Art In Motion

By midsummer, Bella Hoare’s perennial planting at Gasper Cottage in Wiltshire is in full swing. Lilac Verbena bonariensis drips dew at dawn, Echinops ritro ‘Veitch’s Blue’ transfixes with the intensity of its steely hue and spiky form, and Persicaria amplexicaulis ‘Firedance’ offers carmine batons to those who will look.

This is a garden for colour. Bella is a partner at C. Hoare & Co, the private, family-owned bank, and she is a descendant of Henry Hoare, who built up nearby Stourhead, the erstwhile family seat now owned by the National Trust. At home, however, she is painter and gardener foremost, and these twinned occupations feed into one another. She paints in oils mainly – colourful, semi-abstracted forms that are taken from life drawing classes. In her gardening, views of the Stourhead estate combine with a mixture of pragmatism, wit and a persuasion towards Oudolf-style planting.