Auction of Paintings at the Dunblane Early Bulb Day 21/02/09.

[Tim Ingram]

At the moment I can't open that link but this is an interesting thread. I have a book of Keith Brockie's (on the Isle of May) and his sketches are wonderful and the plant portraits sound as they must have been too. What an exciting auction this must have been. How interesting to relate this to the bulb sale and gardening, and how relevant this might be when comparing it with the note on prospective new television programmes on plants and gardens on another section of the website. The thought occurs to me that many alpine growers also have great artistic expertise with brush and camera, as well as with plants in their gardens, and making something of this - ie: like an art exhibition - could be fascinating and put what we do in a different light. Another hare-brained scheme for the future. I'm interested in some of the historical connections with alpine gardening - thus Jim Archibald's sketch in the AGS Bulletin, Laura Louise Foster's sketch of Millstream, Daffodils in an Essex garden from Amateur Gardening of 1910, and the fascinating picture of Dr. Keith Lamb's raised beds in his garden in Ireland (shown a year or two ago at the Hillside Centre at Wisley). What an intriguing heritage this could be to celebrate in some way and associate with alpine gardening now - and really independant of the AGS or SRGC or any other society - simply an expression of artistry.

[Tim Ingram]

This is the title picture we used for an exhibition of Rosemary Powis' paintings at the March 2012 Rainham Show. Rosemary was long time secretary of the East Kent AGS Group and a fine amateur botanical artist. We prepared this exhibit to celebrate her skill and long time contributions to the AGS, especially locally to our Groups.

[Maggi Young]

I'll add  the pdf  to Rosemary's exhibit as a jpg, Tim.......

[ranunculus]

The image on the link mentioned above that Tim could not access:-

[ChrisB]

That's a wonderful painting Cliff.  Do you know the media used for it?

[Tim Ingram]

Fascinating painting - thanks Cliff. It reminds me of some actual photographs of trilliums (individually selected plants with especially striking foliage patterns) that Kevin Hughes showed us in one of his talks. They are the most wonderful plants and teach patience to gardeners, not a feature of much of the horticultural world at times - or the world in general. It has taken us 20 years or more before getting good clumps of trillium in the garden, but if we displayed these down at the market in Faversham I think few people would have any idea of the time factor in gardening with them! An artist friend who lives locally paints similar - but different - very detailed canvasses of plants and rural subjects, and did some remarkable paintings at Sissinghurst quite a while ago, particularly one I remember that showed the nursery area behind the scenes (very appealing to me). She is a close friend of Sarah Cook, a previous head gardener at Sissinghurst, and her paintings mirrored in their technical detail the same technical detail of making a garden like Sissinghurst. Rosemary Powis mostly painted flowers but she also painted an amazing and accurate portrait of brussel sprouts! (She was a fine cook and vegetable gardener as well as a plantslady and wonderfully efficient secretary to our Group).

[Maggi Young]

That's a wonderful painting Cliff.  Do you know the media used for it?

Lawrence's flower paintings are all in watercolour, Chris. Other works of his I have seen were also in watercolour. 

[ChrisB]

The depth of colour achieved is just super, hard to believe its watercolour!