This bijou show is one to tell your friends about. Installed across the Garden Museum, now housed in the magnificently restored church of St Mary-at-Lambeth, Of Silence and Slow Time features a series of monumental oils and small works on paper by Beatrice Hasell-McCosh. Based between London and Cumbria, the British painter looks to natural forms and the tradition of landscape painting to explore emotional themes linked to place and human connection.
Inspired by the Cumbrian garden she grew up in, this body of new work charts the seasonal changes during the 2020 lockdown. ‘I drew comfort from the routine of making small watercolour sketches in the garden,’ she says. ‘As humans shrunk away from each other the reassuring continuity and cycle of nature became completely absorbing to me. Over a period of six months, I watched and drew from the same spots continuously seeing plants grow up, crowd together (in antithesis to human society) blooming and dying and being replaced with the new.’
As you meander around the lofty Nave, you’ll encounter verdant foliage, alliums, primulas and tulips, executed in a palette of rich, earthy hues, every which way you look. Cocooned from the hustle and bustle of London’s busy streets, you’ll experience a sense of calm immediately woosh over you. Never has the Garden Museum looked — or felt — so good.
