Unashamedly bold and exotic

In Skylark Galleries 1, Shyama Ruffell is showing her vibrant flower & fern paintings

"I’ve always loved tropical leaf shapes, especially ferns, palms and cacti. They are unashamedly bold and exotic. Linear and sharp from California to Cornwall like green fireworks they punctuate the sky and evoke in me memories from holidays of old. Images of over exposed polaroid snaps, olive oil, garlic, cotton towels and sandy sandals. Then in the deep shadows there are softer lush rippling ferns that flow out from the cool shade like green streams, or in feather-like plumes." Shyama works from her garden studio in Brighton amongst her very own urban jungle. The planting has little to no rules, it has developed with an eclectic mixture of banana and tree ferns all jostling for space next to daises, St Johns wort, rhubarb, palms, yuccas and a huge fatsia Japonica (castor oil plant). From the tall and tropical to the small and delicate, everything is intertwined together in true jungle fashion. A constant source of inspiration with its eclectic, uncultured ever changing displays .