Art exhibition adds splash of colour Helmsley Walled Garden

ARTISTS Connie Fairweather and Margaret Rivers are contributing to the colour of the Orchid House at Helmsley Walled Garden with a staging of their paintings inspired by nature.

The exhibition runs until Sunday and can be viewed by visitors to the garden every day from 10am to 5pm.
Connie and Margaret, both from Ripon, take their inspiration from the natural world.
Connie, who trained at York School of Art in the 1960s, focuses on the wealth of beauty to be found in nature and works in several different mediums to explore and develop her ideas.
Margaret is a self-taught artist who started producing pen and ink drawings of botanical specimens to go towards a native flora when she was living in Sierra Leone.
On her return to the UK, she took a range of short courses, including a course on botanical illustration at the University of Sheffield. Both have exhibited in various locations around the region, but this is their first time exhibiting at Helmsley Walled Garden.
Tricia Harris, marketing manager, said: “We are so pleased to be able to exhibit the work of Connie Fairweather and Margaret Rivers in the wonderful setting of the Orchid House, a restored Victorian glasshouse.
“Their work, exploring themes in nature complements the Garden and the beauty to be found inside its walls. “We hope visitors will enjoy the exhibition and perhaps take a picture home as a souvenir of their visit.”