In 1901, Nash’s family moved from London to Iver Heath in Buckinghamshire. He had no formal training as an artist but was encouraged to begin a career in painting by his brother, Paul.

After serving in the First World War, Nash moved to the Buckinghamshire town of Gerrards Cross, and from 1922 to 1939 he lived at Meadle, in the same county. His landscape paintings from this period often show the local woodlands, including these watercolours of beech trees, such as Study of Beech Trees and Beechwood with Stream, both bequeathed by Ann Turner. After the Second World War he settled in Essex.

Bucks County Museum holds several works by Nash that illustrate his local connections, but these are the first of his watercolours from the 1930s to enter the collection.