Synopsis

For the vast majority of Hongkongers, the art of horticulture is little more than an abstract concept, inaccessible to the millions confined to their apartment cells. Painting the Modern Garden not only explores the genuine artistry in gardening, but more interestingly examines how it has inspired some of the world’s greatest artists.
At the Royal Academy of Arts, Claude Monet’s seminal triptych of water lily paintings were exhibited together with Matisse’s earlier this year for the first time in an age. Director David Bickerstaff’s camera guides us around this exquisite exhibition, but not before whisking us to France, and the garden in Giverny that inspired France’s great impressionist. As the film bleeds into painting and back again, the results are truly magical.