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Land of the Thunder Dragon Exhibition
14th - 29th June 2008
10.00 am - 6.00pm (late night shopping until
8.00pm Wednesday 18th & 25th)
The Gallery, Brookvale House, Oaker, Near Matlock,
Derbyshire DE4 2JJ
(AA signposted) 01629 55851 for further details
Admission free.
Click here for directions
The dates have been set for the first exhibition of work inspired
by Pollyanna’s landmark expedition into Bhutan. In the
spring of 2007, she spent five weeks trekking and camping in
the remote Himalayan kingdom, one of the world's last true wilderness
environments. Bhutan jealously guards its lifestyle and ancient
traditions, and this series of paintings will be the first to
comprehensively document the wildlife and habitat.
Pollyanna was granted a fellowship from Canada based society
Artists for Conservation (formerly the Worldwide Nature Artists
Group) in support of the expedition. Pollyanna was the first
woman ever to be granted a fellowship by the group – and
the first artist to be selected from outside Canada or North
America. Pollyanna acted as an ambassador for AFC throughout
the journey, and carried their expedition flag. She was accompanied
on the journey by her daughter and business partner Anna-Louise,
an accomplished wildlife photographer
Wildlife depicted in this collection of paintings includes
tigers, snow leopards, wolves, red pandas as well as some of
the wildlife unique to this region – golden langur monkeys,
black necked cranes and clouded leopards. Many of the paintings
contain symbols and imagery inspired by Pollyanna’s travels
through the kingdom.
Visitors to Pollyanna's private gallery in Derbyshire will
be the very first to have the opportunity to see the new collection
of work on display in the gallery at Brookvale House, Oaker
near Matlock DE4 2JJ (AA Signposted) from 14th – 29th
June. Visitors will also be able to see a selection of artefacts
brought back from the expedition, as well as some of Pollyanna’s
working sketches.
Two new limited edition prints will be exclusively launched
during the week – and the full range of Pollyanna’s
other fine art prints, books, cards and giftware will of course
be on display throughout. Pollyanna will be on hand in the gallery
to sign purchases, and chat about the expedition.
A selection of the paintings will then go on to be exhibited
in the Artists for Conservation exhibition at the Hiram Blauvelt
Art Museum in New York which will highlight their flag expedition
programme in September 2008. Pollyanna will attend the gala
opening weekend where she will speak about the journey. A further
series of exhibitions in British galleries will be announced
in the coming months.
The expedition has already attracted much media attention internationally
– with articles appearing in a variety of publications
from Nepal’s most popular national newspaper Kantipur
to Toronto University’s in house magazine The Medium.
Britain’s only Wildlife Art magazine, Wildscape have commissioned
an article about the journey to appear in their June issue,
which will also be illustrated with a selection of the new paintings
inspired by the journey. Wildscape have recently announced their
new role as UK sponsors of the AFC, and this special issue will
be dedicated to the society, with copies being handed out throughout
the New York exhibition, in addition to distribution through
their usual outlets. The Artists for Conservation Foundation
have also chosen Pollyanna’s exhibition to Bhutan to feature
in their recent series of International advertisements promoting
the organisation and explaining their recent name change from
the Worldwide Nature Artists Group. The Foundation are currently
exploring the possibility of publishing Pollyanna’s Bhutanese
journal as a limited edition book – we will announce further
details in due course
Click here to learn more about the
expedition
Click
here to view the online journal of Pollyanna's expedition
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