Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
SRGC Shows and Events => Events => Topic started by: Maggi Young on January 04, 2009, 04:13:31 PM
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Auction of Paintings by Lawrence Greenwood
At the Dunblane Early Bulb Display.
Several paintings by Lawrence Greenwood will be exhibited and auctioned at the Early Bulb Day in Dunblane on 21st February 2009.
They form part of the collection of the late Carol Scott who was a long time member of the club. Like many members, Carol was an enthusiastic collector of Lawrence's work. Her family realises that paintings by Lawrence will be most appreciated by members who knew him and want to offer them to club members. This will be a rare opportunity for lovers of Lawrence Greenwood's work to add to their collections. Part of the money realised will be donated to SRGC funds.
A painting by Carolyn Rockwood is also included in the auction.
It is hoped that a few paintings by Keith Brockie, whose work was held in high regard by Lawrence, will be auctioned at the same time.
The paintings can be viewed on the morning of the event and will be sold either before or after the afternoon lectures.
(The late Lawrence Greenwood was an artist of exceptional talent whose work has been mentioned and pictured elsewhere in these pages.)
"Snapshot" photos of the works on offer will be posted here. Anyone wishing to see a larger file size photo of a work can apply to me and I will email it to them.
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Campanula morettiana alba
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Crocus baytopiorum
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Erythronium americanum
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Gentiana verna angulosa
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Iris reticulata
This one is by Carolyn Rockwood
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Primula edgeworthii
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Primula reidii
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Rhododendron williamsianum
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Trillium albidum
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Wonderful paintings by a superb artist and a lovely man. Oh that I could have afforded to buy some of his masterpieces when I had the opportunity in the late 1980's/early 1990's.
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Beautiful Maggi, absolutely beautiful. Can you give us any idea of the prices these works would likely fetch on the open market?
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I can give you an indication of original prices, David. Lawrence's images varied between £100 and £200 circa 1990.
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Perhaps slightly more for the prices when Lawrence was alive, David, depending on size etc. In the hands of a dealer in London, or in a specialised sale, the prices could get very high indeed but this is in effect, a private opportunity and so who knows, there may be bargains to be had ??!!??
I have not been told as yet whether there will be reserve prices on the items. I'll keep you updated as I learn more.
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Thanks Maggi, the information would be useful although I think the cost would probably bite too much out of my bulb buying budget. Ah! the old economic problem '............ ends and scarce means that have alternative uses' ;D
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Can't wait now, for Dunblane, Maggi. These paintings are superb and it will be a thrill to see them and drool a little though I doubt I can afford to put in any bids.
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How I wish I could be there! My only picture by LG (Tulipa linifolia) and bought from him at the Alpines 81 conference, was given to an English friend who died very soon after. I've no idea where it may be now.
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I can only echo Cliff's words ,he was a lovely man and it was a delight to talk to him and his wife at the shows. I hope whoever buys them gets great pleasure from them.
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34 days to go......
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Only 12 days to go now!
A bit more news about the paintings to be auctioned at Dunblane Early Bulb Day......
There will be a few by Keith Brockie, I'm told, though I have no photos of these...... I'm thinking they will be mostly of birds.....given Brockie's favourite subject matter and Carol Scotts' enthusiasms. 8)
There will be a reserve price on each painting of £150 ....... anyone serious about bidding but unable to attend, please email me at info@srgc.org.uk
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I gave a lecture this evening to a very enthusiastic group (45+) of people belonging to Todmorden Natural History Society and it was wonderful to greet Lilian Greenwood to the meeting. She looks very well and has hardly changed since I first met her in 1986. Oh, that I could say the same! :D
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Oh, Cliff, Lillian is one of my favourite people, if I'd known you would see her I'd have sent big hugs to her!
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Many thanks to all those who bid and bought at the Auction. All the paintings went to good new homes where I think they will give much pleasure. The SRGC will be given a percentage of the monies taken and will thus benefit by several hundred pounds. Excellent result!
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I agree Maggi. I was disappointed not to get the Primula, but it did fetch the highest bid!
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Is it out of order to ask what sort of prices they attracted? I seriously thought about it but what with crocuses, seeds, irises et al, bought this summer, it was impossible.
