A Symphony Of Tulips

Tucked away in the Yorkshire Dales, sits Constable Burton Hall and Gardens. A stately home that, in the early throws of spring, is nestled in amongst thousands of vibrant tulip buds. The Hall is a Grade I-listed country house with a double flight of steps, tall Georgian windows and classical style columns defining the exterior. The Gardens drop off from an expansive lawn through the flowerbeds into a luscious woodland bank, carved by a softly flowing stream into a fishing pond. Each early May bank holiday the grounds transform into an array of crimsons, magenta and cadmium yellow blooms. Here, the early spring tulips prepare to unfurl their petals for the flocks of admiring visitors who come to the annual Tulip Festival. However this year, the flowers were not the only objects on display.

The family at Constable Burton opened up their home for an evening solo exhibition of floral paintings by local artist, Sophie Roberts. A Symphony of Tulips was a unique record of the previous year’s festival, amongst the current floral display throughout the grounds. Guest were invited to amble around the garden under the glow of an orangeing sun to admire the flowers, before gathering in the manor house’s reception room to enjoy their painted counterparts.

A bunch of tulips plucked from their bed in May 2024 had arisen in the form of an exhibition, blooming from wall to wall in a spectacle of colour. The exhibition spread throughout three adjacent ground floor rooms, temporarily replacing the house’s ancestral family portraits: each made to fit their fleeting homes, perfectly. The house was brought to life by hundreds of inky tulips spilling from patterned vases in gilded frames as a celebration of spring.

Sophie Roberts showcased the breadth of her artistic styles: from botanical paintings standing upright on antique cabinets, to contemporary blue swathes of ink on floating leaves of paper which were hung high upon the walls. At Yorkshire Framer, we worked with Sophie Roberts, designing the frames to reflect the painting style of each artwork. The classical illustrations were paired with a dark wooden veneer and gilded frame. Sophie Roberts also displayed a series of jovial paintings where tulips sprouted from bulbous vases on block-patterned table cloths. These artworks were surrounded by larger scoop frames and hand finished the painted details on the sight edges to complement the colours of the tulips, within. The most contemporary and gestural of her tulips were the large, ink line-drawings of pooling Prussian Blue that dripped and flowed across the thick watercolour paper. These two pieces were mounted on boards without frames to exaggerate their expressive and free-flowing lines; unbordered and as delicate as petals.

Sophie Roberts is a talented, local artist who paints vibrant depictions of nature. She is inspired by the flora and landscape of the surrounding North Yorkshire countryside. She is known for her expressions of colour and detailed brushstrokes. Many of her paintings are playful and present nature at its most joyful, harmonious and alluring.

For more about Sophie Roberts and to see her available works please visit her website at https://www.sophierobertsstudio.co.uk/ and to keep up to date with her practice follow her Instagram page @sophierobertsstudio.

Left: Mixed Tulip Still Life, Right: A Symphony of Tulips at Constable Burton Hall