Month: October 2020

Barbara Hepworth museum in St Ives is wonderful, being able to see her studio, through windows, is a privilege...

I waited for too long before visiting this special place.  I love being in this garden and share my excitement with my family.
Everything feels like the artist has just left the room: you can see the color palette of the hanging aprons, the tools next to her work in progress...
This was her workspace from 1949 to her death in 1975, aged 72.
The greenhouse, next to the studio, is beautiful, full of amazing plants growing next to the sculptures. The garden is medium size and packed with large bronze sculptures.
'Finding Trewyn Studio was a sort of magic’, wrote Hepworth. ‘Here was a studio, a yard and garden where I could work in open air and space'.
About Barbara Hepworth: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/dame-barbara-hepworth-1274

Her polished, soft oblong and ovoid sculptures are familiar to the public, maybe what is less known is her series of hospital paintings and drawings. After her daughter received treatment for a bone conidtion, she visited local hospitals and study the works of surgeons resulting into unusual sketches of operating theatres.

A Giant bird landed in Madrid Palacio de Cristal and left a rather strange nest for us to admire.
Just by chance, we saw the most amazing exhibition this summer.
From the outside, you can see beautiful pastel colors and, as you get closer, you notice that there are enormous pink, yellow flowers.
When you come in, high branches are hiding the entrance; it makes it very intriguing.
After a corridor made out of branches, you are in an amazing space with enormous bird legs,  gigantic forsythia, palm seeds, cherry blossom, poppy, carnation, and lilies.
Near the bronze legs, a curious man with a bird head is attracting the selfie crowd. The beautiful colors and the strange atmosphere have an unusual effect on the public.
 “I wanted to conceive Palacio de Cristal as a place for the celebration of love,” Halijaj shares.
It is the work of artists Petrit Halilaj and Alvaro Urbano.
It is will be there until February 28, 2021.
http://www.alvarourbano.com/index.php?/news/news/
https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2020/08/raven-installation-petrit-halilaj/

It is Noah's Ark as Rossiniere resident called it. You have to be a good hiker to visit this enchantress garden.
Le jardin des Monts was created by two horticulturists Charlotte Landolt-Nardin and Laeticia Jacot. They shaped terraces to plant close to thirty varieties of Alpine plants based on the principles of organic agriculture. The fresh and clean mountain air is perfect for aromatic plants even for mediterranean plants.

To complement their cultures, they gather flowers and wild herbs in the surroundings of the garden.
They started by producing herbal teas mixing lemon thyme, hyssop, cornflower, marshmallow, verbena, lemongrass, lime tree leaves, lemon balm, sweet woodruff, raspberry leaves, elderflowers..., syrups made with Nepeta, creeping thyme and candies and then they grow their beauty range.

They have used the traditional Pays-d’Enhaut paper découpage design for their packaging.
They also organise visits and educational workshops on the mountain pasture.
You can buy their products online here: https://www.jardindesmonts.ch/

We parked near the Riversong centre thermal and walk the chemin du pont-de-nant (par les Échelles). There, we followed the fabulous exhibition "Itinerance: l'himalaya s'invite au pied du Murevan" created by Rigzen-Zanskar to help the population from small villages in the valley of Zanskar in the indian Himalaya during Covid.

We arrived to the chalet near the botanical garden where the gardener live during spring-summer to take care of this very special garden.
La Thomasia is an Alpine botanical garden situated above the village of Bex, it was founded by the "Thomas"family in 1891, there are more than 3000 mountain plants native to mountain regions from all over the world. (From the Andes, to the Himalayas to the Rockies to the Caucasus to the Arctic.) It leans against the spectacular west face of Grand Muveran (3,051 m.)

In the nursery, plants are cultivated for the botanical garden or for experimental research. The alpine garden is open daily from May through October, depending on snowfall and road conditions.

Few examples of the plants you can see: Hosta ventricosa Stern, Telekia Speciosa baum,Panicaut des Pyrénées, Anemone hupehensis Lemoine, Astrantia majo, Leontopodium souliei Beauverd, Solidado graminifolia... and the Rodholia rosea, an adaptogen plant.

http://www.botanique.vd.ch/musee-et-jardins-botaniques-cantonaux/