LITTLE ARTY JOURNEYS: Chihuly glass at Kew with my cousin (Lots of photos!)

On Tuesday I had a wonderful trip to Kew with my cousin who is a regular visitor there and knows Kew very well. It was fabulous to have her as my guide. I am breaking this down into a couple of posts because I took so many photos 833 but don't worry I've cut it down a lot from that!!!) This post is about Chihuly's "Reflections on Nature" exhibition of amazing glass sculptures. (The next post will be more about the plants at Kew).

The glass sculptures echo forms found in nature....stems, seed heads, horns, gourds, buds, etc.

I loved this!

The opal glass forms echo the shape of the raised leaves in the right top corner.

They appear to twist and tumble forming a cascade

and creating watery distortions.

Yes the flower is real! They seem to glow.

A couple of the staff in full waders climbed into the pond to clear away a few dying bits of waterlily stems etc.

Each side of the door there was a small army of red spikes - they seemed quite harsh against the framework of the Waterlily house.

A crazy ball of long curly tendrils.

Looking closer at the textured curly glass tubes with many varying colours

The clear tips catch the sun beautifully.

Some of them have swellings like seed pods.

This is gorgeous - like a giant echinops flower (globe thistle) in the sun.

The strands are all shaped and have bulbous spear-like ends.

My cousin approaching another one of her favourites - the colours are wonderful!

I almost missed this little group under the trees.

There were more of these than I expected - like a cheerful reception committee lining each side of the path.

It's lovely the way the long grasses have been left.

This one is amazing - it's huge (about 30 feet!) and looks very blue.....

but looking closer the fluted edges are different colours and there are translucent leaf-like green ribbons trailing outwards.

Sculptures in the pond echo the shapes of water plants

The big blue chandelier like sculpture looked different from every angle.

A little forest of yellow/lime green - some tall and straight, others twisting and curling, looked very at home among all the exotic plants.

I could easily have missed this opal one hanging high up above the doorway - thankfully my cousin didn't let me miss it.

Looking closer - it wasn't as white as I first thought, Wonderfully colourful and lustrous plant-like structures nestle among the tendrils and horn shapes

Just look at these!

Viewing the blue "chandelier" from a different angle, we could see many different shades of green, yellow and turquoise in there.

Looking up from underneath.

I thought this group of red spikes looked much more at home here among all the foliage than the ones that were standing either side of the door of the Waterlily house. There are some red flowers to the left that relate well to the glass reed like forms.

These blue containers are called Hebron Vessels (love the word vessel) - they seem to lie in a little valley and disappear from certain angles. Behind them is a boat of opal pointed pod like structures.

From part way up the spiral staircase to the walkway above the plants you can see quite a few of the sculptures and how they relate to each other.

Looking down at the green ones in the pond....they are so well camouflaged!

You can see the scale - there's a member of staff crouching towards the top of the picture.

I got a bit carried away here... the shapes are so reminiscent of plant structures yet also like sea creatures - coral, sea anemones etc.

and then there's one with tentacles like an octopus.

Translucent veined ribbons twirl around the more solid shell like shapes.

From up here on the walkway the blue "chandelier" looks very different against the foliage below rather than against the glass and white framework of the Temperate House.

Directly above the structures in the pond.

Luminous blue light emanating from the centre.

Another look a the blue "chandelier" - look a those yellow pods and all the other colours which are much more visible up here.

Back on the ground again - this is like an alien pear - with antennae!

Lovely blues nestled in among the plants.

I loved the reflections.

You can see both of us in this one as well as reflections of the surrounding plants, sculptures and the building.

More alien fruit with antennae (no idea what they were really called!)

Looking closer at one of the antennas - looks like a fish!

This green one looked a little ordinary in comparison to the other hanging ones.

Until I looked from underneath and saw how it related to the structure of the building.

These balls on raked gravel looked as if someone had abandoned a game of giant marbles or boules.

My cousin has a glass globe/lens which she uses to take interesting photos. The sun was so hot that the globe quickly overheated and burnt her fingers so she abandoned that idea.

Ice cream cones, olympic torches? Again from a distance they look as if they're one colour

But no - there's white and gold.

It looked a little wilder against the geometric shapes of the building.

This is like lime jelly cubes. Apparently this is not glass but is polyvitro, a kind of plastic.

A surprising array of different shades of green.

Now we're in the gallery looking at the smaller pieces. Many vessels nestled into each other.

Drawings - very simple but easy to see how they relate to the vessels on display.

Gorgeously transparent.

I got told off here for holding the camera above the glass. (I had my small camera firmly on a strap around my wrist and wasn't actually above the glass - I was diagnonally in front of it but I do understand why they have to be so cautious.)

These are like sea creatures, sea urchins etc.

Not just sea shapes but the colours of the sea here.

Huge vessels wonderfully lit - and the light bounces around through the translucent areas making interesting reflections and shadows.

Chunky glass "vases" with big crystals on the sides.

Big containers with graffiti style decorations.

There were two of them - I walked round taking photos from all sorts of different postions.

Three paler versions.

Light shining through the bottom.

A selection further along.

I don't usually like orange but this pot is lovely.

The way the light bounced around this one was fascinating.

A couple more drawings.

All sorts of strange vessels.

You can see the ideas forming in the drawings.

Like sea urchins.

Clusters of containers which nestle inside each other - evoking thoughts of sea creatures, - urchins, anemones. jelly fish etc.

Chunky glass containers.

I watched a video today about how these are made - it was fascinating. Google "Chihuly glass videos" - quite a few come up. It's really interesting to find out more about him.