The biannual Fresh Air exhibition in Quennington is one of the loveliest ways to spend a summer’s afternoon….

The beautiful Old Rectory house and gardens evoke a real sense of the old English country way of life, but despite this provincial setting, with sculptors from across the UK offering pieces, it has a wide-reaching feel.

Sculptures are dotted across the lawns and throughout the landscaped spaces, down on the river bank and around the kitchen garden, tennis courts and swimming pool.

A tea tent provides simple lunches, coffees and ice creams from local favourites Winstones. Munchkin and I met some friends – big and little – there and pottered around in the sunshine.

Fresh Air ran till 5 July and returns in 2017. You can find out more information on the sculptors and their work, which is available to buy, here.

“Painting and sculpture are very archaic forms. It’s the only thing left in our industrial society where an individual alone can make something with not just his own hands, but brains, imagination, heart maybe.”
Philip Guston