Emma Bennett-a cornucopia of cards

New card art in our teashop for this season comes in the form of Emma Bennett’s wonderful cards.

A bit about Emma
‘Emma has lived in Sussex most of her life, and in Brighton and Hove for about 10 years. Her art is inspired by the places she travels and her surrounds in Brighton. She mainly sketches cities she has visited, often from her own photographs. Here you’ll see her Brighton artwork and photography, but she also covers cities such as Barcelona, New York, Vienna, Rome, Bruges, Las Vegas, Amsterdam and Valencia to name just a few.

Emma states ‘There is no deep meaning to my art, I simply sketch the places that have a memory for me. I also sketch them as it’s exactly the kind of art I’d put on my own wall.’

She sells her artwork as any colour background you choose. Pick the image, the size of print, and one background colour and she can put it together.’

Web: http://www.artbyemmabennett.co.uk
Email: emmabennett171@hotmail.co.uk
Facebook: artbyemmabennett
Twitter: @EmmaBennett29

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Five Go to Sussex Prairies In 2016 – Vicky Mappin

Our Group of artists in Residence this year is a very talented group of textile artists and designers- Ali Rabjohns, Vicky Mappin, Susan D’Souza, Sandra Ventris and Bridget Honour.

Their major exhibition will be showing with us from 1st June to 16th October 2016 and the group will be leading some marvellous and inspirational workshops during the course of their time with us .

Focus on – Vicky Mappin

As a child Vicky was always found in the art room at school, painting and developing her detailed style. She trained as a florist and during that time was inspired to continue with her drawing and painting of botanical work. Attending a four day course at Chelsea Physic Gardens gave her the confidence to take up botanical painting full time.

Vicky has always been passionate about nature and the Sussex Countryside. Inspired by colour and fascinated by the detail of living growth, she strives to paint flowers
and vegetables in all their beauty with a certain lightness of touch.

EXHIBITIONS INCLUDE: SBA Annual Exhibition Arundel Museum
Crypt Gallery, Seaford Florum, Sevenoaks Glyndebourne Opera House Hop Gallery, Lewes Horsham Museum Southwark Cathedral Wakehurst Place

‘To be able to exhibit at Prairie Gardens is a wonderful opportunity
for a botanical artist. My wish being that I had started painting for the show

in 2014 therefore accomplishing a larger display of paintings from the garden. In 2015 when I did get down to it I would return home with such an abundance of plants, I did not know where to begin!’

BOTANICAL PAINTING WORKSHOP 

Vicky is a member of the Society of Botanical Artists. She has been teaching for many years.

The workshops will be structured for all abilities and individual needs. Vicky’s aim is to create a relaxed, informal atmosphere in a long established discipline.

The workshops will take place on the 18th June, 16th July and 27th August from 10am-2pm.

18th June – Spending time observing the structure of your chosen plant. Drawing quick sketches at all angles, practise shading with a pencil. Finally producing a detailed drawing.

16th July – Practise of painting techniques to include wet on wet, dry brush and other methods. Layering colour. Emphasis on colour, shades and tones.

27th August – Choosing subject from the wonderful array of plants in the garden. Drawing and painting chosen subject.

Please bring any materials you have already. The cost of one workshop £65, two £120 and for three £175, £5 extra for Vicky to supply materials which will include use of brushes.

Contact – vickymappin@hotmail.com Phone – 01273 809613

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Mary Mary , quite contrary ,how does your garden grow ?

Small front gardens in Assam , northeast India :This is colourful bungalow land.. A low rise legacy of  low level living.

We very much enjoy this road side feast of colour and pretty pastels. Imagine turquoise,pink and green painted bungalows and many front gardens reaching beyond just the necessity of vegetable production and seemingly gardening in colour with plants for beauty’s sake.We even see some topiary !

Or maybe it is just the exuberant growth of the Assam climate that  gives us this voluptuous array of flowers.Certainly it seemed very out of the ordinary for the typical Indian garden  which has more to do with vegetable and fruit production, animal husbandry – pigs, chickens , cows roaming in happy abandon and still the washing gets hung out to dry …..

 

for practicality’s sake tin roofs of course are still the norm but that rusty patina has  a certain charm….and are of course the perfect drying place for those oh so hot chillis.

It is a step beyond the normal indian garden for sure .. where has all the rubbish gone ? Assam is pristine and glorious and quite the little eden to revisit in the future….

