This exhibition presents a series of charcoal drawings by Lelia Henry that explore the intelligence, memory, and emotional presence of trees, inspired by the groundbreaking research of forest ecologist Suzanne Simard.

This exhibition presents a series of charcoal drawings of trees influenced by the research of Canadian forest ecologist Suzanne Simard. Simard’s discoveries about the intelligence and social behaviour of trees – their ability to communicate, support one another, and even recognise kin – provide the foundation for this series. Simard’s work reveals that trees communicate, share nutrients, and cooperate – behaviours once thought to belong only to humans – through underground networks of fungi. Her research suggests that forests are social systems, where individual trees act with an awareness of and care for one another. Simard’s work also suggests that trees and forest networks exhibit a form of biological memory, with the capacity to recognise kin; they can alter their response to stressors based on previous experience, and that a type of collective memory can be stored within the networks of a forest.

These drawings focus on the visible forms we encounter every day: trunks, branches, and canopies that stand as quiet presences in our shared environments. Each drawing treats the tree as an individual with its own character. Some appear resilient and upright; others lean, twist, or seem to gesture toward each other. Using the subtleties of charcoal, Henry explores how human traits can be seen in the forms of trees, reducing each image to its essentials, while maintaining a sense of life and movement.

The works do not attempt to anthropomorphise nature in a sentimental way. Instead, they ask what it means to recognise familiar emotions and gestures in non-human forms. By doing so, the drawings encourage a shift in perception: from seeing trees as background objects to recognising them as beings that share something of our own experience.

In this exhibition, the forest becomes a mirror for human presence – silent but expressive, individual yet collective. The drawings invite viewers to slow down and engage with the trees around them as companions in the landscape, carrying their own stories and personalities.

Lelia Henry lives and works between Mayo and Westmeath. She holds an MA in Art & Process from Crawford College of Art, graduating in 2020. She also holds qualifications in drawing from NCAD and the Florence Academy of Art.

She has been awarded the Thomas Dammann Junior Memorial Trust Award and a number of Arts Council Agility Awards. In 2017, she won Irish Landscape Artist of the Year at the National Open Art Competition, London. She has exhibited at the RHA (where she also studied); RUA; Mall Galleries, London; and Pallant House Gallery, Chichester. In 2026, she will take part in a show of contemporary drawing at Luan Gallery, Athlone. Her work is held in numerous collections, public and private, including the OPW State Art Collection.

Her practice is drawing based, working mainly in charcoal. Her work explores neglected and overlooked elements of the rural landscape, examining the relationship between these neglected spaces, and the enduring impact of human activity. Her concern for the loss of the natural world drives her to create meticulously rendered drawings, through which she offers the viewer a quiet space for reflection in which to consider our relationship to our world around us.

The artist would like to thank Susan Kellett at Enniscoe House and Tom Gorman at Westport House for access to the grounds at both houses.

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