On the 14th May I attended Flourishing, with photographer Reuben Worlledge. Flourishing is a new exhibition at Art@Saïd, at the Saïd Business School, Oxford. We attended the wonderful opening event, which included talks, poetry readings and a private view of the exhibition.
The exhibition has been developed with the Department of Biology, University of Oxford and the University of Oxford Botanic Garden and Arboretum.
Botanical Illustrator for the University of Oxford, Rosemary Wise, gave a fascinating talk about her career and work, which has spanned over 60 years, taking her all over the world. Rosemary talked about some of the amazing expeditions she had been on in the pursuit of botanical illustration, including places such as Bolivia, Ethiopia, Grenada, Kenya, Malaysia, Peru, Portugal, Scandinavia and Seychelles. Rosemary has travelled more than any other botanical artist living or in the past and has undertaken two fellowships to Papua New Guinea. What a life of travel, adventure, drawing and plants! Every picture tells a story.
Dr Chris Thorogood, a plant biologist, artist and Associate Professor of Biology at the University of Oxford, also spoke about his adventures in the depths of, sometimes uninhabited, jungles, desert plains and mountain tops, and the variety of mediums that he uses to capture what he sees. Working in Oil, graphite, pencil and water colour, depending on the subject. He too has worked all over the world and spoke of how “Plants take you to places that passports cannot”
Their stories were fascinating and there must be so many more to be told!
Oxford Saïd Poet Laureate Athol Williams, who is a South African poet, applied philosopher and business professor based at Oxford University, read two beautiful poems, one of which, Her Silent Gifts, is dedicated to Rosemary Wise. The other, The Daisy Does the Work of a Daisy celebrates the humble daisy…
“Quietly, each day,
The daisy does the work of a daisy,
Made in the image of the sun –
Unassuming, commonplace,
And stubbornly, flourishing.”
Athol Williams, Oxford Saïd Poet Laureate
What a treat to hear these beautiful poems read aloud.
Words, plants and pictures as art.
Photography by Reuben Worlledge
