Page 2 - cn-fg- studio draft - The Painted Garden - Highgrove 05-11-2024_Neat
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The Painted Garden Highgrove
The first Painted Garden exhibition was a collection of works I had put together as an exhibition celebrating Rosemary Verey’s garden at
Barnsley, Gloucestershire and was presented by Astley House Fine Art. His Majesty ( then HRH the Prince of Wales) kindly opened the
exhibition in May 1994 which was also attended by Rosemary Verey at the Museum of Garden History, Lambeth, London, in support of the
Museum.
The painted garden theme has continued to celebrate prominent gardens in Britain and includes various gardens in France, Italy and the USA
over the past 30 years, to the present The Painted Garden at Highgrove collection.
From the outset and subsequent Painted Garden collections, the emphasis has been to explore and depict the relationship of owners of
gardens and society with nature, by participating as co-creators through gardening and engagement with the land.
Each collection has sought to express the particular and unique narrative of the garden by interpreting the process initially as abstract
thought, through vision, to the actualisation of those intentions. Each garden can be realised as a manifestation of creative expression borne
out of philosophical and spiritual perspectives.
The Painted Garden Highgrove is an interpretation of the gardens within the estate created by collective advisers along with
His Majesty’s ideas, plans and underlying philosophical viewpoint of life and its relationship to the natural world. The creator of a garden,
particularly over a long time of engagement, is an ever evolving process and a personal journey resulting in a transient created space.
Effectively this collection is an internalisation of the created spaces and their ambiance which I responded to in new terms of reference and
visual language.
The overall approach to compositional narrative portrays the philosophical and spiritual emphasis, wherein particular spaces within the
gardens are painted as distinct themes by focusing on their uniqueness.
