Lines of Beauty
By Tavie T (L6)
At the beginning of the Trinity Term, the Wirth Gallery was transformed into a space of artistic reflection and natural beauty as Mr Lloyd, Head of Art, unveiled his latest exhibition, Pathways. The exhibition showcased a series of paintings exploring the rich and layered essence of hedgerows. 
In a unique collaboration, Mr Lloyd partnered with Simon Hibbert, Head of Garden and Grounds at Sherborne Girls, who contributed written reflections drawn from his experiences as a “journeyman” gardener. His words accompanied the paintings, weaving together art and landscape, memory and lived experience.
Each painting was created entirely from memory, allowing Mr Lloyd to capture his emotional and sensory response to the landscape rather than creating a literal representation. The result is a body of work that is both nostalgic and contemporary.
With the look and feel of a photograph, the paintings convey a heightened realism, yet the surfaces reveal soft, subtle brush strokes that create a painterly texture, inviting the audience to look more closely. Layers of translucent colour build a sense of depth and dimension, echoing the density and richness of the hedgerows themselves. The compositions are full of vibrant hues – fresh greens, the creamy-white of cow parsley and shades of purple and lilac – all of which evoke the intensity of spring.
What sets these paintings apart is the interplay between clarity and abstraction. While details of individual flowers are immediately obvious, they are balanced by areas of suggestion and atmosphere, reflecting the way memory can blur edges while preserving feeling and minute detail. This gives the paintings an almost dreamlike quality: an echo of something once seen, now reimagined through oil paint.
To step into the gallery is to step into a space where the natural world is displayed with intimacy and depth, and where the boundaries between observation and recollection are perfectly blurred. Mr Lloyd has created paintings of modern beauty and nostalgic impact, representing the quiet yet powerful celebration of the hedgerow as a living, breathing subject exploding with life, memory and colour.
This was an incredible exhibition, with a beauty that enabled you to lose yourself in the presence of nature and step away from the noise and frenetic pace of the modern world.
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