An exhausting day setting up at Chelsea, but exciting too. Getting into the Chelsea grounds and around to our stand was like a military operation, involving circling around in Battersea park before crawling around the show grounds at 5mph. I am sharing a stand with Shayama Ruffell and Lara Bowen, who is also my agent. They are both artists who paint floral and botanical themes in bold colours. Our work perfectly compliments each other.
The stands are judged by a voluntary panel once they are set up, so we've spent a long time designing what is in fact a very small space for the 3 of us...so it had to have impact and clarity. We decided to keep the walls white but with a central panel of Citrine.
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| Citrine central panel |
Inside the frame on the wall, we are having a changing arrangment of plants in a collection of bottles and glasses..we may add some fruit and veg too.
It takes ages to get the show hung, especially when we all started out tired to begin with, but we've done this often enough now to be able to stay in good humour with each other and just problem solve as we go along.
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| Lara measuring up |
Gradually it all starts to come together,
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| Globe Thistles and Shammys paintings |
and things are manoeuvred to compliment each other.
Everyone here, including us are wearing fluoro vests...it is a sea of yellow, and everywhere there is the smell of Lilies and bark mulch.
Peering inside the Pavilion there so many exciting displays going up and I am already in lust with many plants.
It all seemed surprisingly calm although busy, and I can't wait until Monday when all the debris will be cleared away, and the gardens will be on full show.
www.shyamaruffell.co.uk
www.larabowen.co.uk
Find me now over at http://theceramicgardener.com
Love the way you describe the day. Looking forwards to having a great week the three of us! Lara x
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