Lectures
Each lecture is scheduled to last for up to one hour and is illustrated with images of the highest quality. Lectures can be developed or adapted to suit individual groups and their interests. Click on topics below for more detailed information.
English gardens of the Tudor period
Plants
The aesthetics of gardens
Gardens in remarkable places
Other lectures (more information available on request):
The architecture of the garden: ‘secret houses’ and garden lodges
The house and the landscape: integrating architecture into nature
‘Elysian Fields such as the poets dreamed of’: The Mughal garden in the English mind
Mapping Shakespeare's London
Early cartographers and architectural draughtsmanship in the Tudor/early Stuart periods (c. 1570-c. 1630)
Previous lecture venues
In the United Kingdom: Cambridge University; Oxford University; the Paul Mellon Centre for British Art: the Architectural Association; Christie’s Education; The Inchbald School of Design; The Victoria and Albert Museum; the Tate Gallery; The Garden History Society; The Society of Architectural Historians; Sir John Soane’s Museum; Sotheby’s Educational Studies; Middle Temple Historical Society and many others.
Paula ran courses in the Courtauld Institute of Art summer schools in London from 1996 to 2015. Courses taught included ‘Landscape as Art’, ‘The Tudor House and Garden’, ‘The Formal Garden’, ‘The Renaissance Garden’ and ‘Art and Architecture in Shakespeare’s London’. She has led study tours to Florence (‘Gardens of the Medici’), Derbyshire (‘Elizabethan architecture’) and in the Cotswolds (‘Historic landscapes of the Cotswolds’).
In Europe: for the Deutsch-Britische Gesellschaft in Bonn, Frankfurt and Heidelberg; at numerous colloques held at the Centre d'études supérieures de la Renaissance, Tours (France); and at various venues in Scotland and Ireland.
In the United States: The Royal Oak Foundation (for many years and at many locations); the Garden Club of America (Hancock Park Garden Club, Los Angeles; the Winnetka Garden Club; and the River Oaks Garden Club (Houston). Other venues and institutions include the Minneapolis Institute of Art and the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). Paula was a featured speaker at the annual Colonial Williamsburg Garden Symposium. She taught art and architectural history at Ithaca College (London Center) from 1993-1999.
In South Africa: University of Cape Town, Summer School (course on 'The Renaissance Garden')