 

 

 

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Size matters

 

Big is definitely more beautiful – of course it is .. especially when the big grasses are part of the picture. In our Sussex Prairies garden  only twenty five percent of the garden is grasses but at this time of year the grasses definitely take front of stage with their impressive stature, dominating presence and architectural splendour.

Is it the metallic sheen on the grass flower heads that gives that ethereal quality to the whole, or is it the heady wispiness and romance of the flowers that creates such a spectacle ? is it the arching fronds that brush and tickle you as you pass by ?or is it the firey flashes of brilliance in the leaves or seedheads ? it is all of that and more and set in dream partnerships with the later perennials they are crackers !

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High Five !

Here at our top five  grasses for this year-

1. Miscanthus Malepartus

big bold and dark purple flowers  .. towers in at a heady 8 ft tall

2. Miscanthus Zwerg Elefant (dwarf elephant)

flowers unfurl like a curled elefants trunk and then  emerge like crinkle cut chips

3. Sporobolis heterolepsis

grass with presence and fragrance .. imagine freshly cut coriander on a summers day

4. Panicum Frosted Explosion

a real firework of an annual grass but misty and moving at the same time.. a perfect grass as a dream partner in the garden

5. Miscanthus Ghana

feels like a bonfire burning…with all the the firey colours of autumn and the zest and zing of gunpowder.

 

 

 

 

 

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brrrr… February…feel the fear

extremely cold and incredibly short.. February is a short and sweet little month …we are into February before we even know it ..but this month is our time to play as we spent a couple of days in London for a cultural blast… firstly the Hockney exhibition at the Royal Academy… now if you do nothing more, do go and see it and be buoyed up by the extraordinary immersion into nature.. California comes to Yorkshire with a vengeance .

can you imagine such vivid pinks and oranges blazing through an english countryside… it is an exhilerating collection of paintings and we long for spring again as we come through the rooms and are assaulted by the vividness and enormity of the canvasses. If you get a chance to go , do spend time watching the amazing video films which are just stunning and totally fill you with emotion.

Not content with that we also took in the Grayson Perry exhibition at The British Museum: The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman . Juxtaposing his own work against some of the most quirky and significant exhibits in the museum Grayson Perry has concocted a rollercoaster of a collection of seemingly random pieces which on reflection so totally answer a lot of our most basic questions. A must see !

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Autumn: Our Treasure Island

Brunnera Mr Morse : looking for Lewis !

Big brassy and buxom , autumn is like a swaggering pirate woman all gold teeth , spotty handkerchief and swirling skirts and at least a cutlass or two. Here in the garden the colours are looking like a bad case of piracy ( too much Johnny Depp I think , that’s why am I obsessed with pirates !) on the high seas. Today it was a glamourous garden still full of colour with spectacular colour in the Amsonia hubrichtii, all gaudy tints and scorching bronze.

Amsonia hubrichtii in full flow

Creeping under the persicaria polymorpha there are beautiful pure white fungi like second magnitude stars as Paul would say, and out on the woodchip paths there is a motley crew of toadstools each one more lush and sweaty than the next. It is all heading for the big showdown at the next big frost when the swashes will be well and truly buckled !

And of course there are leaves .. thousands nay millions of them washed up around the house like an unruly beach combers dream. But not crisp and crunchy anymore .. just a thick wet sludgy mass , most unattractive and not at all kickup-able . So it was time to build a leaf collecting cage …Paul obliged with the four corner posts and then it was down to Tara and I to nail on the wire netting. Now why does hammering look so effortless in the case of Paul and I am still licking my wounds after a run in with the hammer and wire cutters ! My thumb looks like I have got a nasty case of the Black Spot and I might as well have been blind Pugh for the state of the staples and wirenetting. But the leaves are now safely coralled away and can begin their leaf mouldering business !

sun,grass,sun again

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Colour Me Cool

This is just a small observation on colours to wear in the garden ! Visiting the wonderful

wheelbarrow at Woolbeding National Trust garden at Woolbeding recently we were shocked to see that the poor old gardeners there were forced to swelter in dark green shirts and trousers. The most sun ray absorbing clobber one could possibly imagine! it is natural that dark colours attract heat.. you only have to cuddle one of my black sheep on a sunny day to feel the difference in heat factors... so why do they do it ? smartness ? appearance of cleanliness ?we always wear white shirts in the prairie (which do get somewhat grubby after a days worth of toil I agree) but it really does keep you a lot cooler on a hot day...mark my words !

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