Fine ceramic artist and Design Factory associate member Paul Cummins has been invited by the Duke of Devonshire and the Chatsworth House Trust to create a spectacular installation of 500 ceramic tulips which will be one of the highlights at the Spring Florabundance floral festival. The Florabundance festival takes place from Saturday 1st - Thursday 6th May 2010.

Entitled ‘Floralia’ - the name given to the Roman springtime festivities that celebrated Flora, the Roman goddess of flowers - the beautiful and brightly coloured tulip heads will be arranged amongst the specially cultivated, top quality, top size tulip bulbs donated by de jager that will be in full bloom at Chatsworth. 

Floralia will be on show from Saturday 24th April to Sunday 16th May 2010.

The artwork will take Paul Cummins more than 3 months to make, as each flower head is thrown on a potter’s wheel before it is sculpted and painstakingly hand-painted using Maiolica tin glaze to achieve the lustrous colouration. The different sized flower heads are mounted on ‘stems’ of flexible galvanised steel rods.

The tulips are based on some of the famous Dutch flower paintings that hang in the opulent rooms at Chatsworth as well as Paul Cummins study sketches and watercolour observations from nature.

Paul Cummins will be at Chatsworth every day during Florabundance to talk informally to visitors about the development, making and arrangement of the Floralia installation, as well as the weekends of: 24th & 25th April, 7th & 8th May and 14th & 15th May 2010.

"I am looking forward to seeing the public’s reaction to the Floralia installation," said Paul. "It has been simultaneously exciting and daunting to create such a substantial artwork and I am so honoured to have been invited to make it. It would be wonderful to find a permanent site for it after the Florabundance festival, but I wonder if could be another magnificent setting to match the glory of Chatsworth." 

Paul trained as an architect before turning to ceramics. He graduated from the University of Derby in 2009, where his degree project was a magnificent installation of 400 ceramic poppies.   Subsequently his hand-thrown traditional pitchers, featuring exquisite flower paintings, have been capturing attention at Tregoning Fine Art, Derby and 78 Derngate, Northampton galleries.

For more information and images, contact Karoline Newman, Articulate Communication, 020 7420 7738 or email knewman@articulate.co.uk.

Call the Chatsworth Bookings Office on 01246 565 300 to book your group visit or visit www.chatsworth.org for more information.

For more information about de jager, visit www.dejager.co.uk