Honzo Zufu series / seasonal colour combinations

Inspired by a visit to Kew Gardens and the collection of Honzo Zufu’s botanical illustrations held in their library, I have begun a series of a year of traditional colour combination flower pictures, one for each month

La Boheme - Glyndebourne 2022

A week ago we were invited to see La Bohmeme at Glyndebourne. It was magnificent, a wonderful evening and fabulous performance. Felt inspired to make a picture reflecting the colour palette and atmosphere of the production.

Colour combination series / buildings in a seasonal landscape

Inspired by a trip to Naoshima and a stay in a building designed by Tadao Ando, this series looks at the relationship between building and landscape -celebrating the simplicity of the line in the landscape, but incorporating a traditional seasonal colour pallate. In progress

Saxifaga - 3 varieties in progress

I use my phone to take pictures of work in progress- the process allows for an element of objectivity and often the image through the lens will afford an understanding that my eye doesn’t - seems counter intuitive, but here’s an example!

Triptych - framed/ Botanical Conservation Project (1-12)

In the break between Lockdowns in November 2020, there was an opportunity for me to visit the wonderful Royal Botanical Gardens Edinburgh and I persuaded a generous gardener to give me a selection of redundant horticultural labels which had been consigned to a bucket as the plants had died.

I took my inspiration from the fabulous Mrs Delaney and her magnificent paper cut flowers, although mine are from silk, we use the same black ground. These are ‘non’ illustrations - in that they are a representation of the notion of a plant no longer with us. The particular plants that were identified by these particular labels no longer exist and so the resultant pictures are an impression, an imagined representation, perhaps similar to the drawings of the dodo made after it no longer existed and based on archived descriptions. They ponder on the changing landscape of our botanical collections and their depeleting diversity as we are confronted with climate change.

The label is part of the image. I am making them with a landscape orientation to complement the label in contrast to the portrait orientation traditionally used to illustrate plants.

The random selection of the plants in the triptych reflects the random nature in which the labels were discarded (as the plant died) and is in direct contrast to the careful cataloguing and selecting of planting.

Spine at Southmead

In 2010 I made a series of work entitled Spine to accompany a play at Bristol Old Vic by Theatre Damfino about an actor who breaks his back and his difficult road to recovery. They were bought by Southmead Hospital and were displayed in the orthopaedics department. The play went on to be performed on Broadway and became a Radio 4 play entitled Mayday. The pictures have been moved temporarily to the main concourse of Southmead Hospital, and I saw them while I was taking down Imagined Landscapes, which has been on show since January. It was nice to see them again!

Botanical Conservation Project - in progress

Between Lockdowns 2020 , in a very rare gap, we managed to visit the magnificent Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh. I spoke to a wonderful gardener who agreed to give me some of the redundant horticultural labels, collected after the plants had died and been removed or replaced. I wanted to create a body of work which celebrates and memorialises these plants- acutely aware of the effects of global warming with the possibility that some of these plants will become increasingly rare and may eventually only exist in botanical gardens. The pictures are made from cut silk and owe their inspiration to Mary Delaney. The particular plants that were identified by these particular labels no longer exist and so the resultant pictures are an impression, an imagined representation, perhaps similar to the drawings of the dodo made after it no longer existed and based on archived descriptions.

Imagined Landscapes - Southmead Hospital Bristol

During January and February an exhibiiton of my colour combination work will be on display in the main atrium at Southmead Hospital.

Please contact me if interested in buying / they are all for sale individually

Spring

I am making a series of 4 diptychs - one for each season - here Spring almost (but not quite) finished