In the last post I said I’d show some of the artworks from Mary Elliot’s ‘Drawn from the Earth’ exhibition, hosted last week by Wildegoose Nursery. The setting is a series of garden ‘rooms’ created in an old and magnificent walled garden. The late summer plants and grasses made an otherworldly backdrop for Sharon Griffin’s ceramic figures.
Her work is haunting. To come upon her pieces, as if by chance, in a garden that is slipping into autumn, gives them added drama; a life almost. There’s a sense of ‘old gods’ invoked; forgotten stories being retold.
Or in her own words:
I make work which explores the universal human condition…clay allows me the freedom for pure expression; a re-connectivity with the land and ancestral storytelling…
Faun with a shadow face and deer ears
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‘Not so blind that I can’t see’
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And on the plants for sale table: ‘The Gardener’
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I only came upon this one work by sculptor, Glen Farrelly. It’s called ‘Formation’. I perhaps find it more personally appealing than the Sharon Griffin works. i.e. in the sense I could see myself living with it. I loved its setting amongst the pale green Patrinia seedheads and red sedum, the spires of dying flower stems and grasses.
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And finally some more views of the gardens – plants making their own end-of-season artworks.
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Mary Elliot’s drawings and paintings can be seen HERE.
That Formation sculpture…such a perfect shot you got there.
Thanks, Bill.
Personally I find the plants are the stars here, artistic and sculptural. Formation seems quite Aboriginal or Maori. The garden looks lovely at this time of year.
The plants as the stars , Jude. Yes, I think that too. But I love the idea of garden art galleries too. And yes, Formation suggests a southern hemisphere aesthetic to me too.
The Sharon Griffin figures seem rather atmospheric additions to the garden. (Commenting via the Reader again. WP forbidding me once more …).
Flipping WP. Many thanks for your peristence, Margaret.
Not to my taste but the gardens look great.
Yes, the artworks are definitely not for everyone, Brian, but I love the notion of art and gardens coming together.
The photo of “Formation” is stunning, Tish. I do love a sculpture garden, especially when it reflects human emotions. Gorgeous garden too. What a lovely place to visit.
Thanks, Flavia. Wildegoose is a lovely spot. There’s an added allure, too, in a way, in that it closes this month for the winter. So lots of anticipation before another visit is likely.
Love a sculpture garden, and Mary Elliott’s figures evoke the ancestral, the mythical to me, and I find myself thinking of the literature of Alan Garner somehow
Ah, now that is a good thought, Sue. Alan Garner. Definitely.
He was the master of the liminal….
Absolutely. Thursbitch is one of my more recent favourites i.e. after loving his children’s books.
For me too!