NEXT time you walk along the Town Path towards Harnham, you will probably notice the art installation spelling out the word ‘draws’ or if you walk the other way it reads ‘sward’.

The work by Jonathan Parsons is called For John Constable and is a contemporary response to the landscape of the Harnham Water Meadows that the 19th century landscape painter was inspired by.

The art installation in the meadows is part of a wider exhibition being held at Salisbury Arts Centre by Abigail Reynolds and Jonathan Parsons called, A Dialogue on Landscape and Constable.

Speaking about the work in the meadows, Jonathan says:“The two words that I’ve used in the work reflect the environment in which Constable painted in two ways. Firstly he was the artist who famously drew and painted these meadows – the ‘green sward’ – and, in doing so, created an iconic version of the English landscape with which we can still identify today.

“Secondly, the irrigation channel system of the water meadows literally draws water from the surrounding rivers to produce early lush pasture for animals to graze upon.”

Abigail Reynolds and Jonathan Parsons are two internationally recognised contemporary artists who have previously worked with landscape in different ways to engage in an open and creative dialogue to explore what landscape and Constable mean to each of them.

Abigail and Jonathan’s observations about Constable remind us that not only was Constable a radical artist in his own day, but that his work remains as vital and contemporary today as it has ever been.

The exhibition at the Arts Centre runs until July 31.

* You can see Constable’s painting, Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows, painted in 1831, at the Constable in Salisbury exhibition at Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum until September 25.