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Can't remember all, Lesley, but top price was £305 for the Primula edgworthii and the others went from £150 to £270
Some had had lower reserves put on them , there were about seven of Keith Brockie's works included. These were not paintings mostly but two small pen and ink drawings, one a puffin . A wonderful little pencil portrait of a Wren, which went for £220, larger multi-studies,one in pencil of swans and another with a watercolour of some flowers and bugs which went for less. The Greenwoods were all happily contested by several bidders each time and I reckon were all bargain buys, even at those prices!
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I am able to give the prices fetched for the paintings we showed on the first page of this thread......one or two had been withdrawn. Primula reidii £170
Rhododendron williamsianum £190 Crocus baytopiorum £270 Gentiana verna angulosa £150 Trillium albidum £195 Primula edgeworthii £305
Carolyn Rockwood's Iris reticulata fetched £50
The various Keith Brockie works raneged from £50 to £220
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Oh blast! I could have just about stretched to the P. reidii which was my personal choice. Of course I don't know how much higher the winner may have gone to obtain it. I thought they would have gone for quite a lot more than that. I'm sure you would have liked Maggi, to be nodding your head with a phone glued to your ear?
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I think it would have gone for more , Lesley, hope that's a consolation ?
I expect I could have juggled a pen, paper and a phone if the need had arisen :-\ I was the auctioneer's clerk. :)
I think all the prices fetched were a good deal for the buyers and it was something different for Bulb Day.
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Returning to this topic after so many years with this link … a magnificent painting by Lawrence on Page Three of this link.
http://seedmagazine.com/slideshow/art_of_plant_evolution/ (http://seedmagazine.com/slideshow/art_of_plant_evolution/)
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At the moment I can't open that link but this is an interesting thread. I have a book of Keith Brockie's (on the Isle of May) and his sketches are wonderful and the plant portraits sound as they must have been too. What an exciting auction this must have been. How interesting to relate this to the bulb sale and gardening, and how relevant this might be when comparing it with the note on prospective new television programmes on plants and gardens on another section of the website. The thought occurs to me that many alpine growers also have great artistic expertise with brush and camera, as well as with plants in their gardens, and making something of this - ie: like an art exhibition - could be fascinating and put what we do in a different light. Another hare-brained scheme for the future. I'm interested in some of the historical connections with alpine gardening - thus Jim Archibald's sketch in the AGS Bulletin, Laura Louise Foster's sketch of Millstream, Daffodils in an Essex garden from Amateur Gardening of 1910, and the fascinating picture of Dr. Keith Lamb's raised beds in his garden in Ireland (shown a year or two ago at the Hillside Centre at Wisley). What an intriguing heritage this could be to celebrate in some way and associate with alpine gardening now - and really independant of the AGS or SRGC or any other society - simply an expression of artistry.
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This is the title picture we used for an exhibition of Rosemary Powis' paintings at the March 2012 Rainham Show. Rosemary was long time secretary of the East Kent AGS Group and a fine amateur botanical artist. We prepared this exhibit to celebrate her skill and long time contributions to the AGS, especially locally to our Groups.
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I'll add the pdf to Rosemary's exhibit as a jpg, Tim.......
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The image on the link mentioned above that Tim could not access:-
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That's a wonderful painting Cliff. Do you know the media used for it?
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Fascinating painting - thanks Cliff. It reminds me of some actual photographs of trilliums (individually selected plants with especially striking foliage patterns) that Kevin Hughes showed us in one of his talks. They are the most wonderful plants and teach patience to gardeners, not a feature of much of the horticultural world at times - or the world in general. It has taken us 20 years or more before getting good clumps of trillium in the garden, but if we displayed these down at the market in Faversham I think few people would have any idea of the time factor in gardening with them! An artist friend who lives locally paints similar - but different - very detailed canvasses of plants and rural subjects, and did some remarkable paintings at Sissinghurst quite a while ago, particularly one I remember that showed the nursery area behind the scenes (very appealing to me). She is a close friend of Sarah Cook, a previous head gardener at Sissinghurst, and her paintings mirrored in their technical detail the same technical detail of making a garden like Sissinghurst. Rosemary Powis mostly painted flowers but she also painted an amazing and accurate portrait of brussel sprouts! (She was a fine cook and vegetable gardener as well as a plantslady and wonderfully efficient secretary to our Group).
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That's a wonderful painting Cliff. Do you know the media used for it?
Lawrence's flower paintings are all in watercolour, Chris. Other works of his I have seen were also in watercolour.
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The depth of colour achieved is just super, hard to believe its watercolour!