Even as festive fall foliage begins to fade into earnest winter sobriety, the beauty of Bainbridge Island’s trees, during every season of the year, is the star of the latest art exhibition at the Bainbridge Performing Arts Gallery.

The nature-centric work of island lensman Paul Brians will be on display throughout the month of November, with a special opening night reception from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 4, in a showcase titled “Around Trees.”

Brians, a retired professor of literature at Washington State University, got serious about photography at about the same time he and his wife made the full-time move to Bainbridge in 2008 — and he doesn’t believe the two events are unrelated. It was then, he said, that he began to explore the island’s trails and parks and also when he joined the photo club.

A longtime hobbyist gone serious, Brians said his work has lately become more and more centered on nature scenes and landscapes, which is also the primary focus on his work with the Bainbridge Island Land Trust.

“It’s shifted more and more in that direction, I guess partly because of living here,” he said. “I love it so much.

“I was really attracted to the forests and open spaces and wanted to support that.”

The photographer’s images have appeared in many official capacities via land trust materials. He’s also the official photographer of Bainbridge In Bloom and he’s previously shown work at the island branch of the public library and the former Oil and Water Art Supply shop as well.

Brians’ photographs were also featured in the second edition of the “Walks on Bainbridge” guide, and he has published his own collection, “Four Season on Bainbridge Island,” available at Eagle Harbor Book Company.

“Around Trees,” an exhibition of more than 30 photographs, showcases much of Brians’ more recent work. He said he’s lately begun trying to incorporate more human figures in the pictures, for scale and to show humans’ relationships with the trees, and also a wider, more dynamic range of tone and contrast.

“I always had a strong interest in the visual arts even when I wasn’t creating a lot of it,” Brians said. Land trust assignments aside, he said his work schedule enjoys the flexibility made possible by retirement.

“Whenever I think of something I’d like to photograph, I grab the camera and if it’s not raining too bad I go out and do it,” he laughed.

Since conceiving of the idea for this particular show about two years ago, Brians said he’d been shooting sometimes specifically for the exhibition, seeking new and interesting variations on this central theme.

“I’m just very fond of the trails and parks on the island,” he said. “I wanted to make it as varied as possible.”

In his artist statement, written to accompany “Around Trees,” Brians expounds on the importance of nature’s presence in our lives.

“To live on Bainbridge is to be surrounded by trees leafing out, blossoming, bearing fruit, towering overhead, falling, decaying, nursing new growth,” he wrote.

“We drive by trees, climb them, walk among them, clamber over fallen ones, build around them and — yes, all too often cut them down when they could be spared. But still, much of our island is a former stumpscape now carpeted with cedars, firs, hemlocks, maples, and madrones.

“My work with the Bainbridge Island Land Trust is inspired by the trees. We owe a huge debt to this organization which has preserved large swaths of natural growth here.”

Visit www.bainbridgeperform ingarts.org for gallery hours and more information.