Welcome to Floral Collection 1. Here we have a range of both traditionally painted botanical art as well as environmental compositions. Many originals are available to purchase.
Click on the thumbnails to explore. (If you click off the caption, click again to restore) If you are interested in buying an available original from this collection, you will find it on this page.

Bird of Paradise flower (Strelitzia reginae), watercolour on paper, 31 by 57cm, SOLD
A botanical illustration in traditional style of the Bird of Paradise flower

Cathedral Bell, Cobaea scandens, watercolour on paper, 38.4 by 27.8cm £220
A botanical style portrait of the exotic Mexican climbing plant, Cobaea scandens, in purple, where the colour intensifies as the flowers mature. The fruits are also spectacular, and the growth in very vine-like with clinging tendrils, which I love to paint.

Scottish Spear Thistle, watercolour on paper, 18.5 by 26cm £95
A watercolour portrait of the Spear thistle, the particular species of thistle usually chosen to represent the flower of Scotland. According to folklore, a sleeping group of Scots soldiers were saved from being ambushed when an enemy Norse warrior trod on this prickly plant and cried out loud, so alerting the sleepers to the attack. (I've shown it here with a 6 spot burnet moth, a frequent thistle visitor)

Autumn Hydrangeas, watercolour and acrylic ink on paper, 34 by 45.5cm £250
A watercolour painting of pink and blue hydrangeas as they shift colour in the autumn to gorgeous rusty reds and purples. I wanted to convey a richness to them in contrast to the purer and fresh colours of summer and that these seasonal heads are beautiful in their own right.

Flowering Cherry, watercolour on paper, 27.7 by 50cm £210
I was driving to an art class I held on a Monday morning and passed a gorgeous branch of this cherry blossom overhanging the fence of someone's garden. I'd been wanting to paint some cherry blossom for a few days and hadn't being able to find some of the colour I was after. This was it! So after the class, I found the house where this cherry tree lived and emboldened by my students to go and see if I could have a cutting, I was duly rewarded with a large one. So it became a panel with an asymmetrical Japanese style, and I posted a print for the owner when it was finished.

Ox-eye Daisies 2, watercolour on paper, 37.8 by 37.8cm £
Stems of the oxeye daisy in a meadow habit, happily growing with a variety of grasses. Pen and ink was used for the main subjects; the background impressionistic grasses were done using blown ink runs to give depth and a delicate feel.

Dock and Dandelion , watercolour and acrylic ink on paper, 32 by 42.6cm SOLD
A composition of dock and dandelion leaves with the lovely seed heads of the dandelion, arranged as they grow together in verges and hedgerows. It's the going over to burgundies in the dock leaves that attracted me. Who says weeds can't be beautiful?

Pen and Ink Roses, ink on paper, 24.5 by 22cm £95
A traditional style pen and ink drawing of hybrid Tea roses, using stippling and hatching techniques to render structure and depth. I produced the same drawing in paint, as 'Sepia Roses'.

Himalayan Blue Poppy, Meconopsis, gouache on paper, 27 by 18.5cm SOLD
A portrait of meconopsis, otherwise know as the Himalyan Blue Poppy. This was painted from life from one which was struggling to grow in my garden, so I was able to bring it back to full health in my painting.

Hyacinths , watercolour on paper, 26 by 34cm £170
A neighbour gave me a present of a purple/blue hyacinth in a pot, so since I'd never tackled drawing one before, I gave it a go, and created two other stems with more muted tones for the composition. The drawing was challenging, but I had the lovely sweet scent from my plant to keep me going!

Spring Collection, 1 of a series of 4, watercolour on paper, 26.5 by 34.5cm £195
This composition was slowly built up during one spring season by selecting plants from my garden and the branches of some budding trees. I used a log covered in moss as my base and starting point, then added plants one by one from there to completion. An interesting exercise in plant observation and rendering, balanced by aesthetic considerations.

Summer Collection, 2 of a series of 4, watercolour on paper, 28 by 35.5cm £195
A collection of flowers blooming in my garden during one summer, composed like a bouquet, and painted one by one, building up to the whole. I began with the larger poppies and roses, then filled in with additional plants for a sense of rich abundance - very much like arranging flowers in a vase.

Autumn Collection, 3 of a series of 4, watercolour on paper, 27.5 by 35.5cm £150
A collection of autumnal finds were used here to build a composition with a cyclical feel and this shaping hopefully helps to evoke the flutter of falling leaves in an autumn wind.

Winter Collection, 4 of a Series of 4, watercolour on paper, 27 by 35cm £180
For the final collection for the season of winter, I used some stones and a branch covered in lichens as a compositional base to use as grounding for the various flowers and plants I brought together for the painting.

Climbing Clematis, Bindweed, and Ivy, watercolour on paper, life size to plants, SOLD
An intertwining composition of climbing ivy, clematis and bindweed, all clinging on to each other with twisting tendrils, arranged as a panel for an oriental feel. My favourite element was painting the tendrils!

Foxgloves, watercolour on paper, 34.5 by 53cm £240
The main compulsion to paint these was to render the spotted interiors of the tubular flowers. I wanted to convey a traditional botanical illustrative style to the painting, so incorporated some monochrome rendering in sepia.

