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12 January – 6 April 2008
Sketching from Nature:
'perceptions of the beauty of the natural world' |
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The idea for this exhibition has grown from the educational workshops run by the staff of the Ruskin Library for primary school children (seven to eleven year olds). The workshops are loosely based on the theme of the natural world, and aspire to introduce young people to Ruskin and his work and ideas, and to apply his teaching methods in a practical way. The exhibition includes drawings by children from Garstang Community Primary School, alongside that of Ruskin’s own students. There will also be a video showing one of our workshops in action. If you would like further details of our school workshops, have a look at our Schools pages.
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Drawings by children from Year 6,
Garstang Community Primary School |
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For Ruskin the Natural world around him was a continual source of inspiration. It remained a consistent theme of his work throughout his life. A fascination for the beauty of living things and living landscapes is expressed every day in his drawings, writings and correspondence. The exhibition will display a selection of pictures from the collection which show his use of images from the natural world for teaching, and pleasure. He encouraged friends and family to draw what they saw around them and some of their sketches and drawings will be shown.
Ruskin ate slept and breathed the natural world – it was his life, and everything he did resonates with a deep seated understanding of it. This exhibition hopes to show some aspects of his interactions with the natural world around him and his attempts to share his fascination and knowledge with his friends, contemporaries, students and readers.
If you would like to see more of our botanical drawings, look at our Ruskin's Flora exhibition page, and our expanding illustrated catalogue of botanical drawings.
Images from the Ruskin Library Collection, illustrated on this page, :
Top - John Ruskin: Tree Study, Vevay (left); John Ruskin: Path at Brantwood (right): Bottom: Emily Warren: Red Lilies
