This painting is of semi-ancient beech woodland within walking distance of my home in the Chilterns. I walk most days and love seeing the seasons change – always revealing new interest. In early May the new leaves form dazzling swathes of vibrant green.

After months of grey/brown, this is an especially magical time. Hildegard of Bingen wrote about ‘viriditas’ (‘greening power’), and it is indeed a spellbinding moment when spring/nature is amped up to the max, as if the dial has blown the scale on colour, sound, smell… life!

Initially I worried that this painting had no clear focal point, but surely that’s the point of nature: it is not a carefully choreographed composition but a riot of colour and form which assaults the viewer from all directions.