June 24, 2007
Photographer Peter Lavery captures the natural life of his home, Brandiers Farm in Wiltshire, using a technique that delivers photographs that have the appearance of oil paintings. This technique is most pronounced in the soft colours of the withering ‘Dead Lily Head’ and ‘White Lily with Dying Rose Bud’ as Lavery presents the full cycle of life that surrounds him in gardens, fields and greenhouses. Fine details are magnified in these large photographs, printed with pigment-based inks on water-colour paper as the full personality of insects interacting with flora is displayed. ‘Blue Borage with Damsel Fly’ and ‘Pink Digitalis with Moth’ are snap shots of fascinating behavioural ecology. The pictures such as ‘Red Sunflower’ are full of deep vivid colour and natural sunlight lights up many of the shots for example the sunlight flows through effervescent green of ‘Snake Grass with Damsel Fly’. Dynamic forces of nature are present in the powdery cloud of ‘Dead Lily with Pollen’ and seeds are about to burst any second in ‘Green Seedhead’. Nature regenerates itself producing the still sculptural forms as shown in ‘Lily with Rose Bud’. In a gallery overlooking the garden of Malmaison, these blooms are on show until July 22nd so ‘Gather ye rosebuds while ye may!’