Everlasting pea and Alchemilla Mollis ( Lady’s Mantle) , watercolour on paper, 24.5 by 56.5cm SOLD
I selected some stems of the everlasting pea and and arranged them around a stem of lady's mantle from my garden, chosen for the similar angling of the stems and for the lovely colour contrasts of the flowers together.

Victorian Pansies, watercolour on paper, 26.7 by 26.5cm £210
I've called these 'Victorian' pansies because I associate the rich burgundies and pinks with that era, and because pansies were such a popular garden flower back then and an ideal subject for needlepoint. They were painted from life from those growing in my garden.

Summer Hedgerow, watercolour and mixed media on paper, 26 by 29cm, SOLD
A mixed media study of the abundance of life in a summer hedgerow, using pva modelling for the seedheads and tube-lining for the foregrounds stems to aid visual depth.

Sunflowers 1, mixed media on paper, 39.5 by 39.5cm, SOLD
I painted these from the sunflowers my husband and I grew in a long row quite a few years ago now, and I selected varying stages of the opening flower. I couldn't believe how robust and thick the stems are. Media included watercolour, acrylic inks, pva glue and tube-lining colour.

Sepia Roses, coloured pencil on paper, 24.5 by 32cm £120
I love monochrome painting for that certain vintage and aged feeling it has. But tonal monochrome like this was also used as an underpainting method in traditional botanical painting were all the three dimensional shading was done first, then the colour washes were applied on top for a more subtle result. I suppose this painting pays homage to that method whilst having a charm of its own - at least it does for me.

Monarch Butterfly and Wild Flowers, watercolour on paper, 17.8 by 22.8cm £95
A habitat collection of wild flowers growing in a meadow attracting the attentions of a Monarch butterfly. Some 'negative painting' was used to develop texture in the background. I actually do the backgrounds of these kinds of paintings after the main subjects, working around the sections and connecting them. Last of all is the sky.

Oriental Poppy panel, watercolour on paper, 11.5 by 25cm £40
The pink oriental poppy is my favourite flower, and this panel was painted from life using some of these poppies from my own garden.

Aquilegia , watercolour on paper, 36 by 46cm £220
My garden is full of these - a bit too full actually! But they beckoned and nodded at me saying 'you haven't done us yet'...so I selected my favourite colourways from my crop and set about it. They are tricky to draw, but they were highly rewarding to paint and shade to bring them to life on the paper. I just had to add a ladybird as one of my favourite insects.

Bearded Iris, watercolour on paper, 31.3 by 53.4cm, SOLD
A portrait of Iris germanica, one of the bearded irises, named for the bushy 'beard' of stamens on each of the lower petals or 'falls'. It was lovely painting the frilliness of the petals in all their glory

Onion plant, watercolour on paper, 23 by 50.5cm £90
Okay, I can honestly say my hubby and I grew this in a one time vegetable bed, so I got to appreciate the beauty, and then, of course, I painted it life size (well, what else? ;>))

Lavatera and Monkshood, watercolour on paper, 27.5 by 43cm, SOLD
This composition came from some drawing and painting I did on a botanical course, drawing the two respective stems, which I later put together at home as a complementary pairing for a painting. I used the traditional undercoat method where you render all the details and form in a grey/brown tint before the main true colours are applied on top. I left one element at the tonal shading stage as a reminder and as you frequently see in period botanical prints.

Dog’s tooth Violet, watercolour on paper, 20.5 by 30cm SOLD
A wet-into wet watercolour portrait of the dog's tooth violet, using salt spatter in wet paint to create texture on the spotted leaves.

Peony, Paeonia officinalis, watercolour on paper, 33 by 43cm, £295
A botanical illustration of a peony from my garden, painted from life.

Rhododendron, Percy Wiseman, watercolour on paper, 33 by 43cm £295
A botanical study of a rhododendron showing the budding to opening stages of the flower and the gorgeous changing tones of colour.

Honesty , watercolour on paper, 29.3 by 45.8cm, SOLD
A botanical study of Honesty, Lunaria annua, showing the development of the fruits through to the dried silvery membranes after the seeds have been released.

Oriental Lily, watercolour on paper, 19 by 27cm SOLD
I used to buy these lilies for the occasional painting workshop I taught, because they are exciting to paint and of relatively simple structure to draw. After helping students paint them, I thought it was about time I had a go myself, and added some waterdrops, one of my favourite touches.

Spring Summer Florilegium, acrylic on canvas, 60 by 60cm. (Not for sale)
A collection of spring and summer garden flowers arranged in a compositional bouquet to celebrate the abundance of the seasons, with little creatures to discover.

Stem carnations, watercolour on paper, 19.5 by 44cm SOLD
Using the shadow underpainting technique, as traditional with botanical illustration to achieve subtle tones.

Gorse, surface pattern, watercolour on paper, 54 by 22cm £195
This is a surface pattern design I did for a book cover, for which only a section was used. I love the panel created by the composition and it can work vertically or horizontally.

Shrub rose, Rosa rugosa, watercolour on paper, 21 by 25cm SOLD
I became familiar with this shrub rose because the farmers have been planting it in the hedgerows around where I live and you just can't miss the bright red luscious fruits! The sweet-scented flowers are used to make pot-pourri in Japan and China.
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