True to Nature: Open-air Painting in Europe 1780-1870

This exhibition explored the concept of ‘painting en plein air’, looking at the inventive ways artists in the 18th and 19th centuries recorded fleeting moments in nature, capturing the effects of light, drama, and atmosphere first-hand in the open air.

The exhibition ran from Tuesday 3rd May 2022 to Monday 29th August 2022.

Floating pressure

The typography was inspired by nature and weather systems. The type is suspended in the vertical negative space of these beautiful landscapes, the words of the exhibition title caught for a fleeting moment, as if floating in pressure.

We designed all outputs for the exhibition, including marketing, digital, social media and print we developed a look and feel that would capture peoples attention.

Nature’s truths

‘The artists invite us to understand the different truths they see. With the various angles taken, and subjects portrayed, we get the sense that nature cannot be defined by a singular sense of truth, but can be encountered in its varying multitudes.’

Inspired by these landscapes we developed a palette of colours from the paintings.

Art projects and shares truth

Through beautiful projections of the cellular structures of trees, spectacular footage of volcanoes, and mineral, rock and botanical specimens, the exhibition also highlights developments in the earth sciences each seeking, like painters of the time, to reveal ‘truths’ about the world we inhibit.