We joined forces to support their vital work, with 9 of the Great Gardens inviting an artist to create artwork to celebrate what spring means to them, each taking a garden as inspiration.

This unique collection was exhibited for one week at Lemon Street Market, and on the 20th of June it was auctioned in aid of Cornwall Community Foundation, an organisation we’re proud to help grow.

The auction raised a grand total of £5,350 for this fantastic charity.

1) What motivated you to become an artist?
I have been an artist from childhood. Both my parents were artists and encouraged me to paint. I painted my first plein air oil painting when I was 13 with my father my father Bernard Evans. After art school I became involved in community art and education projects. However I have given myself over full time to painting in the last 10 years and love the my work. I have a daily practise of painting and it is now a passion.

2) What mediums or formats do you like to use, and why?
I paint in oil. Despite what some people might think it is easier to use than other mediums such as watercolour. You can rub it out, change things as you go along or paint over them. I love the consistency of the paint, it is pure pleasure applying thick paint to canvas!

3) How have you changed or evolved as an artist?
I have definitely become more confident with my work and take a few more risks. I am also able to work from reference material in the studio and scale up oil sketches. I have more of an understanding of how light falls on an object, how to achieve a sense of distance and what to look for in a new subject. Also, I have learned importantly what not to paint and when to stop painting!

4) What have you been inspired by in your Great Garden?
I love Tresco Abbey Garden and have painted here often on residencies. It is romantic and other worldly like Milton’s Paradise Lost. Once an Abbey, the ruins, steep steps, paths, pots, follies and statues give it an interesting structure to build upon in a composition and make a wonderful backdrop for all the foliage and exotic plants.

5) Can you give us any hint about what you’re creating for the Great Gardens Great Art Auction 2023, or will it all be unveiled at the exhibition?
I am very excited to be able to bring over a large canvas to Tresco and plan to paint a large plein air piece of the gardens this spring. I am looking forward to seeing the gardens at its best. Often I have a plan but turn up to the location and something else can really stand out! So watch this space. I hope it is a celebration of spring and this extraordinary garden.

1) What motivated you to become an artist?

It’s been a lifelong dream, I’m at my happiest when I’m painting and creating and now I get to do what I love the most and call it work.

2) What mediums or formats do you like to use, and why?

I mainly work in acrylic paints but sometimes also in watercolour and mixed media. It really depends on what the individual piece calls for and the feeling I am trying to evoke. I love the vibrancy of acrylics and the option of texture and layering that they provide me. They are really versatile and I love the freedom they give me and my work.

3) How have you changed or evolved as an artist?

I’m always changing and evolving as an artist as I love trying new ideas and techniques. Whilst I still create realistic work I have enjoyed creating more abstract paintings in recent years.

4) What have you been inspired by in your Great Garden?

Everything! It’s hard to narrow it down, there is literally inspiration around every corner. Spring is such a wonderful season and at Heligan it’s a riot of colour and form. Underneath all of that you also have Heligan’s unique atmosphere and energy. I hope I can capture that.

5) Can you give us any hint about what you’re creating for the Great Art Auction 2023, or will it all be unveiled at the exhibition?

You’re going to have to wait until the auction, the end result is still a mystery to me at this stage!

1) What motivated you to become an artist?

I have always loved painting and drawing, even at a very young age when I drew glasses and moustaches on the pages of my mother’s book about portraiture throughout history – she was not amused! What motivated me to take my art to a new level was when an artist friend gave me a sheet of watercolour paper and 2 brushes and said “ take a workshop and paint!” That was twenty years ago and I’ve never looked back.

2) What mediums or formats do you like to use, and why?

I paint in watercolour and acrylic, I love watercolour paint for its fluidity and surprises when the colours merge on the paper, and acrylic excites me for the vibrancy and versatility that it offers.

3) How have you changed or evolved as an artist?

I was living in the mountains of Colorado when I started studying watercolour seriously. There is no shortage of subject matter in such a beautiful place. While a lot of my work involves landscapes, I enjoy exploring different subject matter, techniques, and mediums. Since returning to my roots of Cornwall my colour palette, inspiration, and dedication have changed. The beauty and light of Cornwall are the perfect backdrop for exploring, experimenting, and building on years of workshops and courses.

4) What have you been inspired by in your Great Garden?

Trebah is a magical place especially in springtime, it brings a smile to my face whenever I am there as there is always something in bloom and the senses to enjoy.

5) Can you give us any hint about what you’re creating for the Great Art Auction 2023, or will it all be unveiled at the exhibition?

you’ll have to wait and see 🙂

1) What motivated you to become an artist?

