AMANDA BASTIN
BEYOND THE GARDEN GATE
“I have always been drawn to the interplay of colour, pattern and texture and they have become the main hallmarks in my work to evoke an innate sense of comfort, joy and positivity.”
Amanda Bastin
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Everything is fresh about blossom, winter is over, all the plants are coming up, there’s a moment when I’ve said nature has an erection!" – David Hockney.
The explosive excitement of the natural world is available to all of us. This exhibition is a visual journey through a garden’s seasons as seen and sensed by the viewer. The lens is focused from beyond the confines of the garden gate to reflect a fertile hotbed of magical sights and feelings through Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. Amanda, a visionary artist known for her captivating exploration of nature’s mysteries, presents ‘Beyond the Garden Gate’.
From ancient civilisation to the present day, gardens have promoted paradise. In her wonderful book, The Well Gardened Mind, Sue Stuart-Smith substantiates the remarkable effects of nature on our health and well-being. She explores how the garden can be vital to cultivating the mind, restoring energy, or letting go of negativity. She also explores how a garden is a place of reality as well as fantasy.
And so, through a fusion of vibrant colours and flowing brushstrokes, Amanda guides you on a whimsical tour into the garden of imagination, where the ordinary dissolves into the extraordinary. It explores a verdant world so lush and rich in boundless sensory pleasures, you can almost smell it!
"My childhood garden was where I first learned to explore independence, fumble with the wonders of a daisy chain, taste the sweetness of a stolen raspberry, sow seeds to cultivate flowers and vegetables, snip rose petals to make heady scent, find bugs and brush mud from my grazed knees. It was where my brothers and I created magical worlds of make-believe in dens and treehouses. It was Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh, and Roald Dahl fantastical. And then we grew up.
As years are harvested and the playgrounds of my adulthood pass through the seasons, I paint pictures with emotion, memories, and feelings of my favourite scenes in parks and gardens. I see ‘Enchanted Land, Garden Treasures, Sense of Wonder, Wildly Exciting, Fruits of Spring, Dreams of Green, Find Your Heart in the Garden and Tomorrow is a Vision of Hope. I feel the joy in the garden and paint the magic as I see it from ‘beyond the garden gate’.’’
Amanda Bastin, 2024
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'Amanda Bastin is a British artist living in London. Born into an artistic family of portrait painters, fashion illustrators and fine art restorers, her passion for painting has been nurtured from a young age. It continues to shape her artistic journey and reflects her devotion to gardens and the natural world; an appreciation she learnt from her adored late father. Her vibrant paintings, brimming with life and beauty, explore both the familiar and fantastical realms of nature’s infinite wonders.
Watching new growth blazing through the seasons and ever-changing landscapes in all their colours, shapes and glories, I am reminded of some poignant quotes from my favourite artist, David Hockney. He says: ''be in the landscape – not outside of it.'' And emphasises that ''in art, new ways of seeing mean new ways of feeling…''
'While various artists such as Van Gogh, Monet, Matisse, Dufy, and Berg have influenced my work, it is through Hockney's insights, and spending more time outdoors, that I have begun to truly appreciate nature’s constant inspiration and delight as it heals and nourishes.
Encouraged by her husband, a landscape gardener, this new process of ‘seeing’ has sparked a new wave of creativity. ''I have always been drawn to the interplay of colour, pattern and texture and they have become the main hallmarks in my work to evoke an innate sense of comfort, joy and positivity.''
Working with oils in fresh, energising colours along with dynamic brushstrokes, Amanda’s art reflects the enchantment of the natural environment in her unique and uplifting style.'
