Category: Watercolour

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.

Ammonite

Ammonite with logo aAmmonite

48 x 39 cm

Watercolour

The original ammonite (shown at the bottom left of the picture) is about 6cm across.  I started painting the picture from the centre of the ammonite, and as the picture progressed, I was amazed to see how much the crystals inside the internal chambers looked like pictures of nebulae and star fields, an amazing example of the micro mirroring the macro.

Cockerel

Cockerel with logoLight Sussex Cockerel

19 x 24 cm

Watercolour

In a private collection

I painted this from a photo I took of a friend’s cockerel striding around his pen.  I particularly enjoyed the challenge of the tail feathers, which had an iridescence to them that made them shine green and purple.

Hazel – Red filbert

Corylus maxima purpurea – hazel – red filbert

29 cm x 38 cm

Watercolour

I had seen the glorious colour of the leaves in springtime, and then in the autumn, I was amazed by the pink of the casings surrounding the nuts, so I wanted to paint the hazel as one of my submissions.  It then took a year, as I slowly added the next stage of growth to the picture.

This is one of the four pieces I submitted to the Royal Horticultural Society, and which were considered to be of Silver Medal standard.

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.

Snow

Snow

12 x 12 cm

Watercolour

In a private collection

In the February after we moved to Essex we had 15 cm of snow, more than I had seen since I was a child.  Familiar walks were transformed, and I particularly liked this view through a hedge, and the way that the brambles framed the oak tree on the far side of the field.

Rachel said ‘I could imagine this as an illustration for The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.’