Western Morning News (Saturday)
WESTERN MORNING VIEW
FRANK RUHRMUND on a celebrated painter who had a fascination for colour shapes
WMN3Foremost among the latest Fabulous Friday Five, selected by David Durham, director of the Porthminster Gallery in St Ives, is the celebrated painter Patrick Heron, whose silk screen print Blues Dovetailed in Yellow he describes as being a “gloriously sunny” work by one of the most important British artists of the 20th century.
He says it is a stunning example of Heron’s fascination with contrasting and complementary associations, which often manifested as wobbly, hard-edged, jig-sawed components of vivid interlocking colour shapes. Looking at it, and at others by the artist online, brings back memories of him: of being met at the door of his home ‘Eagle’s Nest’, near Zennor; of him carrying his big, black and beautiful cat Jefferson; and of being taken on a tour of his splendid garden by them.
A place once described by Virginia Wolf as “the loveliest place in the world”, I remember him telling me how he came to own it. He was at school with Mark Arnold-Forster, whose family then owned it. One of his earliest drawings was made on his eighth birthday of the view from the dining room at Eagle’s Nest, and it was a chance remark made many years later that led him to buying the property – as he said, “almost by accident” in the 1950s.
He wasn’t to know then that the area in which it was set had a certain magnetism for the military, and that for a quarter of a century he would be engaged in a battle with them for its preservation. A conservationist as well as a champion of colour, when a boy, together with Peter Lanyon, he formed a Society for the Preservation of Culture in England, and fought for it ever after – not only on his own patch, but also from Penderleath to Prussia Cove, St Just church to Stennack School, St Ives. In the art world, he helped extend the life of Falmouth School of Art and was foremost at promoting painting in the early years of the Penwith Society of Arts in St Ives.
An artist once spoken of as being “one of the most exciting painters alive”, his first solo show in Cornwall was held in Downing’s bookshop in St Ives in 1947, long before he could have dreamt that one day he would be asked to design a colourful glass window – one of the largest unleaded coloured glass windows in the world – for the new Tate St Ives.
Now the gallery’s first work of art, I recall him talking about it: “As it happened, although installed during a Cornish gale, it went well. It was the first time I’d seen it in its complete state, and I felt pleased the moment I saw it. When the sun is shining in St Ives the window creates a purple haze, which seems to stain the air purple. I didn’t know this would happen, but as purple is a favourite colour of mine, this is a bonus.”
It will be remembered that three years ago Tate St Ives celebrated more than 50 years of Heron’s working life, 1943 to 1996, with an exhibition of his work – the first major one for 20 years. While it was a welcome, refreshing and invigorating reminder of all that he had achieved, it also encouraged one to simply stand back and share in and enjoy his love of colour.
One who was to say “colour is both the subject and the means, the form and the content of my paintings”, if he were here now I’m sure he would love this online exhibition.
As David Durham says, “this exhibition is just what the doctor ordered to inject a healthy dose of uplifting sunny yellow into our lives at this grey time”, while pointing out that the Porthminster Gallery is still open for business and sales online. Deliveries throughout the UK and worldwide can still be arranged – see the gallery’s website – and works purchased can also be collected from the gallery by arrangement.
MOST people will go all-out to make their garden a delightful sight, but scent, sound, touch and taste are often lucky to get a look-in.
But a scheme that delivers something special to stimulate all five senses boosts the underlying oomph of your garden no end.
And it can make a small space seem larger by adding an extra dimension – turning even the briefest trip outside into an instant open-air aromatherapy and walk-through spa session.
You don’t have to create a whole new garden from scratch – just slot sensory plants and features into your existing layout. But don’t simply scatter them around any old way. Think of the way you arrange harmonising colours and contrasting shapes, sizes and textures so they don’t fight when you’re trying to create a pleasing view. That’s the approach to take with other sensory ingredients.
Plan your scheme so you take a journey round the garden.
Scented plants are some of the easiest to misuse. Where a lot of people go wrong is to collect a great assortment of scented plants, shove the lot in one place and call it a scented garden. But that’s like throwing the contents of your store cupboard into a saucepan and calling it stew. Make each scent stand out by giving it a bit of breathing space. If you have roses in a mixed bed, don’t grow other scented flowers underneath them – use your lavenders to line the path to your next feature and save jasmine to grow over the pergola or gazebo, where you can sit and enjoy undiluted fragrance.
There are two sorts of scents, and you need some of each. Scented flowers are great when in bloom, but for longer-lasting fragrance you need plants with scented leaves. The fragrance only leaks out when the leaves are bruised, so grow them somewhere you’ll brush past the plants.
Pelargonium offers a good spectrum of scents. There are lemon, orange, peppermint and pine varieties as well as various spices. Herbs are great fragrance plants as well as for use in cookery, especially rosemary, lemonscented verbena and mint.
Strategically speaking, the places to concentrate your scents are in containers by your front and back doors, on your patio and in beds underneath the window you open in summer, where you’ll gain the most benefit. Sound hardly figures on most people’s list of must-have garden features. Wind chimes have fallen into the irritating bracket and outdoor stereo systems must count as anti-social – unless you
live miles from the neighbours.
But have you noticed the soothing effects of gently running water? A rippling fountain in a quiet corner with a seat and some scented plants are the ideal ingredients for therapeutic winddown sessions on summer evenings after work.
Most water features operate by recycling a small amount, so you needn’t worry about wastage.
Rustling grasses, such as bamboos and the taller ornamental miscanthus, are one of today’s highly desirable, natural sound effects – and, of course, don’t forget birdsong.
Encourage birds to drop in by feeding them and providing drinking water and baths. As a bonus, their activities are gripping viewing – better than any TV soap.
Touch is probably not something you often do to plants, but next time you are in a nursery or garden centre, take a look around.
There are plants with soft and silky leaves (stachys byzantina), felty foliage (purple sage and some artemisia species) and tough mound-shaped rock plants, such as saxifrages, whipcord hebes and also some sempervivums, which are a joy to pat.