‘SEA PLAY’ WITH ÉVA NÉMETH
Seasonal stories and notable happenings from the team behind Ochre Botanical Studios.
One golden afternoon in October, we gathered at Seacliff Beach near North Berwick to sketch out a floral installation in the sand. If you’ve followed us for a while, you’ll know that we like to make room for these ‘floral playdates’ in our calendar as it gives us a chance to stretch and nourish our creativity by doing a little freeform designing with whatever materials are inspiring us at the time. The idea for this ‘sea play’ has been gently percolating for some time, and when Éva Németh mentioned she was coming up to Scotland for a short holiday, we jumped at the opportunity to play together.
The landscape at Seacliff lends itself most generously to a bit of Autumnal flowering, with the warm brown rocks showcasing a plethora of beautiful lichens in shades of yellow, ochre and beige that we find oh-so-inspiring. We saw these tones repeated in the lichen-encrusted branches nearby, as well as in a jumble of tastefully coloured rocks and hag stones, pleasingly pockmarked by having tiny shells and grains of sands whipped against them by wind and water for millennia. The crushed digestive biscuit sand (*a trademarked phrase, IYKYK) of the East Coast acted as nature’s own kenzan and we relied on its weight and disguising properties to help blend our design into the landscape.
We chose a small alcove amongst a particularly pleasing rocky assemble in which to create our installation – a gentle semi-circle that could provide a backdrop for a significant occasion, mayhaps. The large surrounding rocks held the design in their embrace and we selected various materials like bracken and yellowing asparagus ferns whose forms might be able to mimic the gentle lapping shapes that waves might make as they broke against the rocks. The glittering steel grey sea undulated in the background all the while, waves rushing and receding on the sand while we pottered away in our flowery daydream.
We didn’t discuss the design too much before getting started, preferring to let the materials tell their own story, each of us beginning in one area and then swapping and overlapping with one another until the finished installation was realised. As you’ll probably see from Éva’s images, there was a lot of looking at the shapes and colours, and then stepping back to see what may be missing or editing out what wasn’t really working.
We finished the afternoon with a little cup of tea and a slice of homemade apple cake. Sitting in the sand with our soggy knees and satiated imaginations, we enjoyed the soft October sunbeams before gathering all our materials up to leave the beach as we found it again. We are so grateful to Éva for the gift of her company and the sharing of her immense talent with this record of the day. We hope you love the full gallery of images as much as we do. We heart them so much.
Éva has a wonderful website of her work which we would encourage you to take a moment to explore. Make yourself a cup of tea and stay a while. We also recommend following her on Instagram where you might be lucky enough to see photos of Finn, her adorable wee pup.
Speak again soon...
