QUINCE, HONEYSUCKLE, HELLEBORE & SQUILL
An arrangement commissioned by Exhibition on Screen to celebrate the launch of ‘PAINTING THE MODERN GARDEN: MONET TO MATISSE’, a film by Seventh Art Productions.
FEBRUARY
INGREDIENTS
Chaenomeles japonica (Japanese quince)
Cynara cardunculus (cardoon)
Lonicera periclymenum (honeysuckle)
Fritillaria raddeana (Radde's fritillary)
Helleborus ‘Double Helen’, ‘Harvinton Picotee’, ‘Ice n’ Roses’ and ‘Maestro’ (Christmas rose)
Scilla mischtschenkoana (white squill)
VASE
Ceramic bowl (approx. 14cm diameter)
Kenzan
NOTES
Taking inspiration specifically from Monet’s garden at Giverny, I choose to use a palette of muted greens and drifting soft pastels interspersed by flaming pops of red from the ornamental quince (so called as it is commonly grown for its decorative flowers, rather than for the fruit which is tough and sour).
Directed by David Bickerstaff, PAINTING THE MODERN GARDEN: MONET TO MATISSE takes the audience on a magical journey from the gallery to the gardens of the world’s best loved artists. It explores the beautiful spaces that we’ve come to know through the masterpieces they inspired. Claude Monet was an avid horticulturist and arguably the most important painter of gardens in the history of art, but he was not alone. Great artists like Van Gogh, Bonnard, Sorolla, Sargent, Pissarro and Matisse all saw the garden as a powerful subject for their art. The film discovers how these artists built and cultivated their gardens to explore contemporary utopian ideas and motifs of colour and form. Guided by passionate curators, artists and garden enthusiasts, the film explores the gardens of Giverny and Seebüll, it reveals the rise of the modern garden in popular culture and the public’s enduring fascination with gardens today.
A tip: consider how the colour of your foliage will affect the composition - there are so many greens. Here I used silver and grey greens because I wanted the overall effect to be soft, cool and dream-like. Had I used a dark green the contrast would have produced a less peaceful, more dramatic effect.