This week we’re talking to two artists inspired by the nature.   

Emily Young, hailed as Britain’s greatest living female stone sculptor, specialises in using materials from abandoned quarries and Francis Hamel is known for his portraiture and landscape paintings. 

Emily lives and works mostly in an isolated part of Tuscany, where she free carves in reclaimed uncut natural stone, often found in abandoned quarries. She evokes beautiful ancient figures from an unknown mythology.   Her main objective is to explore the relationship of humankind and the planet through her interaction with stone.  Her 25 new works in stone are being exhibited at Richard Green on Bond Street, in association with Willoughby Gerrish Ltd.   

Francis has lived and worked for over 25 years at Rousham, one of England’s most prized historic house and gardens. He explains how the garden at Rousham became the starting point for his exhibition when he was seeing it afresh during lockdown.  From there he went on to paint some of Britain’s best-known gardens including Sissinghurst, Great Dixter, Sezincote, and Stourhead, as well as some private ones designed by renowned gardeners like Sarah Raven, Arthur Parkinson and Tom Stuart-Smith. His exhibition of garden paintings launches at his Oxfordshire home of Rousham before moving to John Martin on London’s Albemarle Street.  

Together they talk about how they work, what inspires them and what they set out to achieve. It’s a fascinating conversation about the artistic process and highlights their similar and different approaches to stone and to paint.

Emily Young: Pareidolia in Stone from 25th October to 10th November

Richard Green https://www.richardgreen.com

Francis Hamel: Thirty Gardens from 12th to 27th October

John Martin https://www.jmlondon.com

This episode is brought to you with the kind support of support of Lomi, makers of ‘smart waste appliances’ that transform food waste into plant food.  Go to Lomi’s website at uk.lomi.com and use promo code breakout at the checkout for a £50 discount.