Adam Stoner

 

The garden is a place of peace; of yearly renewal; of beauty and decay, growth and dormancy. But it is also a place of human intrigue – of secret encounters, childhood memories, autumn smoke breaks, and mysteries buried beneath the soil. For this year’s 30x30x30 exhibition I created a series of 6x6 oil paintings entitled City of Walled Gardens, a journey through man-made microcosms of nature; intricately sculpted, quiet places secreted away behind stone facades and wooden trellises. Drawing on the dimly lit gardens of Fra Angelico, the damp tsuyu street scenes of Hasui Kawase, and the smooth forms of medieval Romanesque architecture, this series explores intimate spaces framed by the rainy city. Latticed windows obscure darkened interiors; winding beech trunks bend around corners; lanterns illuminate shadowy figures embracing behind the bushes; foxes slink under the fence to eye the chickens.