Beauty of the seasons celebrated in exhibition at Harewood House by acclaimed artist Charlotte Verity

The Season Following, which opened last month, showcases the work of acclaimed British artist Charlotte Verity who is renowned for her carefully observed paintings of plants and flowers. Verity’s work has been shown all over the world in many different settings but this is the first time that she has exhibited within a historic country house and several of the works on display have never been seen before. The exhibition comprises over fifty works spanning the past 20 years right up to the present day and includes paintings, drawings and watercolour monotypes. “Some of the work was made quite a long time ago when we were living in London and they are paintings of plants and flowers in the garden there,” says Verity. “Then three years ago we moved to very rural Somerset and I was excited about showing some of the newer work that I have made since we have been there.”

The exhibition unfolds across four of Harewood House’s elegant state rooms, taking the visitor on a journey through each season in turn. “It was wonderful to be given the opportunity to structure an exhibition that reflects the way in which I work,” says Verity. “I have wanted for a long time to be able to show how I work – which is very strictly in each season – and with four rooms that run one to the other, with a season represented in each room, we were able to recreate that.”

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Beginning with winter, the exhibition takes the viewer seasonally through a year with Verity’s meticulously crafted works tracking the passage of time and finding the beauty and magic in each season. The winter paintings feature snowdrops and holly, bare trees reaching into a grey sky, the spring works bring greens and yellows and new shoots of hope. There is a centrepiece large-scale painting of meadow grasses in the summer room which evokes not just the bright colours of the season but also the sounds and scents – you can almost hear the bees buzzing in the background – while warm hues of oranges, reds and browns infuse the works in the autumn room.

For decades Verity has immersed herself in her garden and the wider natural world, painting and drawing plants and flowers outdoors, or bringing elements of nature into her studio to study and paint from life. “I stand very still with what I am looking at and I paint in a traditional way with a palette, paint and brushes,” she says. “I never draw in preparation, everything is direct – I draw with the brush. I become absolutely absorbed by what I am focusing on.”

In this way she has developed and cultivated a profound knowledge and respect for the wide range of natural forms that inspire her and provide her subject matter. “We thought that Charlotte’s work would be so well suited to this space with Harewood’s connection to art and nature,” says curator and archivist Rebecca Burton. “The artworks that Charlotte has created are such beautifully detailed paintings of plants and flowers, focusing on the beauty of each season, and we thought that this time of year is a good time to slow down, reflect and connect to nature.”

Poetry is an integral element of Verity’s practice, often providing inspiration for her work, and alongside the plant paintings and drawings are a series of watercolour paintings of poems placed on or above mantlepieces in the exhibition rooms. The poems, handwritten out with a paintbrush by Verity, have been carefully selected by the artist so that the themes and vocabulary tie in with the season that is being showcased in that particular room. “I read quite a lot of poetry and I find it helps me to get the right level in my work,” says Verity. “And I became interested in writing out poems, with my paintbrush. I have deliberately left some of the corrections visible.” There is a wide range of poets represented, both historical and contemporary including George Herbert, Alice Oswald, Wallace Stevens, Edward Thomas and John Clare.

As with all the works in the exhibition, there is such a sense of thoughtfulness and care taken in the poem paintings – they are very beautiful and the lettering is exquisite – and they perfectly complement Verity’s other works in the sense that poetry, like her plant and flower paintings, are an intense distillation of an emotion or feeling. Standing in front of one of Verity’s paintings is a totally absorbing, meditative experience. You are transported into the moment and invited to connect with the beauty and delicate power of the natural world and its cyclical rhythms.

Verity stresses that she is not a botanical artist – her work, while detailed, closely and meticulously observed and very finely honed, is an artistic interpretation, a creative response. “In the end it is about making a strong and honest painting; you are trying to convey something you have sensed and felt,” says Verity. “I am a bit scrupulously honest about what I see – I think nature has better ideas than me. I take a long time over my paintings and everything is done from life, not from photographs or memory.”

Verity was always interested in making art, as a child she says she was always drawing and she went on to study at the Slade School of Fine Art in London in the early 1970s. “I came into painting because from a very young age it was paintings that moved me very much and changed the way that I looked at things. I remember going to a Monet exhibition when I was about 16 and coming out and seeing the world really quite differently. And I also thought that is what I want to do. When I was a student, I was open to lots of different ways of making paintings but then you have to work out how you want to make paintings and what inspires you. As an artist I think you have to put away your rational thoughts and find things that move you and I found that the natural world was a conduit for my sensibilities.”

Verity hopes that the exhibition will allow people a moment of calm, focus and connection. “Every painting I make is an accumulation of hours of observation and looking closely, while finding ways of putting down what I see. I hope the paintings will enhance the experience of the natural world for visitors. I would like it to be a kind of time out for people, an opportunity to stop and look and connect with nature.”

Charlotte Verity, The Season Following is at Harewood House, near Leeds until June 7. The exhibition is open Friday-Sunday 10.30am-4pm until March 22 and from March 23, when the House, Gardens and Grounds reopen for the spring/summer season, the exhibition will be open seven days a week 10am-5pm.