It’s quite common for a botanical artist to reach a stage in a plant study where the effort invested in a developing piece appears to fall short of the anticipated results. One can experience a sense of inadequacy at the apparent lack of progress with the result that...
For much of 2025, in my teaching and e-booklets, I have focused on the fundamental techniques required in botanical art in the three mediums I use in my own practice, graphite, coloured pencil, and watercolour. My workshop participants spent a lot of time creating...
Two recent Instagram posts tell the story of a bold and blatant brush-stroke-for-brush-stroke rip-off of an award-winning chestnut painting by renowned botanical artist, Dianne Emery. With Dianne’s permission I’m showing her chestnut painting above but...
If you draw inspiration from paging through beautifully-illustrated botanical art books with seemingly endless examples of outstanding contemporary and award-winning botanical works, then I have something you should know about. It’s the Society of Botanical Artists...
Three years ago, I posted an article about the use of digital versus natural greens in botanical art. Unfortunately, it’s an ongoing issue. Artists who have sourced all their information about a subject from a screen (hand-held devices or computer monitors) are most...
