Exhibition Dates :
Tuesday 29 October – Monday 2 December 2024
**Installation viewable 24/7
In contrast to a fast world demanding instant gratification, the Series Home Grown by Henrietta Manning celebrates the joy of planting, harvesting and eating the produce of your own hands. Paintings inspired by the artist’s garden. Slow down and immerse yourself in the soil and the changing seasons, it’s good for the soul.
For the series Home Grown the artist is sharing her connection and pleasure derived from the just over one-acre block of land surrounding her home in Tasmania’s Huon Valley. Originally sparsely planted, and still a work in progress, it has been a steep learning curve, landscaping, and developing two working vegetable bunkers. Produce taken into the house, whether edible or as floral decoration, has been painted from life as intimate works combined with the trappings of home life or with glimpses through windows to the garden outside.
A garden is an extension of you and your home. It matters not whether it is in a single pot or on acreage, growing and nurturing life expands your world. Whatever your taste and passion leads you to grow, trees, shrubs, flowers, succulents, vegetables, fruit, nuts or herbs, you see life in the round. You become more aware of the small things, of life around you; butterfly’s moths, bees, the caterpillars, slugs, snails and worms, skinks and snakes. You reconnect with the seasons and changing weather. The struggle for life becomes more apparent as you nurture and then defend from predators.
Sometimes it can even be hard to pick or prune, to end the life of those you have tended for so long, at others it is a race to harvest at the perfect time before plants bolt or birds and possums get there first. The taste is sweeter and the satisfaction greater at every meal.
Not for you the anonymous supermarket flowers, fruit and vegetables but those carefully chosen by you from seed or seedling, nurtured into life, protected from predators and blight and harvested straight into your kitchen or carefully arranged in a vase. You know where they came from and how they were grown. You can choose varieties not mass produced and can grow free from chemicals. You can make a difference by keeping heritage varieties alive.
In a world of increasing financial, climate and food insecurity there is also a sense of safety and self-reliance looking at your own produce growing or stored in larder and freezer.
What better way to start your day than to let the chickens out, collect eggs and watch for every bud and burst of new life?
Special Event at Studio Waterloo
Monday 25 November – Sunday 1 December 2024 : Open daily 11:00am – 4:00pm
57 Glocks Road, Waterloo, Tasmania 7109
In conjunction with the last week of the Lightbox installation the extended series Home Grown will be exhibited in the Artist’s Huon Valley studio, open to the public for one week only. An opportunity not only to view more of the current series but also to meet the artist and explore her working studio and art practice inside the heritage Apple Packing Shed that is her studio. Bring a picnic and enjoy stunning views extending down the Huon River to Sleeping Beauty and Kunanyi/Mount Wellington.
Henrietta Manning
Henrietta Manning is a Contemporary Realist exhibiting since 1984 and currently living in Tasmania. A versatile artist, painting predominately from life, plein air and in the studio, series are developed for exhibition. Drawn to historic sites a recurring theme is the passage of time and how we live with and build upon the past. A recipient of an Australia Council Visual Arts/Craft Board ‘New Work Established Grant’ and finalist in Australian art awards such as The Wynne, Glover, Portia Geach, Waverly, Alice, Fishers Ghost, Eutick, Waterhouse and The Summer Exhibition in England.
