The Nettlefold family has been brought back to life at Winterbourne House and Garden, thanks to an evocative new exhibition, ‘Further Than Memory Can Reach’. In her frame, Birmingham-based painter Carolyn Blake has portrayed ghostly figures whose intriguing stories linger in the walls and greenery of this historic property. As she proves, art has the power to invoke feelings and memories…

It’s over a year since Blake first started researching the Nettlefolds, industrialists from the West Midlands who built Winterbourne in 1903 in a distinctive Arts and Crafts style. Taking as her starting point archival photographs and magic lantern slides, she came face-to-face with John and Margaret, their 6 children, servants, and wider circle.

Among them was Gerald Beesley, a regular visitor to Winterbourne, who married Margaret’s sister Nellie. He’s the first to greet visitors as they climb the old staircase towards the top-floor gallery, where the exhibition can be found.

Painted in translucent tones on canvas, Beesley stands in a garden scene, which is filtered through light and shadows. To one side is a flowering hedge, a collection of its fragile purple petals having fallen to the floor, creating a beautifully observed pattern of shade. Behind him, a heavy iron gate swings ajar, as if welcoming visitors through this portal into an otherworldly realm.

Stepping into the first room, visitors will find more haunting figures, sat or seated in various poses. Their intimately-sized portraits evoke a traditional family album, which has been pasted to the walls. Enhancing the archival aesthetic is Blake’s soft, sepia-toned palette with which she has portrayed each person, including Evelyn Nettefold who sits with a black cat in her lap.

Connecting the paintings further is Blake’s ground of apricot orange, just visible through the grey floorboards or dark wallpapers. She refers to it as a “memory colour”, casting hues of nostalgia on paintings which frame past events, from the momentous to the mundane. In this gallery, she has immortalised what she refers to as “the non-event in the everyday”, as a means of “bringing to life the inconsequential and sometimes non-memorable”.

She invites viewers to find magic in domestic yet poetic spaces, where in-between moments occur. This philosophy is reflected in literary titles such as ‘The House Protects the Dreamer 2’, a painting of Arthur Chamberlain (Margaret’s father, brother of Joseph Chamberlain and uncle to Neville Chamberlain). Relaxed, he sits on a garden bench beneath a white umbrella; Blake’s fluid, confident brushwork draws out his sense of ease.

With room on the seat next to Chamberlain, this inviting picture also acts as a reminder that the gardens continue to offer a green escape for local people, including Blake herself. In the second room, she has shifted her focus to the present day, and contemporary people whose lives are intertwined with Winterbourne.

As she has explained, “The more I walked around the garden, the more I realised I needed to relate to the present and bring the environment to life. In some instances, the paintings integrate the past with the present.”

Among her muses are gardeners Dan Cartwright and Deborah Johnson, who she has depicted in full colour and modern dress. Often facing away from the viewer, bent over borders and flowerbeds, she encourages the viewer to recognise the invisible physical labour required to cultivate Winterbourne.

Yet visitors will continue to find themselves moving between past and present, as the historic figure of John Nicolson emerges beside the Japanese Bridge, almost growing out of the Gunnera (giant rhubarb), which he was responsible for bringing to Winterbourne. As his silhouette merges with the gigantic sea green leaves, he assumes a mythical quality.

Touches of the surreal continue throughout several other landscapes, devoid of figures while hinting at human presence and memories. ‘As Soundless As Shadows 5’ features a garden feature surrounded on all sides by nature: who has previously hidden away here?

Similarly, ‘As Soundless as Shadows 7’ frames a doorway through a hedge, the cool greenery contrasting with an alluring pink sky, reverberating with the enchantment of children’s stories or a lucid dream. This is one of several paintings in which Blake has riffed on masterpieces from the University’s Barber Institute of Fine Arts, embedding visual references for the viewer to spot.

The gardens, Blake reveals, are a site for curiosity, play and imagination, which she has brought to this exhibition. Titled ‘Further Than Memory Can Reach’, which comes from W. G. Sebald’s book ‘The Rings of Saturn’, she presents the thoughts and memories which can be found by simply walking through a familiar landscape.

Journeying through this exhibition, viewers will encounter the people who have lived, worked and rested at Winterbourne, plus those who care for the garden today, all interconnected through the artist’s suggestive ‘memory colours’. The exhibition has been enhanced by Kinna Whitehead’s ‘Soundscape’ composition, which ends with the bells of Old Joe ringing across time.

In this evocative exhibition, Blake draws our attention to the poetry of everyday places, which hold traces of memories, from the personal to the collective. While shedding light on history, she invites exploration of Winterbourne’s gardens – visible through the gallery window – reframing the wonders to be found at this historic site.

As the University of Birmingham celebrates its 125th anniversary, ‘Further Than Memory Can Reach’ runs until 14 September 2025. It’s free to visit with the purchase of an entry ticket to Winterbourne House and Garden.