FIONA STRICKLAND

Fiona studied drawing and painting at Edinburgh College of Art before spending the next 26 years teaching art and design at Scottish secondary schools. She gave up teaching a few years ago in order to concentrate on painting full-time and has since become one of the UK's most exciting botanical artists with her work attracting some high profile collectors and receiving numerous awards.

Fiona selects her botanical subjects for their individual aesthetic qualities and is fascinated by the changing colour, form and texture of plants and flowers as they grow and subsequently wither. She often finds flowers at their most beautiful when others would view them as being past their best and enjoys capturing the moment they start to decay as well as when they are in full bloom. She patiently observes the structure of a plant in pencil first and follows this up with a meticulous application of watercolour washes to record the way the light falls on the subject.

Fiona was elected to the Society of Botanical Artists in 2008, her first year of exhibiting, and is also a member of the prestigious American Society of Botanical Artists, regularly showing with both in London and New York. In 2013 Fiona will feature in a touring exhibition of America organised by the Society, one of only twelve specially invited botanical artists from around the world to take part. Recent exhibitions have taken place as far afield as Frankfurt, Pennsylvania, Glasgow and Bavaria. September 2012 brings the release of a book by German author Dr Reneta Hucking on women botanical artists where Fiona's profile will feature alongside such illustrious names as Georgia O'Keefe, Margaret Mee and Sibylla von Merian.

With work in the collections of Dr Shirley Sherwood, the R.H.S. Lindley Library and the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation as well as private collections in Europe, the U.S.A. and Australia, Fiona's exceptional paintings continue to make an impressive contribution to contemporary botanical painting and are much sought after by specialist and private collectors alike.

AWARDS

2009, 11, 12   Certificate of Botanical Merit, Society of Botanical Artists

2011              Great Art Award, Society of Botanical Artists

2008, 2011     People's Choice Award, Society of Botanical Artists

2009              Margaret Grainger Silver Bowl, Society of Botanical Artists

2008              R.H.S. Gold Medal, R.H.S. Dawn Joliffe Botanical Art Bursary