Boomerang Community Centre Garden project Summary by Julie Campbell, Illustrator.

Plants and landscapes are one of my very favorite things to draw, so when I saw the opportunity to apply for a project drawing images of the Boomerang Community Centre Garden development I leapt at the chance!

The RSPB were working in partnership to develop a garden area at the Centre, planting native species to create a wonderful sensory garden and attract birds and pollinators, and were looking for someone to create a current and future illustrated vision of the site.

My first task was to carry out a site visit to take pictures and measurements, and to have a project meeting with the RSPBs Lindsey Gibb. There I saw firsthand what a wonderful welcoming, inclusive place the community centre is, and well used by the local residents.

With Lindsey’s comprehensive planting plan and guidance, I researched the species selected, and put together two illustrations: what the site would look like not long after planting, and then another illustration portraying what the garden could look like in 5 to 10 years. I also used the opportunity to bring in some wildlife images to show how the site could be a home for local wildlife.

A wonderful project to be part of, and I look forward to visiting the garden in the future as all the plants grow.

Towards the end of February I had the opportunity to exhibit work from my project What Lies Beneath: Revealing Hidden Landscapes at The Green Gallery in Dundee Botanic Gardens. The exhibition came together at short notice after I stepped in to fill an available slot, which meant there was limited time for promotion. Even so, the chance to present the work in a dedicated gallery space was hugely valuable.

What Lies Beneath is an ongoing project that uses aerial photography to explore how Scotland’s landscapes are shaped by land use and human activity. Photographed from directly above, the images remove the traditional horizon associated with landscape photography, revealing patterns, textures and traces of human presence that are often overlooked from the ground.

Seeing the photographs together on the wall gave me a fresh perspective on the project. Being able to curate the installation myself created an opportunity to experiment with placement and the relationships between images, revealing connections in pattern, texture and subject that are not always obvious when viewed in isolation.

While visitor numbers were modest, partly due to the time of year and the gallery’s location within the gardens where access can occasionally be a little complicated, this was balanced by the opportunity to attend the Art & Nature Collective AGM during the exhibition period. Walking down to the gallery with other members and sharing the work in person led to thoughtful conversations and very encouraging feedback.

The response to the work has given me a real boost in confidence and reinforced the direction the project is taking. Just as importantly, the exhibition helped me connect with other members of the Collective, and several conversations have already begun around potential collaborations and future opportunities.

Although modest in scale, the exhibition proved to be a valuable step for the project. It offered the chance to see the work as a coherent body and to reflect on where What Lies Beneath might go next.

Visit: https://whatliesbeneath.uk

Richard Cross March 2026

Kevin Frediani, Co-Director, Art & Nature Collective
January 2026 – House of Dun, Montrose, Angus

Art has never been something I have practised in the formal sense, yet it has shaped my working life for decades. Through years spent alongside artists – supporting, facilitating, and witnessing their encounters with the living world – I have come to understand art not as an object or an outcome, but as a kind of time machine. It collapses distance. It binds the viewer to the artist, regardless of when the work was made or when it is encountered. And it reveals, with startling clarity, the moment in which material, imagination, and intention first met.

Art, in this sense, is not simply created; it comes into being through a dialogue between artist and medium. The medium, whether pigment, clay, wood, fibre, or the unruly “mess” of nature, has agency of its own. It pushes back, surprises, resists, collaborates. The artist’s gestures are never solitary. They are shaped by wind, grain, moisture, texture, decay, and the countless more‑than‑human forces that inhabit the world. What emerges is not a static artefact but a record of relationship: a trace of the encounter between human and material, intention and accident, presence and place.

When nature becomes the medium, this relationship deepens. The work is no longer merely about nature; it is with nature. The artist enters into a reciprocal exchange with the living world, and the resulting piece carries that entanglement forward. Viewers, in turn, do not simply look at such work – they feel it. They sense the weathering of bark, the weight of stone, the softness of moss, the slow patience of growth. Their bodies respond before their minds interpret. In that moment of sensual recognition, perception shifts, and the viewer becomes part of the same unfolding story.

This is the magic of being.

Anthropologist Tim Ingold speaks of the “track” or “trace” as the mark left by movement through the world – a way of knowing and inhabiting space. Art, especially when rooted in nature, functions in much the same way. It leaves marks on us. It waymarks our emotional landscapes. It helps us orient ourselves in relation to place, to others, and to the more‑than‑human world. These traces accumulate, shaping how we dwell, how we remember, and how we imagine.

Through the work of the Art & Nature Collective, I have seen how these traces can transform not only individuals but places themselves. A woodland clearing becomes a site of encounter. A shoreline becomes a canvas of tides and hands. A garden becomes a living archive of care. Through artistic engagement, spaces become places, imbued with emotion, memory, and meaning. They become part of our becoming, just as we become part of theirs.

A Deep Time Walk at Dun
The landscapes around the House of Dun offer a vivid example of how embodied knowledge emerges through sustained engagement with place. Walking through its glacial contours, raised beaches, and remnant woodlands, one begins to sense the depth of time held in the land. The path beneath the feet is not a simple trail but a palimpsest of histories:

stone shaped by ice,
lichen‑mapped boulders older than memory,
tree roots tracing centuries of growth,
animal tracks crossing human footprints,
grasses whispering the weather of generations.

