Written by Alison Down, student at Putney School of Art and Design.
In a way, the walled garden exhibition came about as a fortunate coincidence! I work at the Palace as a garden volunteer, and also take classes at Putney School of Art and Design and in this exhibition these two things came happily together. My art class came to Fulham Palace for an outdoor session and we sketched flowers and plants and took photos in the walled garden. The theme of this class was ‘Expressive Drawing and Painting of Flora and Plant Forms’ and the project was to make an expressive painting or collage of the garden. We needed to use our imagination and creative ideas, making work using sketches, photos and any other media of our choice.
Back at the art school, we each worked on our own vision of the garden, using our sketches and photos. We added colour and shapes with other media such as paint or pastels. Our teacher, Sarah Sparkes, is always stretching our ways of thinking, encouraging us to use new media and techniques. We use paint, ink, gouache, watercolour, pastels and explore collages and mixed media.
When we saw the finished collages all together, we wanted to share them with a wider audience, and ideally one who could see the walled garden at Fulham Palace for themselves. As a Fulham Palace volunteer, it was easy to for me to ask if we might exhibit them at the Palace. To our delight the answer was a resounding yes!
Each work is a personal expression of how a student saw and perceived the garden and how it felt to be in such a rich and flourishing environment.
Visit
If you’re visiting Fulham Palace make sure to take a look at the walled garden exhibition – we would love to hear what you think of the work!
The exhibition is free to visit and will run from 3 – 31 August in the Bishop Terrick rooms at the Palace. Some of the artwork on display will be available for purchase in the museum shop.
From inspiration to artwork
Students have shared part of their artistic journey including the inspiration photo and early sketches.
