I can’t stop painting flowers. For 15 years. Flowers.

You would think, with all of the beauty which surrounds us in BC, I would be inspired to paint vast mountainous landscapes or serene shimmering seascapes. But no, my attention is constantly drawn to the tiny plant life at my feet.

Even though people have insisted that I must “move on”, or stated flatly that I will eventually “move on”, I have not.  I’ll admit that occasionally (very occasionally), I have experienced fleeting interest in another subject, but generally when I sit down to paint, it’s flowers. 

I can’t explain my obsession, but I know how it started.

I took my first botanical watercolour painting course with Alison Watt, around the time I was set to retire.  Then, a friend introduced me to Mary Delany, an artist from the 1700’s.  At the age of 72, Mary started her “life’s work”– the creation of 985 botanically correct, mixed media, flower mosaics which are housed in the British Museum. I was struck by the story of this woman who began a new career in her 70’s and who, like me, was captivated by the shape, colour and infinite variability of flowers. She was my inspiration to keep going.

After my introduction to botanical art with Alison, I was grateful to learn from other local botanical artists.  Lyn Noble, whose graceful botanicals display elegant composition, generously shared her time with me.  Mary Comber Miles shared her classic training in the art of botanical painting, reinforcing for me the history of this art form.

Friends also encouraged my passion, giving me books on the works of Pierre-Joseph Redouté, often called “the Raphael of flowers”.  And I visited the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art at Kew Gardens in London and saw how artists are finding different ways to showcase plants.

So here I am, still painting flowers.  I strive to capture the light in flowers, whether accented against a background or through the play of light and dark on the buds and petals. My goal is to present blossoms in all their glory.