Floral Art - Reawakening 2021: Lockdown through the eyes of the botanical artist
We’re back !!! Not only are Iceni Botanical Artists back in Bury St. Edmunds, but we are also back with a live exhibition on 16-22nd October 2021 in The Guildhall. Just like all art groups throughout the past eighteen months, IBA members have been kept apart by Covid19 restrictions. However, artists everywhere are fortunate and often thrive in solitude and peace and quiet in order to allow the creative juices to flow. Botanical artists have been even more fortunate, as they depend upon the natural world for their inspiration. And that has remained a constant throughout the lockdown periods, with the seasons reliably coming and going as always. Spring 2020 was never more eagerly anticipated right from the first snowdrops in January, through the cheerful yellow of daffodils blooming everywhere, and later, the fresh green display of trees bursting into leaf. The Summer and Autumn were equally colourful and there was always the consoling expectation that it would do it all again next year. On a personal note, I moved house in January 2020 and had a blank canvas in designing and planting up a new garden and had great pleasure in watching it flourish. Green spaces, gardens and gardening have been a salvation for many during the turmoil of the pandemic – a place of safety, peace and beauty with time to sit and admire the natural living world all around, plus a possible escape from the traumas that have confronted us all. Many of the paintings on view at our exhibition will have been painted during these difficult times and we hope they give you as much pleasure to view as has given us to create.
Isobel Bartholomew
