Enchanted Gardens with David Nash

A Day at Kew - The Royal Botanic Gardens

 

The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew usually referred to as Kew Gardens is a wonderful site with beautiful gardens and botanical glasshouses between Richmond and Kew in the southwest of London.

 

I went there attracted by the exhibition of David Nash'sculptures, but ended up equally enchanted and fascinated by the large collection of plants in the Princess of Wales'Conservatory.

 

The Princess of Wales conservatory houses ten computer-controlled micro-climatic zones, with the bulk of the greenhouse volume composed of Dry Tropics and Wet Tropics plants. Significant numbers of orchids, water lilies, cacti, lithops, carnivorous plants and bromeliads are housed in the various zones. (I was primarily excited by the cacti and aloe's, I know it doesn't sound that exciting, but the cacti were huuuuuuuuge, or looked furry, or had funny shapes... very entertaining :) )

 

Kew today it is still first and foremost a scientific institution. With its collections of living and preserved plants, of plant products and botanical information, it forms an encyclopaedia of knowledge about the plant kingdom - and it is so interesting to read about how plants adapt to climates, which medicanal powers they have... Really an enchanting place worth visiting!

 

Tea Party in the Secluded Garden

 

The Palm House - 1 -

 

The Palm House - 2 -

 

 

Cacti in the Princess of Wales Conservatory

Furry Cacti Tails :) at the Princess of Wales Conservatory

 

Flowers in the Princess of Wales Conservatory

 

'Fascinator'leaves in the Princess of Wales Conseratory

 

Davies Alpine House

David Nash at Kew: A Natural Gallery

 

David Nash is a British sculptor who works mostly with wood, trees and the natural environment. Born in 1945, David Nash studied at Kingston College of Art, Brighton College of Art, and Chelsea School of Art. He was elected a member of the Royal Academy of Arts in 1999 and awarded to the Order of the British Empire in 2004.

 

From April to September 2012, Nash worked at Kew in/on a ‘Wood Quarry’, creating new pieces for the exhibition using trees from the Gardens that had come to the end of their natural life. A quarry delves into the Earth’s surface to extract a mineral; in his outdoor workshop - his Wood Quarry - Nash quarries the tree as a vein of material to find his form. He adopts a responsive and adaptable approach to producing his art, allowing nature to dictate the direction that his creations will take.

 





David Nash's Cork Spire, 2012
 at the Nash Conservatory

David Nash's Cork Spire is made from the bark of Portuguese cork oak, a material that illustrates Nash's philosophy about our relationship with the natural world. He describes the environment as our 'outer skin'. 'We are in and of the environment, we are not apart from it or its master - and everything that we do impacts upon it, for better or worse' he says.

The farming of cork oak is one of the best examples of traditional sustainable land use because the trees can regenerate their spongy bark and therefore be stripped of it every ten years.

 

David Nash's Radial Fans, 2012
at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art 

  

David Nash's Throne, 1991 at Temperate House


 

Go visit David Nash at Kew until 14th of April 2013

 

 

Sources: Kew website, Wikipedia

Own pictures