John Nash | The Woodpile

As a keen plantsman, John Nash was familiar with nature’s unpredictable tendencies... Inevitably, his horticultural practise informed his artistic practise and vice versa. Andrew Lambirth, author of ‘John Nash: Artist & Countryman’, summarises Nash’s intuitive depiction of the natural world: ‘Painting was about shaping but not forcing nature into a pattern … seeking the abstract structure beneath the surface detail, and interpreting without forfeiting character. Echo, rhythm, repetition were sought out, but not emptied of meaning or naturalness.’