Several times, over the last fifteen years, I have driven down to the Cotswolds to visit my brother and sister-in-law and take in the wonderful ‘Fresh Air’ sculpture show in the gardens of the Old Rectory in Quennington.
Hosted for the 34 years by Lucy and her husband, the late David, Abel Smith, the show has grown from a ‘modest village sculpture trail’ to a thrilling biennial show of works by over a hundred sculptors of every hue and persuasion plus innumerable spin off educational, outreach and wellbeing projects. Sadly, this year was its last. But although the Old Rectory garden will host no more shows, ‘the Quenington Sculpture Trust will continue to fund bursaries for tutors and creatives, focussing on makers and designers in the applied and decorative arts which are most under threat from cuts in schools and colleges’. Check out the Education section of their website for more details.
So, for those who will never get a chance to visit in person, here are a few highlights from this year’s show. And if you would like to see a few from 2019, check in to this post .
The sculptures which peek out from behind every tree and bush are wonderful but there is no doubt that they are hugely enhanced by the Old Rectory’s glorious garden. Running along either side of the Colne River which once drove the mill wheel that you see through Stuart Bird’s Wheel within a Wheel above.
Spanned by this a delightful if not totally practical swing bridge, the river is home to giant sparklers and these wonderful tall jugs pluming water up into the branches of the trees above.
These are permanent residents, ‘left over’ from previous exhibitions which the Abel Smiths could bear to part with. Temporary visitors this year on the rolling lawn beside the river include Amanda Griffith’s Tipi poles (‘inviting the visitor to think about the fragility and sanctity of home’, Anthony Lloyd and Deborah Laidlaw’s Ascension and Victoria Atkins’ splendidly conspiratorial looking bronze Conspirators.
Further along the river Lucy Lutyens’ bronze Freedom shelters beneath the trees close beside Emma Fenelon’s stoneware clay Heart Keep – a place of refuge, ‘quiet witness to our enduring need for sanctuary’.
And across the river in a nearby garden, this elegant lady must surely have escaped from some earlier show to find a permanent home in the Cotswold countryside.
Back on the lawns in front of the house, visitors to Hampstead Lane might recognise the work of Simon Connolly. Simon’s Darby and Joan sit on top of the Hampstead Lane waterfall, but here in The Child in Us All, Simon’s much younger protagonists teeter happily along their plank.
And nearby, in an unwitting nod to our Salon Music events, James Castle’s bronze Fiddleman.
Meanwhile, Morven Browne’s Mixed Media Quiet Reflections blend seamlessly into the white border, while Neil Wilkins’ Colour Catcher Tulips sparkle in the river.
And adding a note of whimsy Lucy Gregory’s The Grass Between my Toes ‘touches on the the re-energising power found through direct playful contact with the natural world’.
Sculptures, and there are over 200 of them from 107 artists so this is only a very tiny sampling, vary in price from under £100 to £25,000+. If you want to see more, check in to the Artist section of the Fresh Air website.
And now that all the visitors and the visiting sculptures have gone, the permanent residents can relax to the gentle sound of the river – watched over by this earth mother nestled into her tree.
The garden’s ‘big’ day…..