The Glory of the Garden

( above; painting by contemporary artist George Birrel)

The Glory of the Garden


Today has been spent in the garden. There was no rain, some wind, and not too much heat, perfect for working in the garden. I began thinking about something many of us participated in back on Multiply. 

( above; tea in the garden by James Guthrie, Scottish artist)

Every Wednesday we posted a poem and the post was called (collectively) Poetry Wednesday. One poem that really took my fancy was this one By Kipling, I seem to remember posting it several times and every time I included paintings of gardens by different artists.  
( above, Bessie MacNicol, Scottish artist, 'a girl of the 60's') 

Anyhow…………..today I began thinking of it again, I can’t remember which paintings I originally posted with it but today I’ve chosen a couple of gardens buy different Scottish Artists.

( above; A Hinds daughter, James Githrie, Scottish artist 1859-1930) 

The Poem; The Glory of the garden by Rudyard Kipling

OUR country is a garden that is full of stately views,
Of borders, beds and shrubberies and lawns and avenues,
With statues on the terraces and peacocks strutting by;
But the Glory of the Garden lies in more than meets the eye.
For where the old thick laurels grow, along the thin red wall,
You'll find the tool- and potting-sheds which are the heart of all
The cold-frames and the hot-houses, the dung-pits and the tanks,
The rollers, carts, and drain-pipes, with the barrows and the planks.
( above cottage by Largo by George Lesley Hunter)

And there you'll see the gardeners, the men and 'prentice boys
Told off to do as they are bid and do it without noise ;
For, except when seeds are planted and we shout to scare the birds,
The Glory of the Garden abides not in the words.
And some can pot begonias and some can bud a rose,
And some are hardly fit to trust with anything that grows ;
But they can roll and trim the lawns and sift the sand and loam,
For the Glory of the Garden occupies  all who come.
(Above contemporary Scottish painter George Birrel) 

Our country is a garden, and such gardens are not made
By singing:-" Oh, how beautiful," and sitting in the shade
While better men than we go out and start their working lives
At grubbing weeds from gravel-paths with broken dinner-knives.
There's not a pair of legs so thin, there's not a head so thick,
There's not a hand so weak and white, nor yet a heart so sick
But it can find some needful job that's crying to be done,
For the Glory of the Garden glories every one.
Above; contemporary Scottish painter George Birrel)

Then seek your job with thankfulness and work till further orders,
If it's only netting strawberries or killing slugs on borders;
And when your back stops aching and your hands begin to harden,
You will find yourself a partner in the Glory of the Garden.
Oh yes, man  was born a gardener, and thankfully he sees
That half a proper gardener's work is done upon his knees,
So when your work is finished, you can wash your hands and play
And hopefully this Glory,  may never pass away!

 ( above George Lesley Hunter Scottish colourist) 

and finally; Sweet Blosson by Edward Atkinson Hornel

Sir James Guthrie (10 June 1859 – 6 September 1930) was a Scottish Painter best known in his own lifetime for his portraiture although today more generally regarded as a painter of Scottish Realism.

Tea in the Garden and A Hind's Daughter - Sir James Guthrie painted at Cockburnspath, East Berwickshire (1883)


Bessie MacNicol (1869 – 1907) was a important woman painter in Glasgow at the start of the 20th century. She was an artist respected by her contemporaries and exhibited in Scotland and London, in several European cities and at Pittsburg and St Louis in the USA.

A girl of the 60’s painted 1899
George Lesley Hunter

Hunter was born in Rothesay, a town on the west coast Scottish Isle of Bute, in 1877.

he died in a Glasgow nursing home in December 1931, aged just 54.

Cottage, near Largo by G.L.Hunter (c.1920)

Edward Atkinson Hornel (1864–1933) was a Scottish painter Artist 

Sweet blosson

 George BIRRELL

George Birrell was born in 1950. He trained at the Glasgow School of Art (1967 - 1971) and was involved with the Hospitalfield Summer School in 1970.

http://www.redraggallery.co.uk/print-george-birrell.asp



Ian Hamilton Finlay's Little Sparta: An Artist's Garden

Andrew Dickson visits Little Sparta, for 40 years the home and studio of Scottish artist Ian Hamilton Finlay, who was also a poet, writer and gardener. Richard Ingleby, co-owner of the Ingleby Gallery in Edinburgh, takes us on a tour of the garden in the Pentland Hills, which is filled with the artist's work. The exhibition Ian Hamilton Finlay: Twilight Remembers is at the Ingleby Gallery until 27 October 2012