I really love trees, I have always been drawn to them. I often take a walk in the forest. It makes me feel good, at ease and happy. When I walk or run through the forest, I breathe, I cleanse and I often get insights, I come up with interesting solutions.
Because they are such an important part of my life, I paint them often. My painting journey started in my mid-thirties, and it was a tree that was the first to be painted on a wooden surface. Since then, trees have been a constant motif in my artistic repertoire, be it murals, painting on canvas or with watercolours.
I paint them in all seasons, green, in bloom, dressed in autumn colours or without leaves, covered with snow.
I find them to be a source of immense vitality and beauty. With every tree I have painted in homes and businesses across Slovenia, I have created a place of vitality. And that’s what every home needs to feel good.
You know that feeling when you’re in a room that’s suffocating and you want to get out? We humans are creatures of nature, and we often forget that when it comes to our homes. Enclosed in cubes with smooth, uniform walls, surrounded by artificial materials, each of us in front of our own screen. Our homes should be full of natural materials, light, connected to the outdoors and, above all, designed to support us. Colours and the right furniture layout alone can go a long way.
When a tree or a painting comes into a room, full of vitality and life, full of joy, it completely transforms the living space.
Since this is the time of year when the trees are in bloom, it seems like the right moment to focus on them. Those great bouquets of beauty that carry the energy of eternal youth, playfulness and grace. The first blooming tree I created as a mural was a Japanese cherry tree in a bedroom, in a beautiful house in Ljubljana, just in time for the spring blossom. I painted many blooming trees after this one, from cherry trees, apple trees, magnolia trees, even a rose tree and a tree of Eden. And every time it was an overwhelming experience.
There is something particularly sweet and delicate about the energy of blossoming trees.
Of course, there are differences between the blooming trees too. The magnolia is certainly not as light-hearted as the flowering apple tree, which is very communicative and welcomes everyone. I can approach the magnolia by admiring its rich and exuberant blossom. It is an elegant beauty.
The flowering apple trees remind me of my grandfather’s orchard. He planted them himself, every one of them different. I recall my mother telling me that there was nothing more beautiful than flowering apple trees, and it was truly breathtaking. Running under the mighty trees, them showering me with white petals. And that intoxicating smell of spring and flowering trees. I have a small orchard of apple trees here, where I live now. They are just getting ready to blossom. I admire them again and again as they gradually develop their wonderful blossom. What a beauty. The bees are already looking forward to them, and the bumblebees.
I also remember the cherry blossoms from my childhood. There were lots of them, flowering and ripening gradually so that there were always enough, from the earliest bright to the latest pure dark red sweet cherries. How I loved to pick them. I still love them, but they are not that good any more. The sweet feeling of the trees in blossom, the smell of spring, of abundance and lightness, is still with me.
It was later in life that I came across the lushness of Japanese cherries. They are truly remarkable trees and a beautiful painting motif.
All the experiences and friendships I had with these mighty beings are now being transferred onto the painting surface. In every blossoming tree I paint, there is a part of what I once experienced or what I am still experiencing now. In the creative process I take this even further, as the depths of the unknown, perhaps forgotten, yet so familiar, are revealed to me. Sometimes I make a quick sketch, purely abstract, and the energy structure, the pattern that precedes the experience, comes into view.
Creation is in a way a conversation with Mother Nature, the more open I am, the easier it is to hear her song.
March 23rd, 2024