ANTHOLOGIA XI & XII

“Now as I was young and easy under the apple boughs
About the lilting house and happy as the grass was green,
The night above the dingle starry,
Time let me hail and climb
Golden in the heydays of his eyes,
And honoured among wagons I was prince of the apple towns
And once below a time I lordly had the trees and leaves
Trail with daisies and barley
Down the rivers of the windfall light.”

Extract from Fern Hill by Dylan Thomas

Both Georgia Beaumont and Kate Braine can be linked to the exuberant and romanticised view of nature in Fern Hill through their celebration of organic forms and emotional connection to the natural world. In the poem, Thomas presents the countryside as vibrant, idyllic and full of life, reflecting themes of innocence, beauty and renewal.

Georgia Beaumont’s paintings strongly reflect this through her expressive floral forms and focus on the vitality and movement of nature. Her work celebrates growth, fertility and the changing seasons, much like Thomas’s rich descriptions of the countryside. Both Beaumont and Thomas portray nature as emotionally powerful and restorative, using it as a source of imagination and comfort.

Kate Braine’s work also connects to Fern Hill through its organic, handcrafted qualities and close relationship with natural materials such as clay. Her ceramics and sculpture emphasise texture, physicality and a connection to the earth, echoing Thomas’s appreciation of the richness and beauty of the rural world.

Overall, both artists romanticise nature in a similar way to the poet, presenting it as a space of creativity, emotion and vitality rather than simply a physical landscape.