Celebration of summer at Torbay Hospital HeArts gallery

Published: 30 May 2024

The summer exhibition at Torbay Hospital’s HeArts gallery is Flower Power; a celebration of flowers, native plants, trees and the seasons by Devon artist Jude Freeman.

Jude describes her inspiration for the exhibition, which will be on display from Monday 10 June to Thursday 15 August: “My earliest recollection is being in a garden surrounded by grass and plants nearly as tall as me. That feeling, a mixture of curiosity and elation still colours my response to nature which I explore through drawing, painting and print.

“In making work I look to recapture this original vision of my existence within the bigger picture of the natural world. In field studies of butterflies painted on the wing and etchings of native wild flowers and gardens, I set out to respond to my environment capturing something in and of the moment.”

‘Midsummer’, an etching, will be on display, which was also expanded into an entrance mural for the new Dartmouth Health and Wellbeing Centre last year.

Jude’s work, mostly copper plate etchings, have been made over the past decade. Some have been exhibited nationally at the Mall Galleries, RWA Bristol and Pallant House.

Work on show is accompanied by Haiku written by the artist. In combination with the prints, these short poems attempt to convey something miraculous glimpsed in the everyday world around us wherever we care to look, whether on common ground, in pavement cracks or gardens.

Jude Freeman has lived on Dartmoor for twenty years, working outdoors and walking the moor daily. Flowers, plants and trees are an eternal source of inspiration and joy and through close observation, through noticing, as with everything understanding grows.