RHS Botanical Art Show 2021

I am delighted to say that I had a place in the 2021 RHS Botanical Art and Photography Show, which was at the Saatchi Gallery, London in 2021, covering the dates of the Chelsea Flower Show. The Saatchi Gallery was used as the usual venue, Lindley Hall, was being used as a vaccination centre.

My exhibit was titled ‘Tomatoes: Fruit and flower development’. My six paintings showed examples of how cascading mutations in the genes of tomatoes have generated the changes from the tiny pea-sized fruit in Central America, to the variety and size of fruit grown throughout the world today. The picture above is of the variety ‘Tlacolula’ which shows mutations in the LC and FAS genes, resulting in a multi-locule tomato, and also a mutation in the OVATE gene resulting in a pear-shaped fruit.

To my suprise and pleasure, I was awarded a Gold medal for my exhibit.

Tomato ‘Lemon Tree’

Tomato ‘Lemon Tree’

24 x 32 cm

Watercolour

The seeds for these were in a pack of ‘heritage’ tomatoes, and I loved the intensity of the golden colour of the ripe fruit.

This is one of the four pieces submitted to the Royal Horticultural Society Picture Committee and considered to be Silver Medal standard.