Beyond the seed virtual exhibition page
Dandelion Gallery , Online Platform. The open call for the first exhibition is now closed. If you would like to submit for later dates please see below.
This Gallery is an online record of all the Dandelions submitted to the Dandelion wall.
The wall will be physically exhibited as follows
St Decumans church 27th/28th June
Kentsford 30th June
Garage Gallery Greenway rd 4th July
Northam Burrows visitor centre, Devon 4th to 11th August
St Decumans church sept TBC
Previous exhibitions
Garden Sanctuary (21 Whitehall, Watchet) May 1st to 7th 10 - 4pm
Wimbleball lake May 17th 11 til 4 in the Marquee
Dandelion Wall virtual gallery
Dandelion Portraits Artists images Greshna Dibble
6 water colour portraits of living plants
Dandelion sketch book
60 images skecthed over the course of the practice, exploring media and technique
Taproot Jouranal
Created from recyled cardboard the jouranal is and exploration of the Dandelion as pigment , as muse and natural plant
Dandelion Portraits
Get Involved Open call
If you would like to submit a Dandelion for later exhibittions please follow details below
Exhibition dates
Garden Sanctuary TA23 0BD 1st to 7th May
St Decumans church watchet 27/28th june
4th July Greenway road Watchet
Kentsford TA23 0JD July 30th
Northam burrows visitor center Devon 4th to 11th August
St Decumans September TBC
Join the project, create an image of a Dandelion and get it exhibit in throught 2026 and beyond.
There are no restrictions on medium used, size no bigger than A3 just to give room for as many as possible, smaller is fine :)
Email to: greshna.artist@dandelionportraits.co.uk
Images sent via email and will be printed, if you want to send the original post to:
Kentsford farm
Watchet
somerset
TA23 0JD
You can also upload your images by clicking on the link above.
All Submitted images will be online for viewing, and all images will be exhibited as either prints or originals from May 1st for a week, and at 4 further exhibitions over the summer. All artists will be acknowledged both in the catalogue and online
All images must be original art works not copies
No images can be returned
Any comments or expressed feelings are welcome but will not be made public
The images may be used in ephemeral displays and further exhibitions.
Artist Statement
This project, Dandelion portraits emerges from the artist's deep connection with nature, and water based pigments.
The sharing of this connection through exploratory art will form the foundation of this work, creating a body of practice that grows exponentially through participants involvement, creating an exhibition of multiple works both online and in the physical domain.
Through this practice the human disconnect from nature will be challenged and explored. The project is aiming to create an ever expanding community of connected beings, prepared to examine their own place in nature through art and communication.
workshops
June 3rd Cyanotype
June 10th Gelliprints
June 17th watercolour
TA23 0JD £15 per person all materails included
Explore nature through print and art
Taproot Journal
Number 5
The first exhibition has proven to be a battle of resilience against the English elements. The industrial mountings of the 100 participants images fairing far better than the liminally situated gazebo. Leaning strongly into the ethos of Hilda Bechers industrial repetitive imagery with the repeated illustrating of the Dandelion forcing the audience, thus far made up of the a mix of wandering curious, participant enthusiasm, and dutiful friends and neighbours, to stop and rethink their opinions if the liminal plant. Supported by my own 6 watercolour portraits, 60 sketches and the taproot journal a tactile book of recycled card images and dandelion exploration through print, pigment and resilience. The site in a small back garden has created an installation that echoes Ana Menetia in its response to the elements with unseasonable high wind and torrential and persistent precipitation causing the industrial fittings of the wall to be repurposed to shore up the fragile gazebo while the 100 images were carefully stored in a dry box overnight. As a first exhibition the response has been overwhelming in the first 2 days and the conversations and comments imply that the practice is both thought provoking and capable of changing opinions of the status of the liminal, the autonomy given to the plant has created a opportunity to engage people with the its persona a nod to the work of Mathew Hall in the book 'plants as persons' with comments on the individual representations as characters and living entities. If the site holds up for the rest of the week .. if not the wall will move into the domestic setting of a family dining room, changing the perspective to a much closer view, and possibly creating a different form of engagement. Either way, the Wall has proved resilient enough to face the next six exhibitions, which take it from the ecclesiastical to the physical the industrial to the riparian and coast. Offering opportunities for very different audience and engagement, placing it into audience not necessarily expecting to view art and coming from very different expectations By presenting the plant as itself—rather than a symbol—the installation has opened a space for genuine dialogue, allowing the 'persona' of the dandelion to emerge through participation rather than metaphor."the building of the wall has created community connections across counties and opened up opportunities for exhibition through conversation and participation far greater than a workshop environment could envisage. It is hoped this will continue as the wall begins to travel and be seen by a diverse audience The diagonal orientation of the gazebo acts as a physical 'threshold'—once the curious wanderer steps off the dog walk and onto the terrace, the domestic garden is erased, replaced by an immersive industrial wall. The 'unprepared' state of the visitor is my greatest asset; without the baggage of 'going to a gallery,' they engage with the dandelions as living entities and characters, rather than just specimens."
Taproot Journal
A weekly musing
Number 4
Metroplis and shocks
From the valiant seed seeking a comfy crack in the metropolis' heart, to the plant torn from its taproot and left to wilt in the spring sun.
Even in the capital the riparian instinct led to the serpentine of Kensington gardens, and the discovery of underground watercourses long buried under weighty concrete but still flowing beneath fleet street. Hours of still wind on the coach bore fruit in the joy of a peers exhibition before a swift breeze of rail transport dropped the seed back near its root.
