Painter announced as garden’s resident artist
West Sussex painter Sue England has been announced as Denmans Garden’s artist-inresidence.
Sue was recently featured on Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year as a wildcard winner and a 2019 finalst.
She has been visiting the garden regularly since the late summer of 2021 and her work will be shown in an exhibition later on in the year. She said: “I am excited about this new project as artist-in-residence at Denmans Garden – a wonderful opportunity to explore this amazing space.
“This beautiful, prestigious garden was created originally by Mrs Joyce Robinson and later world-famous landscape and garden designer John Brookes.
“I’m very interested in Brookes’s connection with ‘modern art’ and the abstract work of people like Ben Nicholson and Kazimir Malevich.
“I look forward to observing the changing seasons, as well as trying to understand the ethos of the garden and how that might be expressed in my artwork.”
Sue, as artist-in-residence, will interpret the garden in her paintings, reinforcing De nm ans Garden’s ongoing restoration and place as a creative and cultural hub.
She said: “I started the project last September, and I spend on average two days a week working in the garden or in my studio, but thinking time and experimentation is continuous. My inspiration comes from the garden itself.
“The spaces, the planting, the weather, the changing light and seasons, the design and history of both Joyce Robinson (plantswoman and owner) and John Brookes (owner and international garden designer) and talking with the present owner Gwendolyn van Paasschen.”
Sue is currently halfway through the 12-month project, and has so far finished 20 paintings of various sizes, oil on canvas or board and framed, numerous works on paper with mixed media, and completed two A3 sketch books.