When I was very young, my family used to collect a new artist each week to put into our “Great Artists Encyclopaedia Collection” – Marshall Cavendish 8 Folders 96 Magazines – Their lives, works and inspiration. I remember about 8 ring binder folders of artist’s imagination and ideas, dark blue, gold writing and each one weighed a lot for a little one like me! I have always loved these books. My favourite issues were Giovanni da Milano and Peter Paul Rubens. The stories behind their paintings, careers and lives. There’s more going on than we first see, and the stories were very powerful, they filled me with the desire to create my own art in my own way. The idea that I can convey and create a feeling to someone else, that tells a story someone identifies with, was my motivation to become an artist.

2) What mediums or formats do you like to use, and why?

I paint outdoors using acrylics, spray-paint and all types of weather as mediums. I paint in all weathers and this helps me to inject the nature, the rawness and subtle strength that I really want people to feel when they see each piece. It can take several weeks to complete a painting because I use layers of very thin acrylic, and have to wait for sections to dry in the sun, or blend in the rain. This helps to create a subtle and gentle feel, even though I’m using heavier mediums that can cope with the elements. I use a high varnish finish so that the painting looks wet from the rain and reflects the light.

3) How have you changed or evolved as an artist?

Working outside with unpredictable weather naturally makes me adapt as an artist every time I paint. This is a healthy change from a disciplined detail oriented artist that I started off as years ago. I hopefully learn by my mistakes and try new techniques so that I can make the best of each painting. There would have been a time where mistakes meant time consuming irritating corrections, but actually they are lessons for me. Evolving in this way means I’m a more patient and calmer artist, which I think reflects in my work.

4) What have you been inspired by in your Great Garden?

I am inspired by ancient and grand trees. This interest was sparked by the ancient Scandinavian traditions and Norse Mythology that honoured their homestead trees, which they called Guardian Trees. They honour and give thanks to the Guardian Trees on their land to encourage protection and good wealth. I like to think that our garden Champion Trees are very similar to Guardian Trees. I learned that Tregrehan is home to the largest and tallest trees in Great Britain and are listed on an official Tree Register. Inspiration in the garden is everwhere I look, Tregrehan Garden has 153 registered Champion Trees, more than any other garden in the South-West. I’m inspired by this wonderful mix of historic, majestic and beautiful trees that stand proud in the peaceful Tregrehan Garden.

5) Can you give us any hint about what you’re creating for the Great Art Auction 2023, or will it all be unveiled at the exhibition?

If you haven’t been to Tregrehan Gardens before or if you’ve been countless times, there is always something new to see because the garden and views changes constantly. What doesn’t change is the atmosphere and the feeling of being surrounded by old trees that have been there for hundreds of years. As soon as you enter you’ll be standing on a root or seeing a tree that has lived there for many years before our lives and will be there many years after too. My hope is that whatever is unveiled will reflect what it feels like to be in their company at Tregrehan.

1) What motivated you to become an artist?

I have always loved being outside, coming from an old Cornish farming family. My Mother was an artist, and I think she inspired me to see beauty all around me- each season has a multitude of visually beautiful things, and making paintings inspired by those things was a very natural thing for me to do. We were surrounded by Mum’s paintings, drawings, brushes and oil paints growing up. The very smell of the oil paint was exciting.

2) What mediums or formats do you like to use, and why?

I tend to use acrylics, oils and pen and Ink, but not all at the same time! Acrylics are so clean and vibrant, and very contemporary – which I something I absolutely value- one is not overburdened with history, rather free to be totally inventive and make up your own way of doing something I like oils too but again, tend to like to use them on my own terms forgetting rule books. Oils are very bold and expressive, but take a bit more management as they take so much longer to dry than acrylics- but they definitely have a lot going for them. Pen and ink is just a very free, quick fun way to make images- one can literally make something satisfying within a few minutes- and that’s something to be treasured. They are my preferred mediums at the moment.

I like to work on primed canvas and primed boards and explore different painting mediums and processes in applying the paint. I tend to favour rectangular formats of paintings.

3) How have you changed or evolved as an artist?

I think I have become a looser, more expressive artist over the years, and certainly more colourful. I am concerned with the visual representation of things, but equally I have to be drawn to something that moves me in some way. I think I am interested in conveying perhaps how I feel about a certain scene; I want to be able to celebrate the physical beauty of a place, not just simply how it looks, but also how it feels to look at those gorgeous scenes, flowers, etc in front of me.

4) What have you been inspired by in your Great Garden?

I think for me it’s the abundance of local colour, and how wonderful it is to see the colour in the landscape making a return after the long months of winter. Those early spring flowers such as Camellias, daffodils and daffodils look so much more dramatic in the early spring landscape, because the surrounding landscape still has some very drab, muted tones – they really sing out against it.

5) Can you give us any hint about what you’re creating for the Great Art Auction 2023, or will it all be unveiled at the exhibition?

I am hoping to make a painting with a real prescence- lots of colour, feeling, mood and expressive brushwork. I won’t say to much, because often when I committ to something before it’s done, I want to do the exact opposite!!