Only to find the ever creeping fingers of social media revealed the death of the source plant left on the side walk outside its own planned exhibition with not do much as a by your leave. Battered and shocked the taproot dug deep and returned to the more liminal space of a sacred garden to re-emerge stronger and resilient against the cruel world ready to move once again beyond the seed.
A pivotal moment of a vision in blue brought new depth and possibilities to the growth into the future maybe escaping the earthy hues of the clay for a more meaningful ephemeral final image proving as ever, attempts to unseat the yellow king will only make it stronger and more resilient.
Taproot Journal
A weekly musing
Number 3
Mind wanderings
Strangely, I found myself looking at the just taken image on my phone and saying ‘oh good got you all in’ it was a Dandelion..I think they have infiltrated my brain, which is not much of a surprise, unlike the the emails that have begun arriving on the project address, a relief it was working, and correct on the posters which are disseminating like seeds and settling in strange places. Don't be seen carrying art related materials near an over enthusiastic MA student. Brain overload is given free with passing submission dates and trips to London lasting precisely 16 hours from start to finish, not with standing the awe of standing before images created centuries ago that show the finger marks of the artist drawn thoughtfully through the watercolour pigment to create the desired effect.
A serious regrounding is needed and losing myself in my sketch book is a little calmer but a free swim is needed now, but I feel the river maybe less than ready after the floods, seeing the swelling of waters beyond the bank showing its power and disregard for humans.
Somehow a few hours in a tin can won’t work either unless the ever present radio 4 has a mind blowing discussion … then maybe my poor brain will acquiesce back to a normal, easier state. Even writing is tense as the minutes tick steadily irreversibly onwards, hours and days a life time. I wonder how life will feel at the end of this process, or maybe all feeling will be swallowed in its quest for art
Taproot Journal
A weekly musing
Number 2
Anthropocene shadows
The relentless hum of traffic is a reminder of the nature of humans, forever moving somewhere, nowhere. I haven't been out into the yard for a few weeks, a guilt pang from removing the Dandelions from their concrete beds. I am reminded of a distant memory that if you remove weed 8 times it doesn't return as it becomes too weak.
I found myself, whilst walking squinting between the cars looking for the jagged leaves in the verges and was not unrewarded, although the inclement weather has caused less blooms of vibrant yellow.
On my return I click the lock in the backdoor and venture up the 3 steps already cracked from invasion of taproots, but they are stubbornly absent. I step into the yard and it is grey and quiet, no bobbing leaves or trailing fronds, my heart sinks, for though I know the damage is far from ideal I miss the chaos of leaves and colour. I almost step back towards the house when my eye catches a tiny green glimmer and yes, two tiny spreads of the Dent de lion, undeterred yet hiding under the wall. They are back.. I turn, smiling, the smallest glimmer of new life enough to remove the guilt.
The tiny leaves remind of the leaves I have in the press the smallest and largest I could find, the feeling of returning to the spot I had spied the biggest leave I remember the lump in my throat that the plant may have been removed, so many times I have returned to seek a muse to rephotograph only to find it has vanished into the ether of the human anthropocene.
I return to the process of clay exploration, the strange grey creature almost crawls across the page the lack of pigment in the air dry clay taking the life out of the plant, I pause then rolling fresh clay between the my palms, leaves carefully moulded and applied carefully round the petals giving more agency to them as a flower. The clay clings to my fingertips, it is smooth and visceral a part of the process, not one that I favour but the process of exploration is rewarding enough to continue. The light is fading now, still early on the season with daylight still at a premium the shadows thrown across the clay shape broker interest, the brain clicks round processing the thoughts like files in a hard drive, which may become corrupted or may produce a further process of exploration once the light returns and I return to the quieter rural setting.
Taproot Journal
A weekly musing
Number 1
The air is damp as the gravel crunches under my feet, it is not intentional although it somehow is as this route is familiar with a timed length and few interruptions of the human kind.
The path is dirt now and I spot some friends their leaves peeking out of the undergrowth on the untrodden edge. Soon the road noise increases and the pavement is littered with tiny dandelions forcing up through the cracks, I wonder how many will survive…
I think about Jessica Lee and her star moss that has invaded so many places and how she felt when she first encountered it so small and wondrous but now as it invades the space of other moss and withstands human intervention to remove it, yet she herself has moved countless times as has the human race invading and destroying others of the same species in fact it is happening today in Ukraine. So should we be surprised that plants do the same given the opportunity?
Back on a path and the history of my yellow friends reminds me they are indeed not native but North American, but they have their own name in France … The field I reach next has been grazed tightly and as the air changes to that of the dense evening fog , the suns last rays flow over the hill lighting the sky for a final hour.
Back on home ground and the familiar leaves appear populating the bank and making me smile, a moment later and I crest the hill to the sight of a white dandelion clock glowing in the sun's last rays, a bit further and a 2nd and 3rd are poised to spread their seeds. The way the dandelion retires for the evening back into it bud shape flowing with the regular pattern of light and dark is how we used to live......
The top of the bank is a plethora of yellow faces tucking themselves up for the night but I will return daily now and greet my friends.
By the back door the trough has had one yellow head bravely battling against bind weed and nettles so I pause and clear some away, finding more leaves from the collaborative plant so I carefully leave them to grow a trough of dandelions in January