5. Gardens Gardens have often inspired artists. Images of gardens appear in Ancient Egyptian and Roman wall paintings and in Persian and Indian miniatures. Monet created his own gardens at Giverny, which inspired many of his later paintings. More recently, artists such as Niki de Saint Phalle and Ian Hamilton Finlay have used their own gardens as the setting for art works. Research appropriate sources and create your own response to Gardens.

Gardens in Ancient Egyptian and Roman wall paintings A garden pool: Tomb painting full of ducks, lotus flowers and tilapia fish; papyrus grows along the edge. Around the pool are palms, dom-palms, sycomore fig, mandrakes, and other bushes.

Gardens in Persian and Indian miniatures A Persian miniature is a small painting on paper, whether a book illustration or a separate work of art intended to be kept in an album.

Monet made a garden full of perspectives, symmetries and colours. Claude Monet When Monet and his family settled in Giverny in 1883 the piece of land sloping gently down from the house to the road was planted with an orchard and enclosed by high stone walls. A central alley bordered with pines separated it into two parts. Monet had the pines cut down, keeping only the two yews closest to the house. Monet made a garden full of perspectives, symmetries and colours.

Niki de Saint Phalle The garden, contains sculptures of the symbols found on Tarot cards. It opened in 1998, after nearly 20 years of work.

Little Sparta is Ian Hamilton Finlay’s greatest work of art. The garden is created from the artistic fusion of poetic and sculptural elements with those of the natural landscape which is shaped and changed to become an inherent part of the concepts. Little Sparta is Ian Hamilton Finlay’s greatest work of art.

Katie Allen Katie centres her work primarily on the landscapes of her native South Wales , their changing seasons and shades, transforming them into a rich textile of patterns, forms and colours. The paintings when viewed as a whole are of recognisable landscapes and natural forms - trees and plants, insects and birds - but on closer inspection become detailed abstract patterns composed of intricate designs and subtle colour harmonies.

Tacita Dean Tacita Dean is an English visual artist who works primarily in film. She is one of the Young British Artists, and was a nominee for the Turner Prize in 1998.

Susan Derges Susan Derges specialises in camera-less photographic processes, most often working with natural landscapes