Plants and flowers have traditionally been represented as scientific specimens, as decoration or as symbolic representations of our thoughts and feelings.  In NASCENT the images do not readily fit into any of these categories. There are references to all of them, but the main concern of all three artists is to present plant life as a pure celebration of the natural world in its colour, diversity, changeability and resilience.   As the Catalogue explains, by means of a quote from Agrippa D'Aubigne, when disaster strikes, the natural world will revive.  There will be a nascent sapling beneath the flattened oaks and cedars.

Aline Lutenbacker explains that she derives not just pleasure from the contemplation of natural beauty, but also an escape from the inevitable tensions of everyday life.  She explores these pleasures and contemplations through the medium of textiles.  Within this medium she enjoys experimenting with combinations of different techniques; painting, printing, dying and stitching.  Typical of Alien's work in this show are the pieces in her Rose series.  These are made up of two layers of fabric.  The underneath layer is painted, dyed or printed, or all three.  The rich colours are applied freely but gently, in the style of tachism.  This bottom layer is overlaid with gauze which has also been printed.  The images on this are easily determined as roses.  The work on the overlay is more regular, and reads like self-patterning, as in lace work.  In some pieces the overlay has been reduced so that it covers only part of the panel underneath, actively inviting the viewer to look more closely and to consider the many facets within natural forms.

The attraction to these works is the way in which the two layers relate to each other.  The effect is to invite the viewer to look more carefully at the work in order to determine what is being represented in each of the layers.  The technique is an effective one in engaging the viewer in looking closely, and in contemplating the many facets and layers of the natural world, to lift the ‘curtain’ as it were, and to look through what would normally be an everyday scene of a rose garden.   The regularity of the pattern on the overlay can be seen as representing the routine activities of daily life, while the underlay contains the colour and diversity of deeper levels of understanding and experience of the natural world.

Kim Robinson also finds inspiration in the natural world of plants and flowers, and their cycles and stages of life.  This is shown in works such as Autumn Magic.  She states that 'flowers are a metaphor for life and death, new beginnings and change.'  She works mostly in that genre which enlarges a single flower so that it occupies the entire canvas.  Such distortions in scale can be disturbing in some instances.  Kim, however, alters the shapes, spaces and proportions, so that the effect is one of 'defamiliarisation', that is presenting a familiar object in ways that encourage the viewer to see it differently.  These paintings are, therefore, abstract compositions derived from the flowers, rather than 'blown-up' images of the flowers themselves.  By using rich textures and variations of strong and subtle colours Kim achieves her goal of producing works which are more about meditations of the natural world generally than about any particular type of flower.  This meditative effect is seen at its best in a composition entitled Attraction.  In this work a flower form is represented through large areas of colour and texture.  The subtle colours are contrasted with a dark shape in the top right-hand corner.  This has the effect of giving the entire composition depth and meaning.  It is no longer a flower study, but a lyrical composition of shapes, colours and textures.

As a diversion from the flowers, Kim has included two paintings of Trees.  These are atmospheric, forest scenes, completed in subtle colours and soft edged forms, reminiscent of the forest bathed in early morning mists.  Again, the slight alterations of the objects presented invite the viewer to see the landscape in its mysterious diversity, and not just the home of trees.

The three dimensional works of Kay Quartermaine provide a pleasant contrast to the two dimensional works of the other two artists, not only because they are three dimensional but also because they are in black and white.  These works are all small, but they engage one's attention immediately because of their visual drama.  They consist of elegant shapes from the inside of the zamia palm mounted on plaques.  Where the plant form is white the board is black, or the other way around.

These works are simple, refined and elegant, but also striking.  Plant forms rarely appear all white or all black, and this serves to present them in an unusual and unexpected aspect.  Some of the works consist of one small piece of the palm mounted on a board or in a small box.  Others consist of several pieces arranged horizontally.  Kay explains that this allows viewers to observe the ways in which each piece is unique, subtly different from all the others.  It encourages one to 'observe and to 'search for subtleties'.  The eye is drawn inwards, 'searching, enquiring, scrutinizing'.  This idea is endorsed by several of Kay's titles, such as Vortex, Dark Within and Illusion.  The eye is also drawn to the play of light and shade outside the forms, as engaging shadows are formed on the walls around the works.  Similarly, the boxes also seem to invite one to lift the lid and peer inside.

Stylistically, NASCENT is a diverse exhibition with reminders of Abstract Expressionism, Fauvism and Art Nouveau.  It is not ground breaking or experimental, but it is pleasantly engaging in the way that natural forms and processes are celebrated through the different art forms presented.   It is indeed a show for 'thoughts' and 'remembrances'.