Windling Trees

Today I want to talk to you a little bit about one of my favorite kinds of trees: Windling Trees.

You may or may not be familiar with this type of tree; most likely you have not heard them called by this name. A couple of years ago, I saw a blog post written by the author, artist, editor, and muse Terri Windling. She shared pictures of her old home in a cottage in Devon. On the walls of her bedroom, glowing with a ghostly golden glow, she had painted tree shadows. There was no shading, no bark detail...just the ghostly silhouettes of trees in a shade lighter than the color of the wall, to the point where you almost wondered if it was just your imagination turning the room into a forest.




Well, I was instantly smitten. The same blog post showed her paintings of similar trees on the walls of Endicott West, an artist's retreat in Arizona. Those trees were similar, but the background was shaded with a few colors of the rainbow sunset the desert could boast.

I saved the photographs from Terri's blog, and when my husband and I moved into our first home together a year ago, the bedroom was the first room I painted. I chose a golden warm color called "Peanut Butter" (Behr) to cover the walls, and then added a small amount of white paint to the color, lightening it slightly to paint the trees. Painting the Windling Trees on my wall was a wonderful experience. The painting of a tree can be feasibly done without vast amounts of artistic talent...each tree can have flaws and asymmetry. And the process of painting the tree...from thick trunk to ever-thinning branches, to spindly twigs...was quite like a meditation to me.




As I painted the trees on my wall, I thought about a special circle of old and leafless Hawthorn trees near my house. In one of Charles de Lint's books, he explains that everyone has a "forest of the heart"...a special place that can exist in reality or only in your mind, to which you can retreat when you need solace, comfort, or calm. This grove of Hawthorns has been my Forest of the Heart for over a decade.

Recently, I moved into my first house and researched the mystery tree in my backyard. I discovered it was a Hawthorn tree, and read up on its long and Faerie history. It was only after that, when I returned to my grove of trees, that I recognized them as old and wizened Hawthorns, and my own tree as a young offshoot of their sacred magic. I broke down in tears in the grove when recognition dawned...it seemed to be a symbol I was in the right place...had found the right space to call home.

I'm telling you this story for a reason. Because to me, my Windling Trees are the same. Even though the trees Terri and others have painted look quite different than my own, to have created the trees on my walls makes me feel like a part of things...like my trees are an offshoot of the same grove that shelters artistic minds in Arizona, or looks down on a magical house in Devon, England.

I'm not alone in my desire for these trees on my walls. Artist Danielle Earp, who also lives in Devon, England, painted her own forest on the walls of her daughter's bedroom... "A dark and mysterious forest, hung about with owls, of mossy green and lichen grey, just right for a dark and mysterious daughter of the earth. "


It's quite easy to find a variety of sources for wall decals of gorgeous trees. And if you truly hate painting, this might be the way to go. When I shared the images of my Windling Trees to friends, a few mentioned the easy availability of wall decals to me and queried why I hadn't gone that route. Well, to be honest...because to me, the painting of the trees on my wall was a meditative process. It was really a ritual...a way to claim a space in my new home, and say "please, magic. Please, inspiration. Please, Faerie...I invite you in. Here are branches in which to climb, roots in which to make a home."