Patty B. Driscoll at Oak Spring

I’d heard of Bunny Mellon the same way many of us who appreciate design and gardening have—she was a great friend to Jackie Kennedy Onassis (she collaborated with her on The White House Rose Garden), and she had exquisite style reflected in her houses around the world. And while she mostly stayed out of the limelight, she was a familiar name among New York’s social elite in the 20th century. After Mrs. Mellon died at age 103 in May 2014, Sotheby’s auction house conducted a sale of the art, furniture, and collections from her estates. When I looked at those pieces in the online catalog, I felt a connection to her aesthetic, and I wanted to know her story more thoroughly.

As a multi-disciplinary artist with a passion for gardens, symbolism, history, and beauty, I was attracted to Mrs. Mellon’s ideas about design and travel, her appreciation for the mysteries and majesty of the natural world, and her interest in collecting the work of female artists such as Madeline Hewes. Over the next few years, I eagerly read anything I could get my hands on about her. And then, in the summer of 2023, as I was driving from Alabama through Virginia, I realized I was close to Oak Spring, her farm in Upperville, Virginia, and I wondered if it was available for touring. A quick scan of the Oak Spring Garden Foundation website revealed it was only open two days each year during the Virginia Historic Garden Week, but I also discovered information about a competitive residency program that intrigued me. It’s dedicated to the study of plant life that includes the landscape and gardens at Oak Spring, the estate, and Mrs. Mellon’s astounding library with more than 19,000 botanical-related books. The application was due in four days. I worked fast.

A few months later, I was thrilled to receive an invitation for a residency that provided two weeks at the working garden, library, and estate. I decided not to bring my oil paints and instead put my focus on watercolors and gouache, intending to sketch and record elements of Mrs. Mellon’s garden and interiors. And I’m glad I did. Inspiration was everywhere, from the houses and gardens to the library and even my fellow residents. I shared deliciously prepared meals with my cohorts (who happened to all be female), including a curator, a botanist, and an artist. I also met a group of internationally renowned botanical artists who taught me the importance of scientific accuracy when depicting flowers, plants, and insects.

Almost every day, I spent my early hours sketching the grounds, seeking that moment when light, landscape, and air work together to create moments of beauty and peace. I admired that Mrs. Mellon respected weeds and left them to grow among her flowers and grass. I drew and photographed chicory, thistle, and the pretty weeds that grew freely outside of my studio, as well as pea shoots and herbs from the Biocultural Conservation Farm next door.

In the afternoons, I sometimes spent hours in the library, working with Oak Spring’s generous librarians to research plants and flowers, as well as botanical illustrators, like 17th-century illustrator and naturalist Maria Sibylla Merian whose rigid methodology has long inspired my work. With every book search and discovery, I learned more about Mrs. Mellon’s thorough process of acquisitions while also gaining insight from the staff who lovingly shared stories about her design of and dedication to her gardens.

Other days, I helped in the cutting garden, clipping blooms for a flower-arranging class or picking fruit to sketch for future still life paintings. I visited the house and rooms that reveal Mrs. Mellon’s creative hand through their architecture and design—down to the most easily overlooked detail. Her trompe l’oeil room in the greenhouse exists unchanged, and it was as difficult in person as it is in photos to tell the painting from real objects. One of my favorite spaces is the toile-enveloped guest cottage named for her good friend and fashion designer Hubert de Givenchy. I also loved the basket house, where an abundance of baskets hung from the ceiling. One Friday, I joined Nancy Collins, librarian and loyal nurse to Mrs. Mellon, to lay Oak Spring flowers at Mrs. Mellon’s grave, a gesture of remembrance for Oak Spring’s creator.

Each time I went to the estate or any of the outbuildings, I studied the subtle, elegant design schemes. Many of the floors in the Mellons’ homes were checkered in pale shades, while the walls in some spaces were striéed or dragged. Detailed architec- tural innovations like jib doors, inset spaces, and storage nooks were hidden features in almost all the rooms. There were pocket windows with three-pocket layers—screen, windowpane, and then shutter. Painted furniture and loose, washed slipcovers in custom woven fabrics, often by Nantucket Looms, humbled the fineness of each piece in the rooms. The interiors reflected one of Mrs. Mellon’s well-known sayings—“nothing should be noticed”—in reference to the desire for harmony in a space rather than an assemblage of “ta-dah” statement pieces.

I was also fascinated by her art collection. I knew it would be impressive since her father-in-law, Andrew Mellon, founded The National Gallery of Art, and her husband, Paul, had been its president and trustee. In addition to Mrs. Mellon’s early recognition and collecting of works by modern painters, such as Mark Rothko and Richard Diebenkorn, I was struck by her affinity for early American art. In her collection was a box decorated by New Hampshirite muralist Rufus Porter, a theorem box, and a lovely embroidered New England sampler. Mrs. Mellon’s dedication to the best did not necessarily mean that she only wanted the most expensive or refined. Her honed taste and educated eye for quality and originality led her true connoisseurship.

My most significant takeaway from the house and farm at Oak Spring is a moment I had at the end of my residency. Mrs. Mellon was attracted to microcosms in her collecting, which informed the organization of her garden and interior rooms. To plan and communicate her designs, she created maquettes of spaces to understand how to get the most out of any room she was creating. It’s a practical approach that also allows for the best design decisions. I do the same before my art shows, mapping out how and where to hang paintings and place installations for maximum ease and the best viewing experience.

My residency experience was profound, and since I’ve returned home, I’ve been doing further research on medicinal herbs and herbariums, all in preparation for an exhibition of my paintings in Maine this summer. But before then, I’ll be returning for a second residency later this spring. As Mrs. Mellon once said, “There is nothing that has not already been done in design. It is the joy of discovery that creates the excitement and interest of putting together old ideas with the originality of the individual person.” Immersing myself in Mrs. Mellon’s world at Oak Spring made her, as well as my own art, truly come alive for me.

By Patty B. Driscoll as told to Frances MacDougall

Learn more about Patty on her website and Instagram. You can also see her Birmingham home here.

Learn more about Bunny Mellon’s style.

MORE BOTANICAL ARTISTS

• The Forever Florist: Artist Ronni Nicole Robinson
• Diane Carnevale’s Interior Dialogue
• The Soulful Creative—and the Healing Power of Flowers
• Frances Palmer’s Life in the Studio