This exquisite painting by OCG artist Yanny Petters was acquired by the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin in October 2020. It featured in the museum's recent show 'Drawn from Nature: Irish Botanical Art', a beautiful exhibition curated by Patricia Butler (guest curator), assisted by Janet McLean (National Gallery of Ireland).

The artist created this painting in 2015 for a group show curated by the Olivier Cornet Gallery. The show, titled Hopscotch, was an artists'response to the theme of 'Childhood Memories & Children’s Games’. It was presented at the VUE Art Fair, RHA, in November 2015 and shown later at the Olivier Cornet Gallery.

Our gallery chose that theme that year as 2015 was marked by the 150th anniversary of the publication of 'Alice in Wonderland' and Universal Children's Day is celebrated in November every year. 

In this exhibition, each work of art was accompanied by a text written by a young writer in a collaboration between curator of the show Olivier Cornet and Fighting Words: each writer was asked to respond to the work of their choice. Here was 12-year-old Iria Villar's response to the artist's work: 

"When I was small, recently too, I used to play a lot with plants. One time, we were at the forest. I was with my mom, my cousin and my brother. Our little group wanted to rest so I decided to build us a ‘shelter’. I got two branches and, arched them in a way that would look like a bridge and covered them with the twigs. Only my five year old cousin could fit inside. I was devastated. We ended up eating our popcorn on a thick branch that had fallen. It seemed to only have one purpose, us sitting on it. That day we were collecting berries for our uncle to make jam. I remember the taste of his jam was nothing special but we said it was extraordinary anyway. I remember picking out blueberries and raspberries that day. We got hurt a lot, trying to get that one, big, juicy looking berry at the top of the bush. I used to say that the ones further in were the nicest. But you only get more prickled trying to get them. My brother and my cousin thought of themselves as ‘bad boys’. They each got a heavy piece of branch and walked ahead of us in the trail. They swung their branches as if they could hit anyone that caused them any problems. We came across an old unused barn. It was eerie. The boys immediately took shelter behind my mum. As we got started entering the farm a dog barked really loudly. Diego and Iago ran away. They sprinted down the slope that led us up like they were going to miss the bus. My mother and I were in peals of laughter. It was one of those good Summer days."

Notes from the artist on this wonderful work:

"Plant names:

Common Nettle Urtica dioica, Broadleaved Dock Rumex obtusiflius, Hogweed Heracleum sphondylium, Dandelion Taraxacum officinale, Common Poppy Papaver Rhoeas, Daisy Bellis perennis, Ribwort Plantain Plantago lanceolata, Cleavers Galium aparine, Cock's foot Dactylis glomerata.

Why is the piece a combination of drawing and painting?

Because memories can be sketchy, we paint them in our minds eye, we fill in the relevant aspects...

The painted parts highlight the aspects of the plants that were traditionally used in childhood games.

The composition helps to join the narrative for those memories.

For example the Nettle - dare to touch,  is opposite the Dock - its antidote.

The Hogweed which made our pea shooters has the vetch entwined in it, the vetch pods contain the peas.

The Dandelion Clock is untouched - as time in memories standing still.

The  startling red of the Poppy catches the eye. We made little fairies from the flower heads. Fairies are part of childhood imagination, fantasies, the past.

The Daisy, modestly hiding amongst the other plants has lost one petal, 'He loves me....he loves me not'. Who knows the future or the outcome of the game!

Plantain soldiers, we hit the heads off each others soldiers. Is this the last man standing?

The Stickies, or Cleavers have woven themselves amongst the plants, they do stick to everything with their little hairs. We used to throw them at each other.

The grasses with which we made whistling sounds are mingling in the field or hedgerow scene. Often sound evokes the strongest memories.

As children we roamed the fields amusing ourselves not needing anything more than our imaginations. I feel privileged to have had that freedom and still enjoy the occasional whistling grass to sound like a pheasant, or to blow the dandelion clocks to check the time. "
Yanny Petters

The National Gallery of Ireland has included 'The Plants We Played With' in the Collection Highlights section of their website where you can see great close-ups of this beautiful painting. You can also access the text and the images through the Explore and Learn section of the museum's website.

Another work by the artist was recently acquired by the National Museum of Ireland. Check it out here.