Title: The Age of the Old Tree

Artist: Laura Bernardeschi Nelson

Medium: Oil pastels on paper

Dimensions: 45 × 35 cm

Presentation: Framed, varnished, and signed

Year: 2025

Price £180

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Description (for Saatchi Art, Etsy, or your website)

The Age of the Old Tree by Laura Bernardeschi Nelson is an evocative portrait in which the face of an ancient tree emerges from layers of rich, expressive oil pastel. The piece explores the profound relationship between human beings and the natural world, suggesting that our aging mirrors the aging of the planet itself.

The tree’s features—its solemn eyes, weathered lines, and rooted expression—reflect both wisdom and fragility. Branches extend upward like thoughts forming, while the deep greens and blues of the surrounding background evoke the quiet hum of nature’s endurance. By merging the human face with the trunk of an old tree, Bernardeschi Nelson reminds viewers that we are not separate from the earth: we grow with it, age with it, and ultimately share the same fate.

This artwork is an intimate reflection on environmental decline and the passage of time. It stands as a symbolic reminder that to harm the planet is to harm ourselves.

Becoming the Forest — A Gentle Voice in My Climate Collection

By Laura Bernardeschi Nelson

Medium: Oil pastels on paper

Size: 45 × 35 cm

Presentation: Framed, varnished, signed

Price £180

In my ongoing journey of exploring the relationship between humanity and the natural world, Becoming the Forest emerged as one of the quietest, most intimate pieces I have created. While some works in my Climate Change Collection confront environmental loss head-on, this piece approaches the same theme in a softer way — through serenity, innocence, and connection.

This artwork is an oil pastel portrait of a young Mother Nature resting within the landscape that forms her body. Her hair dissolves into vines; her breathing seems to rhythmically move with leaves and branches; her sense of peace radiates outward as though the forest itself is exhaling with her. The boundaries between figure and nature fade, reminding us that we are not separate entities living beside the natural world — we are woven into it.

Although Becoming the Forest carries no drama or destruction, it still belongs firmly within my climate-focused body of work. Its calmness is precisely the point. It holds up a vision of harmony — a moment of unity that climate change is steadily threatening to erase. In this sense, the portrait becomes a memory of what balance feels like, a reminder of what is worth protecting, and an invitation to pause and reconnect with the natural rhythms surrounding us.

In my Climate Change Collection, I explore a wide spectrum of environmental emotions: grief, warning, transformation, resilience, and hope. Becoming the Forest sits among the hopeful pieces. It reflects the beauty that survives, the gentleness that nature still carries, and the possibility that harmony can be restored if we choose to honour our planet.