A BRUSH WITH NATURE

Inside the lithograph studio making prints of the King's paintings - and what these watercolours really tell us about the monarch

- MIRANDA THOMPSON

In the garden of Highgrove, the King's private residence in Gloucestershire, there used to stand a 200-year-old cedar of Lebanon tree. It is said that its majesty was part of the great appeal for the King when he bought the estate in 1980, and he was saddened when it became diseased and had to be felled in 2007.

Now, the tree is coming to life again in a limited-edition lithograph based on the King's 1995 watercolour A View from the Wildflower Meadow. The print, raising funds for the King's Foundation, shows Highgrove in all its glory particularly its wildflower meadow.

"It's one of the key parts of the garden, because it's all about the importance of living in harmony with nature," says Scott Simpson, the foundation's group retail and brand manager, whose job is to select the artworks for sale and present them to the King, a "prolific artist" with "impeccable taste".