Susan Owens: 'Constable's Year: An Artist in Changing Seasons'

Join acclaimed art historian, Dr Susan Owens, and author and science writer, Gaia Vince, for a compelling book talk about Owens', 'Constable's Year: An Artist in Changing Seasons'. The book was published to mark the 250th anniversary of John Constable’s birth.

Owens and Vince offer fresh perspective on Constable’s life and work, following the artist through the seasons. Rooted in Constable’s deep knowledge of the countryside, they discuss an artist whose close observation of land, labour and sky transformed how nature could be painted, in addition to our human relationship to the natural environment.

There will be an opportunity to purchase a signed copy of the book at the talk.

Dr Susan Owens is an expert on British landscape art and a leading critical voice in the field. Her publications include 'The Story of Drawing: An Alternative History' (2024), which was 'Apollo' magazine's 2024 Book of the Year, 'Imagining England's Past: Inspiration, Enchantment, Obsession' (2023) and 'Spirit of Place: Artists, Writers and the British Landscape' (2020). She was Curator of Paintings at the V&A until 2013, and was involved in the major V&A exhibition and catalogue 'Constable: The Making of a Master' (2014).

Gaia Vince is a science writer, broadcaster and Anthropocene researcher exploring the interplay between human systems and the planetary environment. She is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the Anthropocene Institute at UCL and a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts. Her first book, 'Adventures In The Anthropocene' won the Royal Society Science Book of the Year Prize. Her latest book, 'Nomad Century: How To Survive The Climate Upheaval', explores global migration and planetary restoration in a radical call to arms.