NANA'S GARDEN - ORIGINAL PAINTING BY AVA REID - 81 x 102 CM
 
Part of the 'HOW DO YOU KNOW MY NAME?' 2026 EXHIBITION; ARC Centre Gallery, Stockport
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Some places live vividly in the head and heart, and for Ava, Nana's Garden is on of those places.

This original acrylic work by Macclesfield artist Ava Reid is an extraordinary painting and one of the most personal in the collection.
 
Nana’s Garden is not a literal depiction but something more powerful, this painting is a felt experience of a much loved place, poured directly onto canvas.
 
Nana's Garden pulses with hot pink, deep magenta and purple, threaded through with green, teal, white and black in Ava’s signature layered shapes; circles within circles, dots cascading like a trail through the garden, loose spiralling blooms unfurling across the lower canvas like flowers seen from above.

This is what it feels like to be somewhere you are completely happy. The warmth of extended family, the sea nearby, fish and chips on the harbour wall, and at the centre of it all the warmth and safety of Ava's Nana Lin, growing flowers and tending her garden in West Wales, as in Ava's memories, she always has.

Ava visits Nana as often as she can, and those visits live brightly in her memories. Every mark in this painting carries that joy.
 
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About the Collection
 
How Do You Know My Name is a solo exhibition of original paintings by Ava Reid, showing at ARC Centre Gallery, Stockport throughout the summer of 2026.
 
The collection brings together Ava’s deeply personal portraits of people she loves, admires, and finds fascinating, and the places she relates to that both inspire her and make her feel safe.
 
The paintings display Ava's unmistakable style of bold mark-making, layered colour, and joyful, expressive energy.
 
Each painting is named for it's subject or place, making this a collection that is as intimate as it is captivating.
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About the Artist
 
Ava Reid is a Macclesfield based artist whose work is characterised by its confident colours, distinctive shapes, and joyful energy. As an artist with Down's syndrome and Autism Ava brings a perspective that is genuinely unique. Ava's work is never constrained by her own expectation of the finished product but are born of the purest creative instinct.
 
Ava's work has been celebrated for releasing genuine emotion amongst first time admirers as well as more seasoned fans. Her work is an outstanding example of art made by an artist with a learning disability that commands serious attention with it's vibrance and confidence.
 
Collecting an Ava Reid original means owning something that cannot be replicated, a piece of authentic art from one of Macclesfield's most exciting emerging talents.
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Original acrylic on canvas. 81 x 102cm. One of thirteen paintings in the 'HOW DO YOU KNOW MY NAME?' 2026 exhibition shown at the ARC Centre in Stockport, 2026. Sold unframed. Certificate of authenticity included.