My debut solo exhibition & residency
‘A love letter to nature’
‘From the foldE’
botanical Alchemy’
by
Fiona Pickles
is now closed.
ABout The exhibition
Throughout the four month long exhibition & residency
I explored the alchemic transformation of botanics into new art forms.
Straddling autumn and winter, it ran from November 2023 to February 2024.
embracing the natural light
Treasure journal
‘It filled me with inspiration, such beauty in nature - it made me feel grounded. Fiona is an alchemist weaving her magic through print, paper and the natural world. It’s a must visit’.
Jane D
‘What Fiona and the gallery team have pulled together in this beautiful space was beyond my imagination.
A true distillation of her passions, her soul and her style. It’s a love letter to nature and the beauty of autumn and winter, embracing the textures and forms of botanicals.’
Vicky H
Embracing winter
With the pretty flowers largely gone, I celebrated imperfections in nature and encouraged you to look at things differently. Unwanted materials were repurposed, the unloved and unexpected transformed into objects of beauty.
residency workspace
Celebrating the beauty of fading botanicals with found objects
embracing things most people walk past or discard.
I’ve long adored the unwanted, unloved and unexpected (fondly known as #lovelydeadcrap on Instagram 😆💪) and being resident every week enabled me to utterly immerse myself in that as I created, melded & added; exploring textures & shapes.
‘Lovely delicate appreciation of nature - plants, leaves, flowers, wood, things that exist transformed into the ephemeral. Loved meeting you, I'll be back for more inspiration.’
Annie F
‘Such beauty in nature! We enjoyed the exhibition very much and will come again. it inspires you to look at nature in a different way’
Ian & Lena B
Archival prints are available.
The gallery was gradually filled with a wide mixture of materials and media.
Weeds transformed into wall art; sculptures formed from dandelion clocks; prints of my work; handmade paper, experimental mark making with rust, earth and plants; installations and seasonal arrangements made to fade.
Each object handcrafted to reveal its grounded identity, an imperfect and often unconventionally beautiful part of nature transformed into new shapes and forms.
‘Had an awful experience today and then this - an illumination of the good! I need more!’
Barry J
events during the exhibition.
‘In Conversation’ event
Preview Night.
‘Focusing on nature helps me focus on the present. I love how the exhibition shows the beauty to the very end of life.’
Rebecca
The exhibition took place in The Everybody Gallery within a Grade II listed textile mill, is part of the wider complex of Shaw Lodge Mills, home to a range of businesses and creatives.
‘Fabulous to look at things in such a different way - love the use of plant materials in many forms and the deconstruction. Thank you’