Fiona Pardington From the Field of Dreams

Better than nature…

The 19th century witnessed the genesis of models that show natural history knowledge as enlargements, improving the power of observation. Jean Baptiste Barla (1817-1896) casts thousands of mushrooms.

Models being permanent, self-evident and forever available replace problematic nature; life is vulnerable and mortal and all life has its seasons. Similarly, photography improves our observational powers and may transcend nature with its seductive power. However, many of these images will have now erroneous colouration - due to the pigments and various chemistry within their oil painted surfaces changing over time. Of this Fiona Pardington says for me this reality is part of the fragile beauty of them.