Botanical Art Exhibition at Chenies Manor

ALSO AVAILABLE ONLINE after the close of the exhibition, please click
here
The theme for this exhibition at Chenies Manor is the Healing Power of Plants and Flowers and their relationship with medicine and other pharmaceuticals.

 All proceeds from the sale of the paintings will go towards creating a very much needed easily accessible garden for the hospital, somewhere  patients, their friends and families, and hospital staff, can escape to from the hospital wards, if only for a while.

The core of Chenies Manor dates back to 1460 and was visited by Henry 8th and Elizabeth 1st with their courts.
Opening times for the house and beautiful garden are here When open they serve afternoon teas. 

  I have a lavender themed painting in this exhibition

The Lavender Sampler (c) Tessa Spanton

The garden

Through the courtyard into the beautiful romantic garden

Some of the artworks for sale and the plan for the garden to be built at the Harefield hospital.

“A pure and intense joy, a blessing, to feel the sun on my face and the wind in my hair, to hear birds, to see, touch and fondle the living plants …. Some part of me came alive when I was taken into the garden, which had been starved, and died, perhaps without my knowing it.”

 Dr Oliver Sacks describing being wheeled into the garden from his hospital bed.

Cool jazz with cocktails and canapes

and a chilled out dog

 Here we are listening to a talk about the healing power of plants and their relationship with medicine and other pharmaceuticals as well as the therapeutic effects of being in a garden. I was both fascinated and inspired by this talk.

The physic garden at Chenies

A quiet corner with gentle drifts of flowers in soft colours

Botanical Celebration

I am delighted to have had 5 silk paintings accepted by the Society of Botanical Artists; four will be on show at their exhibition ” BOTANICAL CELEBRATION”. The theme is inspired by the celebrations for the Queen's Diamond Jublilee and the Olympics and some of the flowers painted will have some kind of link with these celebrations.

Open 20-29th April 11-5pm every day, admission free. Westminster Central Hall, Storey’s Gate, London SW1H 9NH for more information click here The exhibition will be opened at the Private View by Elizabeth Banks, President of the Royal Horticultural Society. Some of the artists will be demonstrating their painting techniques throughout the exhibition.

Iris spuria Silk Painting (C) Tessa Spanton

The painting above is one of the paintings to go in this show. I am a member of the Kent group of the British Iris Society and was invited to an open day to bring some of my work and to draw some of the flowers on display. I was given a big bunch of irises to bring home which included several different Iris spuria flowers. these are what I used for this silk painting. During the day I drew a Space Ager iris. I chose it because of its unusual appearance. In place of a beard this iris had a little spoon shape emerging from its lower petals.

Strelitzia reginae silk painting (c) Tessa Spanton

This beautiful flower was named after Queen Charlotte of Mecklenber Strelitz, Queen Consort of George 111. She was an enthusiastic amateur botanist who helped expand and develop Kew Gardens.

This flower is a favourite of mine to paint. The one in my painting was growing in Madeira and glowed with sunlight streaming through it. It seems to me to have an almost regal bearing with its vivid crown of orange yellow petals.

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Paintings at Pashley Manor

This year I have some paintings on show at Pashley Manor Gardens. (Click on the link for more information. Ou si vous êtes francais cliquer ici) The Garden room and shop show floral or botanical works by different artists as well as their cards and prints. There is also sculpture.

( to fast forward to July's post click here)

Pashley Manor is a Tudor timbered house set in beautiful gardens with views over the landscape of the Weald in West Sussex. It is near to the A 21 and the border with Kent. The gardens are open to the public from April to September and there are several special events during the season.

The tulip festival is outstanding. The gardens are planted with 22,000 tulip bulbs made up of 100 varieties and around 2,000 cut flowers on display.

My visits to the tulip festival inspired me to paint tulips on silk. I don't think I had seen such quailty and variety before, the bulbs come from Bloms who have won 60 RHS Chelsea gold medals. I also started to grow more tulips in my garden for painting.

The photos above show some glimpses of the garden on the sunny March day when I took my paintings to Pashley. The garden was waking from winter and in the woods there was the promise of bluebells. The rear of the house is a later Georgian addition.