In 2010 I got together with a friend and local artist Helen Lush to create a small exhibiting group based around our local botanic garden. With only six members working in various media we have aimed to exhibit locally every couple of years. We usually choose a plant based theme to base our paintings around with the aim of portraying local plants and places. This year we were invited to show at Insole Court, a partially restored Victorian Gothic mansion in Llandaff, Cardiff. I decided to take as my inspiration some of the carvings on the doorways and to paint real tulips from my own garden in the style of Insole. I used Egg tempera for these paintings as I felt it would give the decorative quality that I was looking for. It was an interesting medium for me - very slow to build up the layers but with a very different technique to my usual watercolour. I did a lot of research and realise that there is much to learn about this ancient medium. i will definitely come back to it in the future. The two tulips I painted were ‘Rem’s Favourite’ and ‘Helmar’ which though modern resemble the old dutch tulips painted by the masters.
one of the carvings
Insole Tulip - Rem’s Favourite