Fresh Air

On speaking to a friend I swim with, about her plans to visit a favourite scupture exhibition held in a garden just the other side of Cirencester, I made a mental note to find time in our diaries to go along there sometime soon. When she went on to say that this year’s show is the last one ever, those plans become more determined and off we went, on one of the last days before it closed.

The exhibition is shown in the garden of a large, traditional Cotswold country house, which has the River Churn running through it. Were the sculpture exhibits not here, I’m sure nearly as many would come simply to enjoy a wander through this glorious garden, but as it draws to a close, I am even more sure how lovely it will be for the owner to regain peace and privacy of this idyllic patch of Gloucestershire once again.

As soon as we stepped through the gate, I was reminded of the wide range of exhibits which are shown here. These colourful glass bottles were not really something which might draw our attention, but there, twinkling in the sunshine, they were quite the eye catchers.

Just around the corner was a fine example of the kind of piece which caught our eye. Of considerable size, perfectly placed in the river, so very striking and very unlikely to fit in most of the gardens of the visitors here today, I’m sure.

As often happens, my photos don’t really capture the number of people here. We arrived early - it was going to be a very warm day, so we planned that carefully. But the imminent closure coupled with the proximity to the end of term for local schools and colleges resulted in a double whammy and as the morning drew on, more and more individual visitors arrived alongside several groups of art students and school classes. This table and chairs in the shade of an old tree became quite a coveted spot when it came to lunchtime!

However, there’s lots to see here and plenty of space to enjoy a good view of everything too.

Some exhibits are not immediately noticeable and I think there’s a delight in spotting them, always with the question “is this part of the exhibition or does it live here?”

This was most certainly an exhibit, for not only was there a small plate with a number upon it, there was also a red dot. Sold. We were not surprised, for this lovely pair of dandelion seeds, mounted on exceptionally free moving joints, moved independently of one another in the slightest breeze. We spent some time admiring it, enjoying the movement and the reflections of the shiny surfaces before expressing no surprise at that red dot and moving on.

The small collection of pears beneath a nearby tree had a small notice nearby, requesting that visitors respect the art and not disturb the art.

They’re nearby the bridge over the river, so we didn’t linger, but noticed the distinctive glass “blooms” there in the leaves by the bridge. Quite striking.

All the more striking when one stepped onto the bridge and saw the rest of the bunch. I did, however, prefer them in the greenery rather than the water, where the wire stems were a little more noticeable.

On the other side of the bridge was a fountain, beautifully shaped to create a pleasing sound as the water cascaded through the sculpture into the river. On this warm morning, that would be a lovely cooling addition to a garden with a river running through it!

In noticing the large sculpted shapes, we’d quite overlooked this smaller, kinetic feature which included lime green perspex squares, gently moving in the light breeze.

Once across the bridge, we turned left, recalling some magnificent exhibits from previous shows here. This time, we felt many items were more commercial; I was fairly sure I had seen something very similar to this elsewhere, for example.

Other exhibits could have been easily overlooked, especially since nature itself had provided a fair bit of competition when it came to interesting shapes!

There are other distractions on this side of the river too: the neighbours’ homes and gardens 😉 I don’t suppose they will be sad that this is the last show here.

Whilst wandering through the woodland, the constrasting styles and stature of items on show was clear as we passed two bunches of dyed loofahs hanging from the tree. I wonder how resilient of the weather they would be?

As always, there was always the usual questions, not only “does this delight me?” but also “do I have the perfect spot for this?” Sadly, in this case, neither question prompted a positive answer and so we moved on.

Several exhibits fell into that category and it might have been useful to have had a conversation with the artist to understand the piece better, I felt.

We found these “tower blocks” amusing, and enjoyed looking closely at the tiny details which were abundant in each of them.

But our eyes and our attention had been caught by something else…something moving over there on the right.

It was another kinetic piece by the same artist as the dandelion seeds, though we thought this one even more effective. Each of the eight “blades” was made of solid metal, one side matte and the other highly reflective and once again, each one moved in 360 degrees in the slightest breeze, reflecting the plants (and people) around it. Another red spot on the card here, too.

We pottered around this side of the river, not wanting to miss anything whilst at the same time not feeling especially drawn to anything we could see.

Except, this little “dinosaur”? made me smile and prompted the thought that actually, I’d be very happy with a piece of art that had that effect!

But then I spotted this stone circle, which really would fit beautifully into our garden and which, in the right place, would very much bring delight and enhance the surroundings. Sadly, not quite in our budget, however!

By now, we were flagging a little in the heat. It was getting towards lunchtime and there were many more people around. I couldn’t resist taking a photo of the old bridge, beautifully engineered and only slightly out of shape!

As we stood surveying just how out of shape it was, the roar of another plane could be heard. Whilst we’d been here, possibly every ten or fifteen minutes, one of these would fly overhead, turn and fly over again. One of the disadvantages of living so close to the air base at Fairford for sure and one which applies to a lesser extent to our home too. As I sit typing here in our kitchen, a large aircraft flew quite low overhead making quite a racket. We only hear the very large ones, which need a little more room to manoevre, so they don’t appear so often but boy, they certainly make more noise!

As we made our way back over the bridge and into the main garden again, we spotted a few low key pieces that we’d missed. This one was set into the grass and explained why we’d noticed people standing around peering down at their feet!

And two chaps looking rather like a pair of seals we’d seen in Port Stanley recently sat by the pool - sculptures of course and just a wee bit too realistic for my liking!

I very much liked the spiral water feature, making a lovely noise as the water cascaded down the shape.

I thought it fitted beautifully in the formal, rectangular lily pond too.

In this part of the garden, it would have been very easy indeed to miss one or two of those last works…

though others were not quite so shy.

We had noticed the trend for this “rust coloured” Cortan steel throughout the show, hoping that it proves to be no more than a trend, for it doesn’t really appeal to either of us. But there is a lot of it in building works and garden features for sure.

Purely by accident, the last photograph I took before we left the show was my favourite. I don’t know if it moves, but the shape and size was just right for the setting. Would it find a place in our garden? I’m not sure that it would, but by now, we’d realised that we weren’t here to make a purchase but to spend an enjoyable morning in beautiful surroundings, sharing thoughts and opinions on things that we really know little about!

Lovely!