RHS Chelsea Flower Show: Ula Maria’s Muscular Dystrophy UK Garden
Sponsored by Project Giving Back, built by Crocus
All the works were painted during the Chelsea Flower show 2024 and 50% of the sale of the works will go to MD UK.
Please note all works are now sold. If you would like to receive a catalogue of work for my solo show opening 3rd July 2024, please email me here
It was a peaceful and particular pleasure to paint in Ula’s garden. Undercurrents of ideas flowed through the garden such as her planting and architectural choices including the references to muscle cells in the reclaimed flint wall at the back of the space being echoed by larger spacial division as muscular dystrophy occurs in the planting of the birch trees behind the close set stone.
Having experienced a moment of being told extreme bad news with my family in a hospital and then walking out and sitting in a car, I identified with Ula’s desire to create a calm and relaxing space where people could spend time and engage with a diagnosis surrounded by the reassuring presence of nature. One of the primary references for the garden was the Japanese practice of Shinrin-yoku (forest bathing) and more than 40 trees created an airy forest like atmosphere. The garden will now be relocated to The Prince & Princess of Wales Hospice in Glasgow.
Photography by Rebekah Kennington for MD UK, RHS Chelsea