The Singapore *Garden Festival at Gardens By the
Bay, where I took a booth to show and sell my paintings, has just ended.
The
biennale featured eye-catching garden themes and exquisite floral
displays by acclaimed landscape and garden designers from around the
world.
Check out these links to know more about the festival and international award-winning Gardens By the Bay:
Sustainability and energetics of the conservatories; functions of the 'supertrees';
The Flower Dome;
The Cloud Forest, biodiversity of plants; indoor waterfall;
The Heritage Gardens that tell, through the story of plants, Singapore's history and culture.
For me, the nine days have been exciting, exhausting, sometimes hectic,
sometimes quiet... I had never met and enjoyed speaking with so many people in
one day as I did on each of the days at SGF.
Plants and gardens
enthusiasts all, they came... hot, sweaty and happy from the botanic galore, alone
or with friends or family. Several bought my paintings and art cards, many were
curious and wanted to find out more, or stopped to browse my work.
Of course, there were huge throngs among some 300,000 visitors who packed the garden festival who were totally
uninterested in, or oblivious to the existence of, a non-gardening theme. After all, if your
purpose was to view the impressive permanent or temporary attractions including more than 2,000 varieties of orchids–collaborations of art, science and nature–and you’re spoilt for choice over which lush
species within the scores of booths to add to your plants collection,
you’re not likely to be drawn to 2-D paintings.
All in all, it was an enriching experience for me. I’m
encouraged by the people who connected with my work, grateful for the interesting conversations we generated.
 |
View from my booth. |
Thank goodness, during the lull periods I had the delightful company of Praema Raghavan and Lee Gilbert, the only artists besides me exhibiting at the Festival. We toed and froed between our booths, one at each end of the colonnade, and that helped shorten the 12-hour days.
The festival spread over nine plants-filled days, mostly sunny.....
(Don't be fooled by the empty colonnade, the crowds are hiding....somewhere....)
... and casual ..
.... haunting music and
balmy, enchanting nights....
What a feast.
*Update 3 Oct 2014: This year's garden festival won the International Garden Tourism Achievement of the Year award, at the
Gardens Without Limits Conference held in Metz, France.