REFLECTING THE LANDSCAPE

Jenny Blyth shows 50 photographs of Port Meadow, Oxfordshire and Beyond…(Scottish Highlands)

4 May - 1 June 2019

enquiries :  jennyblyth@btconnect.com

“I have spent a year through the seasons photographing Wolfson College and the gardens that run down to the River Cherwell.  The Brutalist architecture was groundbreaking in its time and remains at odds in a city known for its dreaming spires.  The gardens and trees are now matured, and nature has softened the geometry of the buildings creating reflections and shadows that play out across the surfaces changing colours, textures and moods so that each day, each hour is different.  I have been struck by the calm and joy in the environment of Wolfson that was designed to engender ‘humane’ living.   

I walk daily whatever the weather and find a sense of oneness with nature that I attempt to capture in my photographs.  I am drawn to the poetry in the landscape, and find that I am chasing beauty.

I never tire of Port Meadow and have walked come rain or shine for years. I love the huge skies, and stepping onto the meadow that stretches towards Oxford, it presents like an old Dutch master, an ever-changing canvas. It is large enough to lose yourself in nature, to embrace the elements, and familiar enough to encourage a quiet meditation.

The seasons transform the landscape, shape-shifting and refreshing the palette. There is invariably something unexpected and beautiful to observe whether that is a hawthorn bush heady with musk scented flowers, or a murmur of plover that contours the broad backs of horses, their long tails sashaying. Gun-metal skies threaten thunder over a buttercup ocean in May, while hoar frost on winter days crystallises the floodplains under high blue skies. In autumn, the last of the black poplars shed yellow leaves that fringe the edge of the river like a golden thread.

I am not technically minded, and shy away from photoshop so that the images are as true as they can be.”

© Jenny Blyth 2019

18 February - 28 March 2019

Reflecting the Landscape at

Wolfson College, Linton Road, OX2 6UD