Into the Garden: The art of the garden

An Edinburgh art gallery has announced details of a new garden-themed exhibition, featuring new work from some of Scotland’s best-known contemporary artists including Ann Oram RSW.Perfectly timed for the start of summer, 'Into the Garden' features new paintings which celebrate gardens in their many forms, exploring the creative engagements that artists develop with their own green spaces. The exhibition will include a special feature of Ann Oram RSW’s paintings as part of her 70th birthday year celebrations, along with new works by Jacqueline Orr PAI RSW, Jennifer Irvine RSW RGI, Jenny Martin RSW, Kate Bentley RSW, Mhairi McGregor RSW, Lesley McLaren, Lorna Sinclair and Craig Jefferson.Whether cultivated or wild, private or public, throughout history gardens have taken on meanings and roles as varied as their inhabitants and visitors. Artists have long celebrated what gardens offer; practically and aesthetically they are sites of creative exploration and sanctuary, offering a link to nature and an ever-changing scene of colour, form and texture.Ann Oram RSW said,
“Gardens are my sanctuary and my studio. Rather than reaching for a ready-made bunch from a florist or supermarket, I seek out the living, breathing abundance of real gardens. It is the flowers I discover there that become the main focus of every composition and still life I paint. What draws me to gardens is the element of surprise. The seasons dictate what I find, and I love what that gives me. My travels take me from the grandeur of Kew and Edinburgh Botanical Gardens to the quiet charm of a roadside verge in blossom, a field of oxeye daisies, or a hedgerow thick with cow parsley.”