World Art Day: How artists are standing up for nature

This year’s theme is “A Garden of Expression: Cultivating Community through Art”. ‘Garden of Expression’ is an arresting phrase, a garden being the place where many people express their creativity.

Gardeners employ many of the principles that painters use when working on a canvas – angles, colours, shapes and sizes. Painters themselves are often keen gardeners. Monet’s garden in Giverny is a famous example and the late Elizabeth Blackadder’s garden in the Grange, Edinburgh, often appeared in her work.

166-year-old giant brought down

My painting, ‘Roots’ , is particularly relevant to the sustainable development section of Unesco’s statement. Storm Eowyn’s destruction of the tallest tree, a 166-year-old Himalayan cedar, in Edinburgh’s Royal Botanic Garden shocked and saddened many.

Recent wildfires in Galloway, the Highlands, and Bute have highlighted the fragility of the natural world and its inability to withstand the pressures that today’s human activities have placed upon it.

I often think of Nature as being the ultimate gardener. The gale that inspired Roots broke branches, felled trees, and wrenched their roots from the ground, decimating entire areas of woodland. In my painting, time has given rise to bluebells which push their way through the devastation, highlighting Nature’s capacity for regeneration.

An ‘unliveable’ planet

It’s a capacity that’s being eroded, however, as clawing back areas of natural beauty which are being destroyed becomes ever harder. The latest UN climate change report talks of temperatures reaching new heights last year because of human activities. The World Bank has said failing to change the way we live, particularly our food and farming systems, will “make our planet unliveable”.

Art inspires discussion, creates controversy and can inform people of important issues. It can even unite individuals in a common aim.

Let’s hope the actions of artists throughout the world will help bring people together with the common aim of combating climate change and biodiversity loss.

To see more works by Annie Broadley, visit her website at anniebroadley.com