The Autumn/Winter edition of ventnorensis is at the printers and your copy will be dropping through the letterbox very soon.  If you can’t wait you can read one of the very interesting articles here!

The winter season of lectures will start on Friday 2 November with an illustrated talk by Simon Goodenough.

We were delighted to receive an invitation from the Royal Parks Guild for our apprentice gardeners to take part in the creation of this exhibition project at Osborne House.

During the unveiling ceremony on 12 June one of our apprentices, George Tyler, joined with two Osborne House trainees, Catherine Mawdesley and Rose Greves, to read a poem by the Isle of Wight poet, David Thornton.  George worked on the landscaping and planting of the area with children from The Bay CE Primary School in Sandown.

The new area in the Walled Garden entitled ‘Battlefield to Butterflies’ commemorates the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War and is in remembrance of the garden and ground staff who worked in the Royal Parks and died in the war.  The gardens at Osborne House were part of the Royal Parks at that time.

Battlefields to Butterflies

The battlefields of World War One,
A shell-shocked no man’s land,
Where Death walked through the trenches,
And took each soldiers hand.

A battered, shattered, hostile land,
Of sorrow, pain and fear,
And prayers that soon the war would end,
Perhaps by Spring next year.

Then in this muddy battlefield,
A butterfly appears,
Wings of white, with bright red tips
Of blood wept through the years.

It flits across the British trenches,
Over no man’s land,
And rests upon a Gatling gun,
Close to a German’s hand.

The soldier pauses for a while,
To gaze upon this sight,
This fragile beauty fills his heart,
With joy far from the fight.

And now so many years have passed,
In time the land has healed,
For seeds of peace have been released,
Across the battlefield.

Poppies grow where blood was shed,
And dance against blue skies,
Now nature’s forces are deployed,
Six million butterflies.

Johnny Grimshaw describes himself as someone born a long time ago living on the Isle of Wight.

He says he is a ‘chromatic poet’ rather than a painter and is far more in contact with songwriters and musicians rather than other visual artists.

He paints every day.

He says- ‘When I write songs I wrap words around my thoughts, when I’m in my studio I cloth them and all paints’.

This chapter of work pays attention to his visual response influenced by song lyrics and music created primarily by local musicians and song writers. Also on show are studies of his wife Shukim who has modelled for him for the past fifty years.

Johnny paints entirely in oils. ‘It’s like riding on the upper deck of a bus, travelling around the world and you see a million images but only at a quick glance, a momentary glimpse at another person’s reason for being’.

Angelina his daughter comments, ‘in this style of working there is no time afforded the background study or even positively identifiable features. Therefore for this very reason he offers only the likeness of shape, imagery and atmospheric location and does not intrude upon or attempt to finalise an ongoing composition, a piece of poetry which he himself has been momentarily privy to glimpse. In a symbolic way he hands the viewer loaded paintbrush to let him or her complete this work for the fulfilment of their own imagination.’

If you are interested and wish to know more about this exhibition or Johnny Grimshaw’s collections and commissions inquiries please contact angelinagrimshaw@yahoo.co.uk.