Flora and Fauna
A couple of years ago I started growing strawberries and red currants in our garden. They taste very yummy. The berries you can see in my water colour on cold pressed paper are the first I picked a couple of seasons ago. I felt the photograph I took had great composition and so I decided to paint them. My main focus for this piece was to capture light and shadows. I created the shadows using wet in wet with a tiny amount of pigment on the brush. I used layers and layers of pigment, using a fine brush to mark out areas of light shining off of the berries. Sometimes I used a thick amount of pigment to bring out those rich reds. Other artists on YouTube suggest using white gel pen for all sorts of effects but here I have used white gel pen to give the suggestion of how shiny those berries are. I think overall the white gel pen is more successful on the currants as opposed to the strawberries but using a variety of techniques to create the illusion of shine and shadow has taught me a lot about painting still life in watercolours.
Still life
Water colour and white gel pen on cold pressed paper
Strawberries and red currants grown in my garden
Year Created 2024
Here I will be displaying my floral artworks. I am developing my water colour practice focusing on fine details but also learning to be free with the pigment and brush. I am experimenting with wet in wet techniques. I hope you enjoy viewing these as I continue to post more throughout the summer. My aim is to show off the little gems in my garden and flowers I am inspired by on my travels!
Rhododendron taken at the Hortus Botanicus in Amsterdam.
Water colour on hot pressed water colour paper Created May 2026
Nasturtium on a dewy morning with lady bird. I loved how I had captured the dew drops in the original photograph and felt compelled to try and paint them. Read my blog post, available now, about how I created the dew drops!
Water colour on hot pressed water colour paper. Created April 2026
Inspired by a walk in Friarscroft Wood where an abundance of Forget-Me-Nots grow. This was a wet-in-wet experiment with some success. I think with a little more refinement in places and an even looser brush to pigment ratio this could work very well as a repeat print on fabric or wallpaper. But that will be a project for another day!
Water colour on hot pressed water colour paper
Created June 2026
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