This past June, I visited Oak Spring Garden in Upperville, Virginia, and left feeling more inspired than I had in a very long time.
If you’re not familiar with the Oak Spring Garden Foundation (I hadn’t been until fairly recently!), it is a philanthropic organization that was founded by Rachel Lambert “Bunny” Mellon based on the estate she shared with her husband, Paul Mellon. Although it is not typically open to the public, the Foundation hosts a few ticketed tour dates throughout the year, and it was only an hour-long drive from my home in northern VA, so it was the perfect day trip in the midst of a busy summer.
I had read that Bunny Mellon never liked things to look too tidy or uniform (she was said to have carried a pair of scissors around with her so that she could snip flowers or even upholstery fabric to give her surroundings a “lived-in” look), and this was evident everywhere I looked. All of Oak Spring is a testament to the beauty of imperfection, simplicity, and understated elegance.
The Basket House (the first place I painted when I got home!) was probably my favorite part of my tour. Bunny Mellon’s basket collection lines the ceiling and walls, alongside paintings by Georges Braque. The Mellons had an extensive art collection, and Paul and Bunny donated thousands of pieces to the National Gallery of Art throughout their lifetimes.
A crab apple tunnel connects the main garden to Bunny’s potting “shed,” which is lined with handpainted trompe l’oeil oil paintings by French artist Fernand Renard. Inspired by the idea of a “cabinet of curiosities," the paintings feature different objects that held special meanings for Bunny, and symbolized different parts of her personality and the people and places that brought her joy.
After my trip, I wanted to commemorate what I’d seen and felt at Oak Spring Garden, and started with a series of watercolor paintings of some of the photos I’d taken. I have and love The Enchanting Interiors of Bunny Mellon, which features watercolor paintings by Allison “Snowy” Campbell Swain, an artist who worked as the in-house resident painter for the Mellons for the six years immediately following her college graduation. I was inspired to create similar vignettes of my own.
After moving this past year, I have gotten more and more interested in gardening in my own yard, and a visit to my local garden center seed packet aisle inspired me to create my own “seed catalog,” a series of twenty-five paintings featuring some of my favorite plants and flowers, and plants and flowers I came across during my visit to Oak Spring.
I wanted to create something specifically inspired by the hand-painted wallpaper from the potting shed. I love painting playing cards, and decided to make a Bunny Mellon-inspired playing card, featuring some of her topiaries, a bunny, and a basket-inspired border on a blue-green ground.
Last but not least- something totally new for me, I added this piece to the collection after I’d already finished cataloging everything, but it seemed like a perfect fit!- I created a watercolor cut-paper butterfly cloche, inspired by a backyard butterfly funeral held by my daughter and her friend.
This collection has been so much fun to work on, and I am already planning my next trip to Oak Spring, which will hopefully be sooner than later- I have a feeling that this is just the first of many more inspiring visits, if I am lucky!