Even though abstractions from nature play a central part in Queen Margrethe's works, they are nevertheless dependent on direct studies of nature, and function and develop as the result of a dialogue between the two.

They are studio paintings based on direct impressions of nature or on the artist's visions or a mixture of the two. The true nature studies, or open-air painting, as it is called, differ from the studio paintings with their more differentiated light and colour effects and more pronounced interaction between light and shade, which usually produced a more vivid surface.

The constantly recurring woodland scenes from the surrounds of Salten stream and Pårup in Jutland, 1993 - 1999, are at one and the same time studies from nature, studies in light and shade effects and studies in the colour green, which often predominates. The Queen mixes all her colours herself from the primary colours red, yellow and blue. For the colourist, aesthete and visual master, Queen Margrethe, the precise shade is all-important. Compromises do not exist.