The art of botanical painting is a considerable one. It is not enough to produce an attractive picture: a significant number of those examining it will be very familiar with the original plant and rather a lot of those will carry in their mind’s eye a favourite image of it from one wildflower book or another. Just as we sniff at the performance of a piece of familiar music played a little differently from our favourite rendering, there is a resistance to change in the brain of the viewer. We can’t help making comparisons. Is a flower painting a technical exercise or is it a pretty thing to hang on a wall? It has to be both—and the life of the critic will always be easier than that of the artist.
Emma Tennant, who concerns herself both with accurate depiction and with making lovely things, is not afraid of the keen observer’s searching eye. She has been gardening and painting since she was a child and is as devoted to both now as she was at the beginning. Given that her childhood took place in the years either side of 1950 on the Chatsworth estate, this reveals a single-minded and persevering character who can now reflect with satisfaction on a life’s work concerned with use and beauty.
Botanical artist Emma Tennant at work in her studio at home in the Scottish Borders
Denne historien er fra May 03, 2023-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra May 03, 2023-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Happiness in small things
Putting life into perspective and forces of nature in farming
Colour vision
In an eye-baffling arrangement of geometric shapes, a sinister-looking clown and a little girl, Test Card F is one of television’s most enduring images, says Rob Crossan
'Without fever there is no creation'
Three of the top 10 operas performed worldwide are by the emotionally volatile Italian composer Giacomo Puccini, who died a century ago. Henrietta Bredin explains how his colourful life influenced his melodramatic plot lines
The colour revolution
Toxic, dull or fast-fading pigments had long made it tricky for artists to paint verdant scenes, but the 19th century ushered in a viridescent explosion of waterlili
Bullace for you
The distinction between plums, damsons and bullaces is sweetly subtle, boiling down to flavour and aesthetics, but don’t eat the stones, warns John Wright
Lights, camera, action!
Three remarkable country houses, two of which have links to the film industry, the other the setting for a top-class croquet tournament, are anything but ordinary
I was on fire for you, where did you go?
In Iceland, a land with no monks or monkeys, our correspondent attempts to master the art of fishing light’ for Salmo salar, by stroking the creases and dimples of the Midfjardara river like the features of a loved one
Bravery bevond belief
A teenager on his gap year who saved a boy and his father from being savaged by a crocodile is one of a host of heroic acts celebrated in a book to mark the 250th anniversary of the Royal Humane Society, says its author Rupert Uloth
Let's get to the bottom of this
Discovering a well on your property can be viewed as a blessing or a curse, but all's well that ends well, says Deborah Nicholls-Lee, as she examines the benefits of a personal water supply
Sing on, sweet bird
An essential component of our emotional relationship with the landscape, the mellifluous song of a thrush shapes the very foundation of human happiness, notes Mark Cocker, as he takes a closer look at this diverse family of birds
