Hardcastle Gallery will celebrate an artistic interpretation of the renowned Ashland Hollow.  The artists of Ashland Hollow will present a collection of paintings and drawings inspired by the garden from May 4^th through May 31^st at Hardcastle Gallery in Centerville , Delaware .  The opening will be held May 4, 2007, 5:30pm – 8:30pm, coincident with First Friday gallery openings in Wilmington and the surrounding community.  The artists will be on hand to guide you through an artistic tour of Ashland Hollow through the seasons.  

Ashland Hollow is one of the most admired private gardens on the East Coast and it has been featured in articles and publications, including a piece appearing recently in The Washington Post.  Purchased by Bill and Nancy Frederick in 1965, the Fredericks transformed the formerly bare, 17-acre pasture into a landscape of lasting beauty.  Mr. Frederick, who set out to be a lawyer but who was drawn to horticulture, learned much from Henry Francis du Pont and his work at Winterthur .  Ashland Hollow presents changing and transcendent vistas designed and nurtured through plantings and pathways that take advantage of site, climate and variety.  It is both a labor of love and a statement of purpose executed by the Fredericks with great care. 

Artists have been drawn to, and inspired by, Ashland Hollow for years.  It is a private garden not generally open to the public, but the Fredricks have opened Ashland Garden to talented artists from the region, including from Delaware , Pennsylvania , Maryland and New Jersey .  The artists have come to observe, to study, to contemplate and, most importantly, to execute works designed to evoke the garden and their place in it.  Featured in the upcoming show at Hardcastles are Partick Arnold, Catherine Drabkin, Bill Frederick, Henry Greenewalt, Pahl Hluchan, Paul Skibinski, Stan Sperlak, Juliana Weidinger, and Sarah Yeoman.  Each brings a different perspective to, and about, Ashland Hollow.  From the luminescent and evocative watercolors of Sarah Yeoman, to the bold oil musings of Paul Skibinski, the show will present Ashland Hollow from a perspective not otherwise available to the public.