Wessex Connected: The Evolution and Art of English Gardens - 5 day study series at Cerne Abbas Village Hall
Tue 14 Oct 2025 10:29 - Tue 10 Mar 2026 15:00
Cerne Abbas Village Hall, DT2 7GY
Description
THE ARTS SOCIETY WESSEX AREA SOUTH The Winter Study Day Course for 2025 – 2026
The evolution of the English Garden from the Italian Renaissance to the present day.
A five day series to be held at Cerne Abbas Village Hall from Tuesday 14 October 2025 to Tuesday 10 March 2026.
More detail and biographies can be found on the Wessex Area website: www.theartssocietywessexarea.org.uk
Tuesday 14 October 2025 – Timothy Walker. This opening Study Day steps back to consider the question of how gardens are Art, rather than being portrayed in Art. There is increasing awareness of the therapeutic qualities of gardens snd open spaces, and their power to form part of a healing process. By understsnding this we will move on in subsequent Study Days to follow how gardens have evolved from the Renaissance period to the present day. Does changing garden design reflect a purely artistic function or does it reflect something else.
Tuesday 11 November 2025 – James Bolton – Parterre and Wilderness: English Gardens of the Late 17th Century
The great gardens of England during the reigns of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I were formal extravagances dominated by knot gardens and mounts. Under the Stuarts, English gardens were increasingly influenced by styles from the Continent, particularly France and Holland. Knot gardens were swept away and replaced with parterres; mounts were superseded by raised terraces from which to enjoy the pattern of the garden below.
Tuesday 13 January 2026 – Caroline Holmes – The Impressionists in the 19th Century: Their art and their impact on the evolution of gardens
This Study Day explores gardens through the senses of the Impressionists from three continents – Europe, North America and Australia - enjoying the essentially similar pleasures of the garden, whilst engaging with the light from their skies, in order to create very different sensations. The enclosure of the garden acts like a picture frame showcasing a living canvas that exudes the individuality, vision and taste of its tenants, their family, friends, lifestyles and, in the simple words of the greatest Impressionist and gardener Monet, providing motifs to paint.
Tuesday 10 February 2026 – James Bolton – Twentieth Century English Gardens – Changes that took place in garden design in the Modern Era
The English garden of the early years of the twentieth century was almost as significant, in terms of worldwide influence, as the landscapes of William Kent and ‘Capability’ Brown. The gardens created, in particular by Sir Edwin Lutyens and Gertrude Jekyll, set a standard against which English gardens would be measured for the next 60 years. Modernism, instinctively mistrusted by the English, swept over Europe and America at precisely this period and only in the 1960s and ‘70s, were brave steps taken to establish an alternative to the Arts and Crafts style.
Tuesday 10 March 2026 – Clare Ford-Wille – Gardens in Art from the Romans to the Monet
From the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans until our own time, people have relished designing, gardening and enjoying gardens. The study day will explore why and how gardens were painted and will explore the ways in which gardens have been portrayed by a wide range of painters from Fra Angelico, Jan van Eyck and Pieter de Hooch to Velazquez, Monet, Beatrix Potter or Margery Allingham. What can we learn of the development of landscape gardening from their paintings? They are also a fascinating record of history and customs from manuscript illumination to the colour drenched canvases of Monet.
Fee: £175 (a saving of £15). which includes coffee or tea and a delicious light lunch with wine and soft drinks.
For all queries, please email Christopher Clarke on wessexconnectedevents@gmail.com
Location
Cerne Abbas Village Hall, DT2 7GY