Pines at Pembroke Lodge

Pines against a bright blue sky, the wind in the canopies. A pair of slender trees catching the light in front, the warm russet of the bracken behind. A break of cloud overhead. The kind of stand that’s stood there a long time.

An original watercolour of the veteran pines at Pembroke Lodge, painted on Arches HP 100% cotton. The Lodge sits on the western ridge of Richmond Park — and just beside it King Henry’s Mound carries one of London’s protected sight-lines, ten miles east through a gap in the trees to the dome of St Paul’s. The pines here are some of the park’s oldest, their dark canopies held high above grass and bracken.