Celebrities Who Lent a Hand for Charity at Chelsea

The actor Jeremy Irons, super chef Rick Stein, Olympian Linford Christie, former prima ballerina Dame Darcey Bussell and BBC newscaster Sophie Raworth were among more than twenty celebrities who visited Griffin Glasshouses stand at Chelsea to do a spot of water colour painting for charity.

They came to meet The Wonky Artist, Rachel Smith-Ruffle, who, although disabled following an accident, is now an internationally acclaimed water-colourist. She had a three-quarters finished garden painting inside a Griffin greenhouse on the stand and the celebrities did some work completing the blanks areas. Rachel is now putting her finished touches to the painting at her studio before it is auctioned in aid of the spinal injury charity, Horatio’s Garden.

Griffin Glasshouses is a long-term supporter of Horatio’s Garden and their greenhouses feature in three of the gardens at spinal injury hospitals across the UK.

“It was a terrific turnout from the celebrities who all, under Rachel’s expert eye, enjoyed their painting,” says Linda Lane, managing director of the family-owned Griffin Glasshouses based in Hampshire.

Other celebrities and journalists who “lent a hand” included Sue Holderness, Craig Revel Horwood, Bunny Guinness, Deb Stone, Adam Frost, Martin & Shirlie Kemp, Ruth Gemmell, Charlotte Church, Deborah Meaden, Jo Whiley, Sue Kent and Alex Jones