Country living article

After the success of  Rhs Hampton last year , photographer Jacqui Hurst got in contact with me with the view of photographing my metal work and studio and garden to put in a magazine , great I thought but also will my garden be good enough for the shots . I've been so busy my own garden is often left till last on the list of jobs and she is a wild at heart kind of girl , couch grass , nettles and sticky weed wait until I'm not looking and then grow at the speed of light and try to cover my borders  ( I'm sure they do ) and I'm just not a consistent gardener maybe one day I will train myself to become one. Another task to add to the list . Anyway I digress so Jacqui was coming to photograph so I got busy tidying my garden and studio and when the day arrived in late October we had a lovely day , then 5 months later in March I get a call from country living saying they would love to do a feature on my garden design work and could Jacqui come and photograph some more with summer in mind . Well my garden definitely wasn't feeling very summery it was cold wet March then a multitude of jobs came in show proposals ,one man exhibition etc , please don't think I'm complaining I thrive on being busy but I just didn't know if my garden would make the grade for country living so once the work was done I cracked on again and managed to tame her a bit and prettify her as best I could and feeling worn out posed for photos , and then last night I bought a copy of country living and the article is lovely , Jacqui's photos look wonderful and Paula Mcwaters wrote a great article which captured me and my work perfectly . It was a relief , the hard work had been worth it . What's funny is about five years ago I wrote a list of goals I wanted to achieve -build a show garden , win a medal , win gold at an Rhs show , be in a magazine like country living! I think I may need to come up with some new goals . But I might just make sure I have a little holiday first . 

Decorative shadows exhibition

I've been offline for ages sorry about that . I either haven't had anything to share or have been too busy to post maybe it's more like getting out of the habit! anyway the past month has been a bit mental what with meetings in Boston about some planting schemes and working on my own garden ready for photos and working on clients gardens I've also manage to squeeze in time to produce my first solo exhibition in about 14 years . It's called Decorative shadows and will be unveiled on Thursday 7th of May at the private view 6-8pm at the Peterborough Museums City gallery 3, the exhibition will be on show until 7th June . I have worked really hard on a new body of work which I hope will be well received. Here's a bit of info about the background to the work.

This exhibition has been an exploration of various belief systems, religious practices and spiritual rituals: to sit in a temple, to meditate in front of a mandala, to pray on a prayer mat. It is concerned with how objects and belief systems may make us feel safe, happy, virtuous, or give us a sense of belonging and inner peace. Jeni has always had an interest in eastern and western philosophies and religions, in particular observing the important role symbolism, decoration and pattern plays within them.

 

The metalwork pieces are inspired by ancient and historical patterns, decoration and representations of nature, some with hidden meanings and symbolism. Shadow and light play an important role to draw on ideas of perceived realities that do not actually exist (the shadow) and the reality that can be touched.