Archive for the ‘Shows & Events’ Category
Venetia Norris – Pen to Paper
Tuesday, September 20th, 2011
A highlight of the Spring months for The Balcony Gardener team was artist Venetia Norris’ exhibition in West London, her interpretation of the natural world is inspired. So we were thrilled to learn that her next exhibition “Pen to Paper” is about to open at St. Martin in the Fields, Trafalgar Square in London. Again, it is Norris’s love of the natural world that acts as the catalyst for this body of work. Of course, here at The Balcony Gardener we are drawn to exhibitions celebrating nature and its beauty. Venetia carefully combines delicate drawings of plants with bold, dripped lines of paint, highlighting and contrasting the curves found in nature.
This new exhibition focuses mostly on flowers and plants, and often you can see how Venetia finds the shape and form more captivating than the subjects themselves. Coming from a resolutely feminine art history, flower depictions have been pursued and developed over the years, recently by such notable artists as George O’Keefe and Dame Elizabeth Blackadder. Venetia has followed in their footsteps and her detailed studies focus on the intricate forms in nature, analysing their structures in a beautiful and mesmerising way. If you are in London and have the opportunity to visit the exhibition we strongly recommend that you do.
St Martin-in-the-Fields is located on Trafalgar Square, close to Charing Cross underground station. The nearest underground stations are Charing Cross (on the Northern and Bakerloo Lines) and Leicester Square (on the Piccadilly and Northern Lines). The nearest rail station is Charing Cross.
The exhibition will be open from Tuesday 20 th September – Sunday 2 nd October 2011.
Opening Times: Monday-Saturday, 10am-5pm, and Sunday, 11am-5pm (3pm on Sunday 2 nd October).
There is no admission charge.
Underground Gardening
Saturday, August 20th, 2011
Southfields Station, “Cultivated Garden” Runner Up 2010
The summer months can be tortuous on the London Underground: packed carriages, little ventilation, sweaty commuters, the list goes on and on. Regardless of all these factors, the summer also marks a pretty exciting time in the Underground calendar: the London Underground Annual Station Gardens competition; you may not have heard of it but this year sixty stations are competing. If you think outside of platforms littered with crisps packets and tin cans, you can open your eyes to some real hidden gems. There are several different awards for tube stations to compete for.
Pinner Station, 1966 Garden Competition Winner
This historical competition dates back over fifty years, in 1966 the platforms at the competition winning Pinner station were resplendent with over 3000 flowers and plants. Today, extra points are given to stations whose displays use water wisely or recycle, Acton North for example uses old wooden train sleepers for plant containers. Greenford’s kitchen garden is in abundance with sweetcorn, broad beans, cucumber and runner beans whilst the pots and planters at Golder’s Green are spilling out with lavender and petunias. The competition is judged on 7th September at City Hall, so if you have a spare afternoon arm yourself with an oyster card and go exploring.
“Do Not Step Over the Fence” Tatton Park Garden Show
Monday, August 1st, 2011
Image of “Do Not Step Over the Fence” at Tatton Park with designer Jon Tilley and Avert charity
A real highlight for me throughout the summer months is attending the numerous garden shows across the country to witness first hand the innovation and creativity behind show gardens and designs; it’s a great opportunity to glean inspiration. I think it’s also interesting to see the route a designer can take from one idea and how it transforms into a garden.
Image: Do Not Step Over the Garden, RHS
A highlight this year for me was the “Do Not Step Over the Fence” garden designed by the Cheshire based Dragonfly garden design and building company. The designer Jon Tilley was inspired to create the garden after learning that more over-fifties are being diagnosed with the HIV virus, it’s steadily on the increase. The garden is in the shape of a HIV cell and is a combination of lavenders, baytrees, rocks and steel balls; the structure and design of the garden depict the proteins and membrane that make up the basis of the virus. The pink latex barrier surrounding the garden represents the prevention and protection message, and thus gave the garden its name “Do Not Step Over The Fence.”
For me, this garden was the best example of design innovation, I loved the aesthetic of the design and the original combination of the plants. I felt it demonstrated gardening as a true art form and how an important message can be carefully and abstractly presented.
RHS Tatton Park: www.rhs.org.uk
Our Chelsea Highlights
Saturday, June 4th, 2011
Last week we ventured West to visit the annual RHS Chelsea Flower Show, a brilliant opportunity to glean inspiration, to pick up on new trends and to celebrate all things horticultural! On the approach to the show we were pleased to see that the neighbours of the Royal Hospital had fully embraced the shows spirit and were proudly displaying their small urban gardens, we particularly liked this basement garden close to one of the shows entrances.
The run-up to the Show has been more difficult than before for the gardeners due to our tumultuous weather: a dry spring, summer at Easter and then gales harming plants on the ground.
Anyhow so on to the gardens we loved! So very close to our heart was ‘the grow your own’ inspired B&Q Garden by Laurie Chetwood and Patrick Collins which represented a 9m living wall of thymes, camomile and oregano, highlighting that you don’t have to have a conventional garden to produce food in a city. Gazing upwards you could see giant trays of salad, herbs, fruit and vegetables.
The B & Q Garden
The Irish Sky garden designed by Diarmuid Gavin, was a flying machine and inspired the Oscar winning Dublin animator Richie Baneham who created the visual effects for Avatar. With pools on the ground, and a flying crane laden with grasses, photinias and bamboos with trees, the garden was a show highlights and popular with crowds and critics alike.
The Irish Sky Garden
The smaller artisan gardens were loftier alternatives to the larger show gardens, yet they shared the same theatricality and vision. We particularly liked the Fever Tree garden with its enchanting tree house surrounded by citrus, gingers, herbs and a small spring.
The Fever Tree Garden
Our favourite garden and probably one of our most over the past five years in terms of urban was the “Winds of Change” garden sponsored by Stockton Drilling, and designed by Jamie Dunstan. The garden’s industrial look was inspired by recycled wind turbines placed in the garden; the design also featured a steel-framed structure acting as a shelter, with a built-in fireplace, log store and green roof with furniture from one of our favourite stores, re found. The planting was very loose and informal but had a hugely modern take which made us so excited. Its not that often we see something in gardening that we can pin the phrase fashion forward to, but this we definatly do!
The Winds of Change
Our other favourite highlight was the floral Temple and Dragon display from Thailand, completely erected from an abundance of flowers, truley spectacular!
Thailand Floral Display
On our way back to Sloane Square station, we enjoyed the walk along the King’s Road admiring the different retail tributes to the Flower Show. The shop window and approach to Jigsaw was probably the most grand and a fitting finish to the Show. Farewell for another year……
Venetia Norris – Lines of Beauty
Sunday, March 6th, 2011
We’re particularly looking forward to Venetia Norris’ new exhibition which has just opened at the Westbourne Park Grove Chuch Art Space. Her love for the natural world is the striking inspiration for much of her work. At her current exhibition, the frame of the beautiful orchid features highly. She manages to capture both the delicacy and the resilient personality of the plant. We’re huge fans of Norris’ incredible interpretation of the beauty of flowers, and her ability to blend gentle brush strokes with bold marks. It’s very much worth taking a look and for a spot of shopping after in the surrounding area! Enjoy…..
If you’re in London, we would definitely recommend a trip to the exhibition. Her next showing is The Gallery, St Martin-in-the-Fields, London WC2N 4JJ 19 September – 2 October 2011.
Venetia Norris
Lines of beauty
2nd March – 16 April 2011
www.venetianorris.com
Westbourne Grove Church, Westbourne Grove, London W11 2RW