The Rock Garden: Our Artist's Muse....
Our magical Rock Garden has long been a source of inspiration to artists, last year Eden Valley Arts used it as the basis for their September exhibition with us, and this Summer Sarah Rogers is exhibiting a new series of works, painted en plein air in the Rock Garden itself...
Sarah explains her love of this area of the gardens perfectly in the below short video…
Sarah’s paintings are inspired both by her childhood home of Trebetherick in North Cornwall and Riverhill, her home for the past 20 years. She uses both oils and oil pastels to capture bold landscapes, often with dramatic skies or rock formations, using a vibrant colour palette.
Sarah was at the heart of the restoration of The Edwardian Rock Garden at Riverhill in 2018. This was an ambitious project as the whole area had been ‘lost’ for over 60 years and was completely overgrown. Her recent oil pastels of the reflective pool and fern collection celebrate the incredible transformation of this area.
Sarah’s passion is to paint ‘en plein air’, usually accompanied by her dogs. Whether on the windy cliffs at the mouth of the Camel Estuary or sitting in the gardens at Riverhill, it is a privilege to be able to capture the spirit of such well-loved scenes
Riverhill Rock Garden I, Oil Pastel on Cartridge Paper, 42 x 29.5cm
The Rock Garden restoration project was a huge undertaking for the garden team as everything had to be dug out by hand, including plenty of trees that feel in the great storm of 1987. The area had previously contained alpine plants, but, left to its own devices, self sown ferns were thriving. It was decided to build on this collection and, with the generous and patient help of the Pedegalogical society, we now have over 80 varieties of fern, some of which are very rare.
A very bare in progress shot of the pond area being clearer in 2018.
Our Garden volunteer, Jonathan, took over the care of the Rock Garden and has steadily become more and more fern obsessed over the years. This has culminated in Misako’s decision to hold our first ever Fern Festival this year. Over the weekend of the 22nd and 23rd of June visitors to the gardens can enjoy tours of the Rock Garden, a very interesting display from the pedegalogical Society, fern sales. And for the little ones we have fossil making & a chance to view specimens under Misako’s electronic microscope.
Find all the info here
The pond area how it is today - full of life & lush green ferns!
You can view Sarah’s work as part of the Art in June Exhibition, currently on in the Garden Room, until the 23rd of June (Closed Monday and Tuesday).
All works are for sale. You can also purchase prints of the Rock Garden Paintings. She is offering our visitors a 10% discount off online print orders, through her new website: www.sarahrogersart.co.uk. Use code RIVJUNE at checkout.
Riverhill Rock Garden II, Oil Pastel on Cartridge Paper, 42 x 29.5cm
Follow Sarah’s painting adventures on instagram: @sarahrogers_art (Troy and Roger do feature!)
Sarah painting in Cornwall with Troy