Julie Henderson restarted her painting practice in 2019, inspired by the Berkshire’s trees and hills. She made stark and moody tree paintings, thinking about the history, shifting conditions, and human stories embodied in the trees' cycles of growth and decay. The trees are represented in a state of complicated serenity, as seen in the varied atmospheric conditions, surface marks, and evocative color. Henderson followed the tree series with experimentation in both abstraction and Renaissance-inspired imagery. Her abstracted landscapes developed impactful color relationships and intuitive application of shape and composition. The Renaissance-inspired imagery, with Botticelli-like figures, freed a sense of play and fun. More recently, she has returned to realism through figurative work inspired by old photos. Henderson likes to find somewhat uncomfortable or awkward historical moments that also somehow contain elements of beauty, which she can then interpret with paint. The themes of her figurative work recall the themes of her earlier tree paintings, such as history, changing conditions, and human stories of growth and decay while commenting on contemporary life, personal connection, and technology.