As part of Tokara’s Rare Plant Fair and Autumn Open Garden, Julia Meintjes Fine Art has launched the exhibition Rest a while which will be on view until the end of August 2022.
We’ve paired the work of photographer Helen Walne and painter Emma Nourse in response to the Rare Plant Fair, in an attempt to link Helen and Emma’s work by visual correlations of the two, with both artists depicting plants; one above and one below water.
These works are wondrous, and after a few challenging years for all of us, we wanted an exhibition filled with light and tinged with awe. Emma and Helen are both gifted conveyors of curiosity and the creation it manifests.
Emma’s works are dominated by a layering of tactility. When I went into her studio, I had to hold back the eager inclination to run my hands over the surface of her works. Emma’s works are a visual reverie with their abundance of impasto paint and layering.
In a similar responsiveness to stimulation through the senses, and as an ardent ocean swimmer with a boundless curiosity for what is beneath the icy water, I became fascinated with Helen’s work. When I met her, I immediately knew I wanted to work with her. Helen is in the water almost every day and is consistently devoted to the ocean. What she brings back to us is an astonishing tableau of the underworld gardens and creatures, what she calls the ‘underwonder.’
by Candice Cruse
*Helen Walne’s works form part of an edition and are sold unframed in mailing tubes.
