New tree bathing exhibition creates windows into woodland scenes
New tree bathing exhibition creates windows into woodland scenes
15 December 2025
Research shows that actively engaging with nature and relaxing under a canopy of trees can offer physical and mental health benefits, including stress relief, lowered blood pressure, improved mood and pain threshold, and improved memory and concentration.
The new exhibition, recently installed in St Mary’s Hospital’s Cambridge Wing, aims to bring these natural spaces inside the hospital walls, creating windows into soothing woodland landscapes for staff, patients, and visitors.
We spoke to one of the artists, Joanna Vestey, about the inspiration behind her photographs.
She told us: “I’d been reading Guy Shrubsole, who wrote a book about ancient rainforest in the UK, and I didn’t know we had them, so I was really intrigued.
“They’re all along the West coast, Cornwall, Devon, and Wales, and to make it a rainforest, it has to have over 1,400mm of rain a year, and it has to have bryophytes, certain plants which grow on other plants, so lichens and ferns, and you only get those within that environment.”
Joanna Vestey, Pontneddfechan, Powys, Wales 18:01 - 20:01, 2023. Photographic print. Courtesy of the artist.
The photographs show tangled branches, ferns and moss in blue and green hues, evoking the feeling of being entirely enveloped by the forest scenes.
She said: “It’s a different realm. There are centuries and centuries of matter that have just moulded and taken on a slightly different shape, and you can really sense that. So photographically, I wanted to come at it from a different way, not just going out with my camera and taking a picture, but doing these really long exposures that might try and capture arboreal time, or tree time.”
"You forget when you’re in a city that all of that is on our doorstep."
Joanna Vestey
Shinrin-Yoku: The Art of Forest Bathing installation view at St Mary's Hospital.
Vestey's work is also inspired by her interest in the positive effects of nature on health outcomes. She hopes her works bring the feeling of being under a canopy of trees to the clinical space.
“I’m interested in the crossover of forest bathing and spending time in the forest, and increasing research about what it does to us on a cellular level," she adds.
“You forget when you’re in a city that all of that is on our doorstep, and being able to bring some of those experiences in to share with people in quite challenging urban environments is a really privileged thing to be able to do.”
Vestey is just one of the artists featured in the exhibition. Also on display are several photographs from Gareth McConnell’s Night Flowers series, small moments of natural beauty captured after dark in the urban landscapes of London and New York.
Gareth McConnell, London III, 2004. From the series Night Flowers (2003-2010). Photographic print. Courtesy of the artist.
Other featured artists include Ellie Davies, whose work combines landscape photography with temporary sculptural installations to reimagine the British woodland as a place of myth and magic, and Simon Baxter.
Following a back injury in 2012, Baxter began photographing trees as a form of therapy, immersing himself in local outdoor spaces alongside his dog Meg. His large-scale photography captures the profound and restorative power of solitary time spent in nature.
You can view the exhibition at St Mary’s Hospital until May 2026, at which point the exhibition will move to Hammersmith Hospital. It will then travel to Charing Cross Hospital later in the year.
Thank you to all the artists and lenders whose collaboration made this exhibition possible. Our thanks also to Purdy Hicks Gallery, Flowers Gallery and the Tree Art Gallery for their support of the show.