As I walk these landscapes in my role as steward of this historic and cultural environment, the place reveals itself slowly. My stride adjusts to the slope. My breath synchronises with the rhythm of the land. My senses widen, hearing the distant burn, smelling resin, noticing the shift in light as clouds pass. This is not observation from a distance; it is correspondence, in Ingold’s sense, a mutual becoming between walker and world.

The landscape becomes a teacher.
The body becomes an instrument of memory.
Knowledge is not extracted but felt – in muscle, in balance, in breath.

In such moments, one does not simply move through deep time but moves with it. Each step becomes a conversation with the past. Each sensation becomes a thread connecting us to the more‑than‑human life around us. Through this reciprocal encounter, both person and place are transformed: the landscape becomes a lived and storied environment, and our understanding of what it means to be human is quietly re‑oriented by the experience of moving with, rather than merely through, the world.

Why This Matters for Our Collective

The Art & Nature Collective exists to nurture precisely these kinds of encounters, moments where art, nature, and human presence meet in ways that deepen understanding and belonging. Whether through collaborative making, shared walks, or reflective practice, our work helps cultivate the traces that shape how we inhabit the world.
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As we continue to grow as a community, I invite each of you to notice the marks that places leave on you, and the marks you leave in return. These exchanges – subtle, reciprocal, and often overlooked – are at the heart of the magic of being.

Further Reading

Abram, D. (1996) The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More‑Than‑Human World. Vintage Books.
Gell, A. (1998) Art and Agency: An Anthropological Theory. Oxford University Press.
Ingold, T. (2013) Making: Anthropology, Archaeology, Art and Architecture. Routledge.
Kohn, E. (2013) How Forests Think: Toward an Anthropology Beyond the Human. University of California Press.
Tuan, Y.-F. (1977) Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience. University of Minnesota Press.

Cura – a solo exhibition by Alison Philp at Green Gallery, Dundee University Botanic Gardens
From 5th until 18th January 2026, I had my first solo exhibition in the light-filled cabin space that is the Green Gallery in Dundee University Botanic Gardens

The Green Gallery is an eco-building in the form of a wooden cabin with a grass roof and large glasswindows overlooking the River Tay. Its use of natural materials and light-filled space beautifully blurs the boundaries between inside and outside. It is a particularly resonant setting for artwork rooted in close observation of the natural world.

This exhibition opportunity was made possible by the Dundee-based Art & Nature Collective, which in November 2025 put out a call specifically for artist members who had never had a solo exhibition before.

Although I have previously exhibited many times in group exhibitions, the chance to see how my work stood by itself — and in relation to one another — was both interesting and surprising. The timing of the opportunity was especially well placed, as in 2025, I received a VACMA grant from Fife Contemporary to support a short residency at St Andrews Botanic Gardens, an experience that deepened my relationship with working in and through botanical spaces.

Cura brought together several strands of my practice: drawings and paintings exploring observation, memory, and the quiet drama of natural forms; artist books with intimate, fragile pages made from translucent papers using ink and watercolour; and a single textile piece that introduced a decorative and tactile dimension to the exhibition as a whole.

I have always enjoyed experimenting with different media and ways of making – the one constant
across all the works has always been a shared attentiveness to texture, time, and the ways that close looking can become a form of care.

I was supported in curating the exhibition by my appointed mentor, Astrid Leeson, whose guidance and curatorial abilities were invaluable. The installation process allowed me to see my own work in a new way — not simply as individual pieces, but as parts that sat in relation to each other and spoke to the surrounding landscape beyond the gallery.

January was a quiet time in the gardens, but the visitors who made it along were all thoughtful and appreciative, many curious about my processes and also taking significant time with individual pieces.

My main takeaway from the exhibition was the space it gave me to see the work anew and the time it allowed me to reflect on what I have been making over the past few years. The experience of a solo exhibition has given me invaluable insights for the creation of future artworks and ultimately a greater confidence in my practice.

We’re incredibly proud to share that two members of the Art and Nature Collective are currently exhibiting at this year’s Plantae 2025 exhibition, hosted by the Society of Botanical Artists at the Mall Galleries in London.

This year’s exhibition is particularly special, marking the 40th anniversary of the Society—four decades of championing the profound beauty, complexity, and importance of plants through art. Plantae 2025 brings together an extraordinary group of botanical artists, and we’re delighted that Ines-Hermione Mulford and Marianne Hazelwood are among them.

Ines’ painting, The Elephant’s Eye, is a striking burr (or burl) oil painting that explores the intersection of texture, memory, and the quiet resilience of the natural world. 

While Marianne’s exhibiting four delicate ink pieces under the theme “Emerge”. We’re also thrilled to celebrate the remarkable achievements of Marianne Hazlewood, whose contributions to this year’s exhibition earned her three prestigious awards:

The Exhibiting Excellence Award – for the most contemporary example of botanical art

The Branded Mark Prize – recognising creative originality and artistic identity

The Making a Mark Prize – awarded for distinction in composition, technique, and communication

Marianne’s thoughtful, innovative approach to botanical art continues to push boundaries while remaining deeply rooted in scientific and aesthetic tradition. These accolades are a testament to her ongoing contribution to the field and the unique voice she brings to it.

The exhibition runs until 7th June 2025 at the Mall Galleries, and we wholeheartedly encourage you to visit if you’re in London. It’s a rare opportunity to see some of the finest contemporary botanical artwork being created today—including by two outstanding members of our own community.

Congratulations to Ines and Marianne on this wonderful recognition of your work. We’re honoured to have you as part of the Art and Nature Collective.