There is a distinct theatricality in the Tree on Primrose Hill. Auerbach himself acknowledges the performance inherent in his style of painting where he behaves "as an actor would - donning a character or becoming a part." The vigour of the piece is in the movement not of the people on the Hill but of the landscape itself which is the focus of the painting. As Peter Ackroyd says, of the Primrose Hill paintings: "We are stunned by gesture and dazed with colour." The vivid brushstrokes depicting the tree and its surroundings have the explosive vitality of graffiti marks. The churning colours of the landscape and the rythmic unity between each of the natural forms depicted create the impression of a strong, complex cast of characters. The star of the show is undoubtedly the tree itself, a set of thick strong lines converging from all directions on the centre of the picture. It is a subject that has absorbed Auerbach for two decades. On a visit to Tretire in Herefordshire in 1975, Auerbach had become interested in a solitary tree of which he made several drawings. This motif stayed with him, and back in London he continued to draw sketches of a lone tree, on Primrose Hill. One of the most evident aspects of Auerbach's work is the personal and intense relationship he shares with his subject. As Stephen Spender observed: "The model or landscape in front of him is all-important. He has a fixation on, or obsession with the subject."

Beneath the showmanship of the vivid colouring and the intense movement visible in the picture lies Auerbach's characteristic painstaking creation of the image which gives substance to the flamboyant form. In more recent paintings, Auerbach has lessened the use of his earlier trademarked thickly piled paint, in favour of a continuous paring down and eradication of images. Like a set builder, "I tend to set up an image and destroy it many times a day... putting up a whole image and dismantling it and putting up another whole image which is physically extremely strenuous."

It is due to the union of flair and painstaking creation that Auerbach's landscapes have the magical quality ascribed to them by Leon Kossof: "In spite of all this activity of absorbtion and internalization, the images emerge in an atmosphere of freedom." This tension between spontaneity and dogged persistance is the root of the power in all Auerbach's work, but is particularly well illustrated in this most vibrant piece.