Spring! The season that is so revered and welcomed when it appears… the air is warm, the light is gentle and the landscape opens up abundantly in celebration.
It is the Renaissance within the Earth year, and as this season folds out, it brings optimism.
The nurseries seduce us with beautiful plants of colour, texture or a lingering fragrance; garden magazines showcase the latest trends, style or new plant varieties, resulting perhaps with thoughts which may lead you to create a new Eden around your home.
Spring for me, always leads me to recall my first visit to the garden of my muse.
It was in the Spring of 2008, when I travelled to France to visit the garden of the Impressionist painter – Claude Monet – in Giverny.
Monet was part of a group of artists who went out into the landscape to paint it. By this action he and fellow painters, broke with tradition and painted freely, and not in the style of the time.
This work became known as Impressionism. Monet had an incredible vision, and his dedication to the use of light and colour in his paintings, resulted in him becoming one of the most admired and respected artists in history.
I have learnt many lessons from Monet – as a photographer and landscaper, and believe that the most important one is seeing and having the understanding and respect for the landscape, like he did.
Monet understood the nature of light, its effect on the subject, how colour of light could be used to create the mood of the moment, and release the landscape identity.
He was known to sit and study the light on the water in his garden. He commented “each minute an ever changing light transforms the atmosphere and the beauty of things”.
When walking in the water garden, I was inspired to look with Monet’s eye’s and experiment with ways of seeing.
These two images were made 10 minutes apart…
I believe that light is a major element when you design a garden. I don’t mean light requirement for the plant, but rather the aesthetic created from where it has been planted and how it interacts with the light there.
When in the garden, there is an awareness not so much about a design, but rather Monet’s vision of it.
His use of colour, the combinations of the plants, their interaction with light, blend and become united into a single subject – a picture which defines nature.
There are many beautiful books and films about Monet’s garden, but nothing quite prepares you, when you visit. I have had the good fortune to have visited Giverny three times, once in Spring and twice in the Autumn – and am ever hopeful to return.
As a gardener, you can learn so much from looking at good design work.
During the next months, there are many local Open Gardens, specialised plant sales, workshops and talks around garden themes, and on Sunday October 20, you can celebrate Garden Day, with family and friends in your personal Eden.
