What are roles that trees play in artists’ practice? Why trees? How do artists interpret the provocation, “If Trees Could Talk”?

Joe Webster is known for his fine art graffiti landscapes – and the monumental mural in Newton Abbot Town Centre. He is actively seeking to put voices of communities in artworks.

Gordon Field is known for his Manifesto for the Trees. His relationship with the trees is more than artistic, it is spirirtual. He is a renowned dowser. Trees inform his life, not just his work.

Jacqueline Wedlake Hatton’s artistic practices explore her profound connection with nature and how trees perform subtle acts of negotiation, as humans do, to maximise their growth.

Ann Blockley’s watercolour and mixed-media artworks are evocative, atmospheric and intuitive, capturing an elusive air of mystery and magic within Nature that lies tantalisingly between reality and the imagined.

This is one of five talks in June and July at Ashburton Arts Centre which form part of If Trees Could Talk Devon 2026 International Art Biennale in conjunction with Significant Seams here in Devon, and the Tuvmboa-Tunmba Children’s Museum of Philippine Art, Batangas, Philippines.

See iftreescouldtalk.art and significantseams.org.uk
All five events are listed at wegottickets.com/IfTreesCouldTalk2026

Ashburton Arts Centre
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