A long title but no more so than the months we have all endured to find our freedoms again.
Gardens live in art. From the Early Renaissance artist Masaccio’s depiction of Adam and Eve being driven out of the Garden of Eden, to the surreal terrors and fantasies of Bosch’s Gardens of Earthly Delights. From Monet’s beloved Givenchy and even Herge’s drawing of Bianca Castafiore, that “Milanese Nightingale”, presenting her passion Captain Haddock with a deep red rose (amusingly hiding a nectar-searching bee which promptly stung the old whisky fired sea dog on his nose). Then, of course, David Hockney’s Arrival of Spring at the Royal Academy, bringing colour and joy back to the wasteland that London’s West End has been for too long.
New life, bursting with spring colour, heralding the warm zephyrs of summer. The cycle, the affirmation of continuum. In this world where all things are prone to decay, the beauty of nature remains constant, so full of longing and desire.
Gardens, found hanging in Babylon, to the 21st century Manhattan High Line. Roof gardens, secret gardens, urban gardens, water gardens, city parks, window sills and boxes, crevices alive and tickling every sense. It’s life, it’s hope.
As Andrew Marvell wrote in his meditative poem, The Garden, (1681): “What wond’rous life is this I lead! Ripe apples drop about my head, The luscious clusters of the vine Upon my moth to crush their wine, The nectarine and curious peach Into my hands themselves do reach; Stumbling on melons as I pass, Ensar’d with flow’rs, I fall on grass.”
It summarises a particular reality and escape to the glories of nature (and grass) there to be enjoyed and shared.
- Nick Crean
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Julie Held
Julie Held needs little introduction. She is an elected member of The London Group, The Royal Society of Watercolours, The N.E.A.C. and The Aborealists. Her work is held in public collections including Nuffield College, Oxford, The Ben Uri Museum and Baker McKenzie. Julie studied at Camberwell School of Art and The Royal Academy Schools and is a member of faculty at The Royal Drawing School.
To see Julie's oil and acrylic paintings in our virtual viewing room especially for this show, follow this link: https://emperia.gallery/
CreanCompany/JulieHeld/index. html To see details and pricing below, please click the image.
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Julie Held, Dusk, 2021, Acrylic and oil on canvas, 72 1/8 x 48 1/8 in, 183 x 122 cm -
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Melissa Scott-Miller
New to our gallery, Melissa Scott-Miller is an elected member of The Royal British Artists, The New English Arts Club and The Royal Society of Portrait Painters. She has shown widely including 22 appearances in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. Melissa studied at the Slade School of Fine Art and now teaches at The Heatherley School of Fine Art and The Royal Drawing School.
Melissa is an urban artist with a Breughel-like eye for the smallest detail, the bird’s eye view of those private gardens often hiding behind our city streets and avenues: the roses, lavender, iris and clematis that spill out across the city pavements.
To see details and pricing below, please click the image.
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Melissa Scott-Miller, Islington back gardens seen from a window, 2021, Oil on canvas, 80 x 60 cm, 31 1/2 x 23 5/8 in
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Amelia Power
Amelia Power is one of our favourite gallery artists. She studied at The Ruskin and The Royal Drawing School and went on to teach drawing at both. She exhibits widely and past exhibitions include The Lynn Painter Stainers Prize, The Discerning Eye and The RA Summer Exhibition. In 2009 she was one of five artists selected to take part in a residency at Kensington Palace culminating in an exhibition at Thomas Williams Fine Art. Her series of finely observed watercolours were painted from her kitchen table, a moment's escape from the rigours of 'home schooling'.
To see details and pricing below, please click the image.
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Amelia Power, Cosmos, Bella Donna and Sweet Pea, 2021, Colour pencil and gouache on paper, 28 x 39.8 cm, 11 1/8 x 15 5/8 in
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Olivia Baynham
Also new to our gallery, Olivia Baynham studied at City and Guilds School of Fine Art before further studying at the Charles Cecil Studios in Florence. Her influences are broad but Paul Gauguin would rank highly amongst them. Olivia’s intention as a a painter is “To create a world within a canvas” . Whether it is in her meticulously-studied portraiture, exemplified by “Phoebe in Lockdown” in the current Royal Society of Portrait Painters show in the Mall Galleries, or in these three pictures, painted for this show, inspired by the laughter and mischief of of Bacchanalia, her palette pays tribute to the many who have inspired.
To see details and pricing below, please click the image.
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Olivia Baynham, Ladies who Lunch, 2021, Oil on canvas, 107.5 x 87.5 cm, 42 3/8 x 34 1/2 in
