Here are some pictures from a beautiful walk in the Kent countryside. We stumbled upon lots of bluebell woods, apple blossom and wild flower meadows while sheltering from April showers….
Category Archives: Nature
Botanical Patterns and Prints
Clockwise from top left:
Botanical Leather Notebook from Natural History, Teacup and saucer: Botanic Garden (March) from Portmeirion, Meadowland and Wildflower Cornfield Mixed Seeds from Victoria & Albert shop, The Paper Garden: Mrs Delany Begins Her Life’s Work at 72 by Molly Peacock, Suzu Top from Toast, Botanical Etchings Square Tile from Marlborough Tiles, Honzo Zufu [Blue Flower] by Kan’en Iwasaki from Kew Gardens shop.
Alex Hartley: The World is Still Big
Alex Hartley: Waiting for Daylight to End, 2011
Alex Hartley’s exhibition ‘The World is Still Big’ opened at Victoria Miro back in November (I have only just managed to see it before it closes next week). The show consists of a number of large scale mixed media works. On first sight these look like like photographs, but they are in fact sculptures.
Hartley has incorporated architectural models into each work – for example the huts in the two images above and below are actually constructed out of wood and potrude out of the photograph towards the viewer. Unfortunately seeing these works as 2D images really don’t do them justice. When you view them in the flesh you can see all the intricate and painstaking detail which has gone into each piece. He describes these scenes as representing …”one moment and what I end up building into them is a back-story to that moment usually about failure: a man trying to inhabit wildernesses, a man trying to inhabit these Utopian dreams gone wrong.”
Alex Hartley; Clearing, 2011
In the courtyard of the gallery the artist has constructed a dome (complete with wood burner and pet chickens) which he has been living in for the duration of the show. (This dome was inspired by the 1960s Colorado hippie commune ‘Drop City’ – hence the name of the work ‘Dropper’) The exhibition raises a number of issues such as community, belonging and isolation, and counter culture versus establishment.
Alex Hartley: Dropper, 2011 (installed in the courtyard of Victoria Miro Gallery)
The World is Still Big at the Victoria Miro Gallery runs until 21st January, 2012
Julia Smith Ceramics
Julia Smith graduated from Glasgow School of Art in 1996. Since then she has been producing simple and beautiful ceramics. Smith experiments with glazes to create subtle and opaque glazes that sit over dark red clay mugs and bowls. The illustrations on the pieces are created from simple line drawings inspired by nature. Above and below are some examples of her work. You can purchase her pottery from Folksy and Etsy.
Westonbirt, The National Arboretum
Westonbirt is located just outside the Cotswold village of Tetbury. Established in the Victorian period it boasts an internationally important tree and shrub collection with almost 16,000 trees from temperate climates across the world.
Autumn is a beautiful time to visit when the trees are in fall but it is also well known for its spectacular rhododendron and magnolia displays in the spring. Find out more about the events taking place at Westonbirt here.
Windflower, Perceptions of Nature
Charly Nijensohn, "The Wreck of Men," 2008
Windflower, Perceptions of Nature at Kröller-Müller Museum Gallery examines the subject of nature from the point of view of twelve different artists through sculptures, installations, videos, drawings, paintings or combinations of these media.
These artists are sympathetic towards the growing global awareness regarding the future of nature and the earth’s sustainability. The exhibition runs from 9 October 2011 until 15 January 2012.