Tell us about yourself, and how did your journey into botanical art begin?
I am an English artist living and working in rural Dorset. My journey into botanical art began at school. It started very clearly for me with the ‘nature table’ and I loved going on nature walks which our school encouraged, and collecting lovely natural history treasures. I remember these vividly being mentioned in a number of Enid Blyton books – such as sticky buds – and collecting these jewels and observing them was the first step towards wanting to draw them.
I did biology, history, Latin and art at school and the subjects seem to naturally converge into this beautiful art form. Initially I was an artist in my spare time whilst having a career in human resources in the NHS and charity sector and then I ran a consultancy business. I used to paint in the evenings and at weekends – because I worked full time – and feeling very determined to find a way to do more of this and less of my other occupation. Over twenty years ago I left the business world to become a botanical artist and teacher of botanical art full-time.
Gael Sellwood, photo by Rachel Warne
How would you describe your approach to botanical art? What do you look for in choosing plants to paint?
My approach to botanical art broadly takes two forms. One is a more spontaneous route where I feel very driven to paint a particular plant or an object that I may have found either in our large conservation garden or went out on a walk on the local Dorset Downs.
The other is a less spontaneous approach where I have a series of paintings planned and spend a lot of time considering where I will source them, how I will lay them out and how I want the viewer to experience them. If they are part of a collection, then I will plan them all.
I tend to look for plants that have interesting colours and textures and particularly which have flowing forms. I always look for natural curves and I particularly love plants that are a little bit careworn, perhaps slightly nibbled or battered by the weather.
Pale blue hydrangea, Gael Sellwood
What’s something that would surprise people about being a botanical artist?
I think that it would surprise people just how organised you have to be in this form of artwork. The vast majority of us continue to use live plant material, and that means that you have to make sure that you can allow the time to carry out drawings and planning and then begin to paint the plant. I felt particularly challenged by this when I was painting a series of hydrangeas. I realised that if I painted them in autumn and winter when they are starting to dry and curl and change that this would allow me more time.
The other thing that may surprise people is just how many of us have had previous careers and I wouldn’t think that my previous career as a management consultant with an HR background would bear any relation to botanical art, however it does help me to be organised and particularly to think about allocation of time. I am also a very competent knitter and stitcher – and many of us love being creative in other ways – for me it always involves colour and texture.
Age before Beauty, Gael Sellwood
Can you tell us about your process, how do you create your paintings?
I usually do some preliminary sketches, partly to get my hand to begin to read the form of the plant. By that I mean the curves in the shapes. I usually do this on hot pressed watercolour paper and I will then use that paper to carry out colour samples. I keep a note of the colours used and this proves really helpful if I paint the same plant again at some point.
I then draw my piece either onto paper or directly onto the surface, including if I’m painting on vellum. From then I paint and unlike many watercolour artists I quite often start with the darkest areas. The convention with watercolour is usually to work from light to dark, however I have a tendency to be quite a heavy painter and so I decided quite early on to work the other way round and to work from dark into the light.
Iris, Gael Sellwood
Just like Rory McEwen, you often paint on vellum. How does this differ to other materials and why do you prefer it?
Vellum differs considerably from paper in that it is calf skin. I’ve been very lucky to have been gifted some pieces of calfskin vellum from Rory McEwan’s estate. This vellum is extremely smooth and is comparable today to William Cowley’s Kelmscott vellum. It has a cream colour surface and the calf skin (a byproduct from the meat industry) is made incredibly smooth and covered with a surface including, I believe, chalk and sizing.
I tend to prepare the surface with a very fine sand or glass paper and then use something called ‘pounce’, which is powdered pumice, in order to make the surface more able to receive the paints. Vellum can feel quite waxy, similar to greaseproof paper, it’s quite important to enable the surface to receive the paint.
One of the reasons I prefer vellum is because the paint sits on the surface and for this reason it really seems to glow. On paper the pigments and the water sink into the fibres and there always seems to be a slight loss of vibrancy and intensity. I feel that with vellum you can really create vivid jewel like colours with translucency and richness.
Dying Tulip, Rory McEwen
What does a typical day in the life of an artist look like for you?
A typical day for me as an artist involves making sure that the dogs are comfortable in my studio and that I have an interesting audiobook on the go. I’m a particular fan of true crime or any police procedural crime novel or a factual book. This seems to help me to get into the zone.
Having painted for many years and now being in late middle age, my neck is rather creaky and so I try not to sit for any longer than an hour and a half. Because I quite often paint smaller subjects on quite small pieces of vellum it is important that I can be really close to the vellum, often working with very small brushes.
For this standing and moving around to look at the work from a distance is really important to retain that critical edge. I may paint into the evening – but my eyesight and neck mean that I need to be careful. I really like to ‘surprise’ my work first thing the next day to see how I feel it is going.
Do you have any favourite gardens to visit or places to immerse yourself in nature?
One of my favourite formal gardens is Lytes Cary garden in Somerset. It’s the garden of a very small Manor house and it has elements of proper organised garden with some beautiful stone walls as well as some cottage garden favourites.
However, my favourite places of all would be green lanes and trackways and ancient routes, and to be able to wander around the English countryside and particularly to see wildflowers growing in their natural habitats. There is nothing more special than finding an orchid in the verge or somewhere at the edge of a field and trying to identify it.
Who are some other botanical artists working today we should check out?
My dear friend Billy Showell, who is a very talented watercolour artist, then another friend, Rosie Sanders in Devon, whose work is quite varied in style and subject matter but which for me carries an enormous amount of emotion and she has to be one of the most competent and versatile artists I’ve come across.
I have loved the work of Rory McEwen since I came across it in my early 20s (and I own every book he has illustrated) and that of another dear friend, Helga Hislop, whose work forms a lasting legacy and who was a great supporter of my work on vellum.
Veils of the Morning, Rosie Sanders
Finally, as we are the Garden Museum, can you tell us about your own relationship with plants, gardening and nature?
I’ve already mentioned nature walks and how important those were to me from the age of about seven or eight. At the moment, I’m in the process of thinking about what plants I add to our garden. I’m a great lover of roses, however I need to understand how the existing roses are faring before I add more into the mix. I particularly love growing plants with flowers that have unusual colours, such as coffee colours, deep, rich browns and reds or soft blues, peaches and pinks.
I love hydrangeas, irises and roses – and these are amongst my favourite plants to paint.
Follow Gael on Instagram: @gaelsellwood
Rory McEwen: Nature’s Song is open until 25 January 2025
