On November 8 enjoy the third in the Gardens Trust series on gardens of the French Riviera. This ticket is for this individual session and costs £5, or you may purchase a ticket for the entire course of 4 sessions at a cost of £16 via the link here. Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days prior to the start of the talk, and again a few hours before the talk. A link to the recorded session (available for 1 week) will be sent shortly afterwards.
This lecture takes us from the Impressionist desire to catch light effects with a focus on Renoir at Les Collettes where he saved its ancient olive groves and entertained fellow artists. In direct contrast Beatrice d’Ephrussi represented all Renoir disliked, she dynamited part of Cap Ferrat to create a world of colourful, geometric gardens, hiring and firing a legion of architects and gardeners. The landscape of the Fondation Maeght (below) presents and represents the heart and soul of contemporary art and sculpture, a canvas of light and shade that is at the same time an inspiring setting. If contemporary art serves its purpose it should evoke excitement (or horror) and excite your critical faculties which leads us into the contrasting studio gardens of Arman and Bernar Vernet. The former by invitation and the latter still his atelier and inspiration.
Caroline Holmes is an experienced and accomplished lecturer working for a wide range of organisations including leading tour and cruise operators. She is an Accredited Lecturer of The Arts Society and is also a Course Director for the University of Cambridge Institute of Continuing Education. Her own gardens are open to the public and have featured in many magazine articles and on television in both Britain and Japan. Since the 1990s she has been researching, writing about and lecturing on the Riviera. Caroline is author of 12 books, her latest being Where the wildness pleases – the English garden celebrated (2021).
