Tessa Spanton SWA Artist, tutor, writer



TESSA SPANTON SWA ARTIST, WRITER AND TUTOR

Welcome to my blog.
This is where I write about some of the things that inspire my work,
news of exhibitions and works in progress

Thursday 24 March 2011

Paintings at Pashley Manor



This year I have some paintings on show at Pashley Manor Gardens. (Click on the link for more information. Ou si vous ĂȘtes francais cliquer ici) The Garden room and shop show floral or botanical works by different artists as well as their cards and prints. There is also sculpture.

( to fast forward to July's post click here)



Pashley Manor is a Tudor timbered house set in beautiful gardens with views over the landscape of the Weald in West Sussex. It is near to the A 21 and the border with Kent. The gardens are open to the public from April to September and there are several special events during the season.



The tulip festival is outstanding. The gardens are planted with 22,000 tulip bulbs made up of 100 varieties and around 2,000 cut flowers on display.

My visits to the tulip festival inspired me to paint tulips on silk. I don't think I had seen such quailty and variety before, the bulbs come from Bloms who have won 60 RHS Chelsea gold medals. I also started to grow more tulips in my garden for painting.




The photos above show some glimpses of the garden on the sunny March day when I took my paintings to Pashley. The garden was waking from winter and in the woods there was the promise of bluebells. The rear of the house is a later Georgian addition.