An artist's new collection which captures nature trough paintings, drawings, and photos, is opening later this month in Summertown.
The collection has been created by Addy Gardner, who has spent her life creating and imagining natural landscapes, and her sister, Selly Gardner-Morrison.
It primarily features paintings and drawings, though other multimedia works, including photographs of local wildflowers captured by Ms Gardner-Morrison, make an appearance.
The central theme is to extract emotional and physical connections people have with nature to surface and it will be on display at The North Wall Arts Centre from February 14 to March 3.
It also aims to highlight the contrast between our admiration for nature and the damage we cause in pursuit of material wealth.
Ms Gardner said: "Ever since I was very young, myself and my sister dreamed of, and designed imaginary wild places to have adventures in: landscapes brimming with secret passages and different environments.
"Rewilding has allowed me to reconnect with the magic of our childhood imagination.
"This show is part of a series of work focusing on rewilding, which is gaining momentum in Britain. It also reflects a ‘wilding’ of my art practice."
The exhibition’s aim is also to make viewers aware of the biodiversity in the UK, and how human interaction affects it.
It discusses rewilding, restoring large eco-systems, as a potential solution to revive our natural spaces.
Ms Gardner, who has had her art studio in West Oxfordshire for 20 years, took inspiration from The Knepp Rewilding Project in Surrey.
Some of the pieces were worked on during Ms Gardner’s residency at Wilcote Art in Oxfordshire and amplified the importance of nature.
Ms Gardner added: "I wanted the paintings to be in constant flux.
"I wanted them to contain symbols to act as markers for navigating a passage through the piece but I didn't want to build a road with defined edges.
"These paintings are not abstract, and they are not representational.
"What I hope is that they are: joy, freedom, fairy tales based in overgrown forests, creativity, natural form, lines referencing roads shown in maps, housing estate plans, collage text from ‘swiss family robinson’... Things that I felt described what our human world is, versus what a wilder world could be."
One percent of all their sales from this exhibition will be donated to Rewilding Britain, an organisation which has enabled rewilding projects in the UK to flourish in recent years.
Founded in 2015, the charity aims to restore eco-systems on a large scale to allow them to thrive by themselves.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here