Volume 2, Issue 7
Edward Bawden's Kew Gardens
by Peyton Skipwith and Brian Webb
reviewed by Rebecca Alexander

The book Edward Bawden’s Kew Gardens by Peyton Skipwith and Brian Webb (V & A Publishing, 2014) defies easy categorization. Bawden was a renowned British illustrator, graphic artist, and painter who served as an official War Artist during World War II. He and his contemporary Eric Ravilious studied with surrealist landscape painter and engraver Paul Nash, and his influence can be felt in Bawden’s lively calligraphic line, and his modernist approach to landscapes and cityscapes. Until exploring this book, I was most familiar with his posters for London Transport, depicting sights and scenes around London.

The first section of the book reproduces Bawden’s very early manuscript (created when he was just twenty), A General Guide to the Royal Botanic Gardens  Kew, Spring and Easter 1923. The second section is a brief but eccentric sociocultural history of Kew, incorporating Kew-inspired illustrations, verse, and humor. The third section is a selection of Bawden’s wry illustrations for Robert Herring’s Adam and Evelyn at Kew. The last section summarizes his lifelong artistic fascination with Kew. Those who are interested in 20th century art and the history of Kew will find it a fascinating book to read and savor.

Lake, Lattice, and Stone: Requiem for a Garden
Lollie Groth exhibit opens July 23

From the artist: Lake, Lattice, Stone: Requiem for a Garden seeks to celebrate my mother’s Northwest garden as well as the neighborhood of Union Bay and the marsh she grew up on, and walked past on her way to classes at the UW in the early forties.  Although my parents and their home and garden are gone now, memories of water lilies and geese, of garden gates and hydrangea, remain.  Through image and text, through monotype and artifact, journal entries and poems, a celebration of a garden’s life takes form.

Lollie (Lali) Groth is a printmaker and mixed media artist who has shown extensively in Hawaii. In 2009 she received the John Young Award for Excellence in Monotype from Honolulu Printmakers.  Currently, she lives on Vashon Island and works out of the studio at Quartermaster Press.

Her work will be on display in the library July 23 through September 3, 2015. Please join us for an opening reception Thursday, July 23, from 5 to 7 pm.

Summer Challenge students return to
University of Washington Botanic Gardens

For the fifth year, staff and students at the Center for Urban Horticulture will work with fifth and sixth grade students for one day as part of The Incredible World of Plants for the UW’s Robinson Center for Young Scholars Summer Challenge.

Students will take a tour of the gardens and the library, work together to determine the management needs of different kinds of landscapes, watch a film about bees, and mount pressed plant specimens.

New to the Library June 2015

Transforming science into best practice: restoring process in Kincaid Ravine by Matt Schwartz
The University of Washington student perception of the Washington Park Arboretum by Eve Rickenbaker
Growth and development of two species of Sisyrinchium and their hybrids from Southern Central Washington and Northern Central Oregon by Christopher Keola Wong