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The Creation of a Botanical Painting

I am extremely fortunate to be able to spend time during the year in often remote areas of Western Australia, exploring and collecting material to be able to turn into beautiful paintings back in my home studio.

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Once I have located my subject, I take several photographs and make numerous sketches and colour charts, in order to capture as much information as I can, as it is not possible to take the subject home with me.  Once I am back in my studio I work from all my gathered material to piece it all together like a jigsaw puzzle and work up a finished painting - which can often take weeks to complete.

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Molly's Garden

Working from my notes, I firstly create a life sized pencil drawing on rough paper to capture the character of the subject/s and come up with a pleasing composition and play around with some colours to create some matches against the subject.  

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I then transfer this drawing to a high quality archival paper ready for rendering.  

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Depending on the subject and the effect I wish to create, I will work with coloured pencils, graphite, watercolour, pen and ink, or sometimes a combination of one or two of these mediums.

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To achieve a painterly effect with pencils, and to capture the detail of a plant, requires the application of several layers of the medium.

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To be a botanical artist requires a love of the natural environment, plenty of time and patience, and good observational skills.

"Molly's Garden"

is dedicated to our amazing Miss Molly Pemberton - who was my wonderful loyal 'field assistant' for six beautiful years, and whom we lost far too soon  during the creation of this painting which will ever remain in our private gallery in her memory.

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