Exhibition shines light on splendour of arboretum

AN exhibition held by Watlington ArtsHUB has raised more than £1,000 for the Earth Trust charity.

Organised by artist Jaine McCormack and horticulturist John Brannan, the exhibition was held at the trust’s centre in Little Wittenham from last Friday until Monday.

Ten artists from Watlington’s arts collective exhibited pieces largely created especially for the exhibition, which was titled Arboretum: Art Inspired by the Native Trees of Britain.

A variety of mediums was featured, including wood carving, multimedia installations, drawings, paintings, botanical printing, sculpture, stoneware ceramics, glasswork and photography.

The event was also designed to raise awareness of the arboretum, which houses all 49 tree and shrub species native to Oxfordshire.

Ms McCormack, who lives in Christmas Common, estimated about 400 people attended.

She said: “Visitor numbers have been great. We’ve made well over £4,000 worth of sales, which is fantastic, and we’re giving 20 per cent to the Earth Trust. More than that, what has been really good is the number of visitors who have come and didn’t know about the arboretum and the Earth Trust.”

The idea to host an exhibition at the centre was inspired by Ms McCormack’s neighbour John Brannan’s connection to it.

A retired horticulturist, Mr Brannan helped to plant the arboretum, which opened in 2008.

“It’s now reaching a stage of maturity so it’s an extraordinary resource,” Ms McCormack said. “It’s free to visit and you can wander around and see all of these trees side by side. It is fascinating.”

She said the artists all have a keen interest in environmentalism and worked together to create pieces.

Ms McCormack said: “We did a lot of collaboration. We worked with our glass artist to fuse leaves from the arboretum into glass, we did lots of clay work together, creating impressions of bark in clay. It has been really nice to do as a group.”

Ms McCormack said while the venue is not traditionally where visitors would expect to find art, it was a “beautiful” settling that worked well.

On the first evening of the exhibition, visitors enjoyed a performance of butoh, a Japanese contemporary dance form.

The performance was arranged by Watlington ArtsHUB member and butoh dancer, Neo Cartouche.

She said: “I’ve been practising [butoh] for about 10 years. I came across it while I was doing my MA at Oxford Brookes. I fell in love with it and I’ve been practising ever since. It ties in beautifully because the project is around body ecologies. It’s looking at the body and ecological existence of humans and how we interact with nature.

“It tries to bring awareness to that connection to help people appreciate how healing and helpful it is to connect with nature in a very visceral way through the body and through movement.”

Ms Cartouche said she was keen to support the Earth Trust. She said: “They bring nature to our young people particularly.”

Mr Brannan, who has been involved in the arboretum project for around 30 years since planting began in 1998, said he had concerns it was becoming “unloved and invisible”.

He said: “Jaine suggested she could put together a group of artists who would love to come and interpret the arboretum and tree types through the artists’ lens. In the past, everybody’s looked at this through a scientific lens so I really wanted to encourage the artists.

“It’s been absolutely fantastic and it has been very well, and warmly, received.”

Artists who exhibited work at the event were Jules Bishop, Andrea Brewer, Neo Cartouche, Sue Chamberlin, Maria Loring, Maria Mademyr, Jaine McCormack, Jessica Parker, Jacque Pavlosky and Mick Venters.