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Emma Tennant's London exhibition
Emma's exhibition A Planet with Flowers: 6 1/2 Continents in one Scotch Garden (6-9 December 2011, 54 the Gallery, Shepherd Market, London W1) celebrated her collection of plants from all over the world. In cold, wet Roxburghshire, she has grown with the aid of a small greenhouse, such treasures as Nemophila from California; Tagetes and runner beans from Mexico; Desfontainea and Lapageria from Chile; Eucryphia from Tasmania; Pelargoniums, Gladiolus and annuals like Heliophila from South Africa; Lilies and Rhododendrons from China and the Himalayas, as well as many introductions from mainland Europe and the Mediterranean.
For Emma, to know something of the history of these plants adds greatly to the romance of gardening. Lilium mackliniae, for example, was first seen by Frank Kingdon Ward near a crashed aeroplane in Burma during the war. He returned to the spot in peacetime with his bride Jean Macklin, found the lily and named it after her.
A donation from the proceeds of the exhibition is to go to Fine Cell Work, the charity founded by Emma's aunt which has changed the lives of hundreds of prisoners. (www.finecellwork.co.uk)
Find out more about Emma Tennant and her work and download her written catalogue.
The Billiard Room exhibition
The Billiard Room is showing, as part of the Some Northern Artists exhibition, animal graphite drawings by Jason Gathorne-Hardy (see image opposite). Jason was born in Malaysia and grew up in Suffolk. He studied Zoology at Oxford and drawing under Maggi Hambling at Morley College, London (1995/1998). In 2005 he founded The Alde Valley Food Adventures to celebrate food, farming, landscape and the arts in the beautiful Alde Valley of East Suffolk. He is also the Patron of Pesta Nukenen Bario [The Bario & Kelabit Highlands Food & Cultural Festival] in the Kelabit Highlands of Central Borneo [www.ebario.com].
Jason works in Suffolk, UK and Malaysian Borneo and in London is represented by The Redfern Gallery, Cork Street. His work was selected in 2010 for Critic's Choice / Wills Lane Gallery, St Ives by the curator Andrew Lambirth (art critic for the Spectator) and his work is in public and private collections both nationally and internationally, notably Hiscox Fine Art Collection and Jesus College Collection (Cambridge). For images and details of work available please contact me katie@katiepertwee.com
Also on exhibition now are watercolours as well as prints from Isobel Brigham's Love Birds series. The series, inspired by Geoffrey Chaucer's 14th century poem 'The Parliament of Fowls', makes the first reference to the idea that St. Valentine's Day was a special day for lovers. Please see Isobel Brigham for her biography and a link to some of the prints available. Do contact me for images of watercolours. Framed prints £180 each/framed watercolours £280 each.
Emma Tennant has had some work in Garden to Field : an International Exhibition of Contemporary Botanical Art held this summer in Long Island, USA and The Billiard Room has recently shown two of her gilded panels - a Lily and a Lily of the Valley (both now sold). Drawn by Emma onto Indonesian hardwood board and gilded by her daughter Isabel Tennant (one of the country's leading gilders), this was only their second collaboration. Isabel uses traditional oil-gilding techniques to gild her mother's pencil drawing with Palladium leaf, a pure metal slightly darker than silver that does not tarnish. If you would like to be notified when more gilded panels become available please contact me katie@katiepertwee.com
Artists' books available through the gallery
Madeleine Floyd's latest book 'Birdsong' (published by the National Trust) is now available through the gallery at £7.99. Please get in touch if you would like to order a copy.
Emma Tennant's book 'Rag Rugs of England and America' is also available through the website & gallery. Please get in touch if you would like to order a copy. It explores the history of rag rug-making on both sides of the Atlantic and its current revival, of which Emma is a leader in Britain. 'More Good Work by Anon' - an essay by Emma about her favourite books - is available through Heywood Hill bookshop, 10 Curzon Street, London W1.