing up into the ree tops behind my house and camping out in the Cedars and Oaks of East Texas.”

“In my studio practice I attempt to portray the sense of awe and comfort that I continue to feel in the woodland environment.”

Perspectives celebrates the second year of the Special Trees and Woods Project in the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. You can suggest your own artistic contributions to the project, for possible inclusion in an exhibition in 2008, by contacting Liz Manley at lmanley@chilternsaonb.org.

The exhibition will go on to Norden Farm Centre for the Arts in Maidenhead from October 24 to November 11.