Anna Connor

These flowers were gathered from the garden based purely on what was flowering at the time (early July: echinacea, perennial foxglove, yarrow, clematis), yet they look so wonderful together. Some of the paintings I have enjoyed the most have been when I’ve just plonked in a vase what comes to hand in the garden, and the effect is always surprising, and always beautiful. The flowers always seem happy to be there and they appear to instantly strike up a conversation with each other; this conversion I think is full of joy and laughter.  

I’ve not been successful in growing my own echinacea: these echinacea were bought from the wonderful Dove Cottage Nursery (Shibden, Halifax) and I wasted no time in painting them. The clematis too were very exciting to paint; I’ve not always been successful with clematis either, but this particular one happily seems to come back each year: I buy them and plant them and they are fine, but then don’t come back the following year. I absolutely adore clematis too, I cannot resist the pull to draw and paint their captivating flowers, leaves and tendrils. I’m waiting with bated breath to see if the new one that I bought last year (clematis Frances Rivis) will come up again this year!

“Echinacea & Clematis”

Watercolour on Fabriano Artistico HP paper,

56 x 57cm

Watercolour on Fabriano Artistico 650gms

29 x 21

This picture evolved over a period of time, and I did not know where it was going or how it would end up. I started back in August. I loved the golden cream and dusky mauves of the phlox, and thought they would enjoy being painted with the vermillion twinspur. They looked like they were dancing together on a warm summer’s evening, accompanied by the cheeping and chirruping of house martins overhead, and a gentle breeze bringing the faint scent of grass cut earlier in the day. And then they sat for a while rising up out the sea of white paper, enjoying their time in the limelight, the paper propped up on the cupboard whilst I attended to other things.

Eventually I returned to the painting, and took some time to see what would drop in, to sense what else wanted to join the flowers. These are two of our rescue house rabbits and they gently, quietly, softly made their way into the picture and flopped down under the flowers, their steady presence an anchor for my soul. While I was painting them, a wren hopped about outside the kitchen window, scurrying in and out of the nooks and crannies on the fence. Of course she too joined the party, climbing out of the flowers, and bringing her friend with her.

Miffy, the white rabbit, passed over some time ago, but her spirit lives on in the white magnolia which flowers every spring, and we smile as we remember her beauty, innocence and love.

‘Rabbits with Magnolia Stellata, Phlox & Twinspur’

Watercolour on Hot Pressed Fabriano Artistico paper 640gms.

Artwork size: 67 x 57 cm

These are two different irises, with one being a more red-violet and one a more blue-violet with amazing yellow splotches on the ends of their majestic and dramatic petals. They were an utter joy to paint, nodding their heads, saying hello to the world.

I finally got around to putting a background on this painting of flowers from my garden, and it was great fun to do. It was a little heart-stopping as I did not know if it would work, but I think the poppies and feverfew love their new background!

I’m always on the lookout for scraps of textiles, decorative papers, wallpapers, postcards, and so on, that I can put into my flower paintings. Sometimes I paint the flowers right in front of the background and sometimes I leave it blank while I wait for the right background to come into my life.

I love to paint textiles and decorative papers, I can enjoy and admire the very talented work as I do so. It makes me think of who was involved in their creation; most of the time I don’t know and may never know, but I can imagine them sitting in their creative space making their designs, and I feel a connection with them whoever they are, and I feel they live on in their artwork.

‘Poppies and Feverfew’

Watercolour on Hot Pressed Fabriano Artistico paper 640gms.

Artwork size: 44 x 36.5cm

“My joy is like Spring, so warm

it makes flowers bloom all over the Earth” - Thich Nhat Hanh

‘Jill’s Flowers’, Watercolour

“When I went out

In the spring meadows

To gather flowers

I enjoyed myself

So much that I stayed all night”

—Akahito

‘Muscari and Welsh Hills, Dinas Mawddwy’, Watercolour, 57 x 36 cm

I woke up one morning to see an incredibly pink sky, with a hazy pale moon setting in the west. I was struck by how our world is full of the most breathtaking colour and sights, that really do stop me in my tracks. This beauty is all just there, waiting for me to see at any time, I just have to stop and look.

‘Pink Morning Sky with Moon’, Watercolour, 18.5 x 18.5cm

“Behold the world fresh — as it is, on its own terms — through the eyes of a beginner” - Epictetus

‘Spring Posy’, Watercolour, 21 x 21 cm

These little violas are in really small containers which makes them look a lot larger than they are. I loved the dusky orange against the different shades of violet when I walked past them at the back door. I knew it was a bit risky to paint them together, the clash could be catastrophic, but it was okay, phew!!

I always think the flowers I draw and paint are happy beings, but these two particularly look like little people, sunning themselves on the kitchen table in the sunshine

‘Violas’, Watercolour, 15.5 x 14.5 cm

Hellebores are such beautiful plants. Their understated, nodding flowers of subtle reds, pinks, lilacs and creams are lovely to see out in the woods and gardens at the moment. This particular hellebore is called, ‘Anna’s Red’. It was a gift some years back. I divided it and now have several dotted about the shady areas of the garden.

The fabric also was a gift, a William Morris tea towel! Thank you to all the wonderful people in my life who give me such lovely presents.

‘Anna’s Red’, Watercolour, 21x19 cm

I bought this beautiful blue jug from the wonderful Helston Street in York. I had already brought these little primroses in from the garden, and I popped them in the jug, just to see… and couldn’t resist painting them! That delicate pale lemony yellow against the slightly dusky blue lifted my heart.

This has been a quiet little picture to paint, and it has drawn me into its peace and calm (never mind me drawing it, it has drawn me - into its serene and still world). Thank you, primroses, thank you beautiful jug

‘Primroses in Blue Jug’

Watercolour on Hot Pressed Fabriano Artistico paper 640gms.

Artwork size: 15 x 13cm

This painting shows a glass container sitting on a sunny windowsill, gently holding the first of the year’s delicate buds and flowers from the climbing hydrangea that we can see outside the window frame.

The climbing hydrangea still has last year’s dried flowers on, amongst the new green shoots and bright cerise budding flowers of this year.

Inside, next to the glass ‘vase’, are dried hydrangea flowers from the previous year. They were brought into the house whilst still fresh during the autumn, and hung upside down to dry, so they have retained some of their dusky pink and purple hues.

I love the conversation that all three hydrangeas are having; along with the bare trees outside, the yellow windowsill, and curtain pitching in also. I felt very connected to nature whilst making this picture and it was a joy to paint. It was quite hard, as I made many ‘mistakes’, but in the process learned a lot of things about picture making. I am learning everyday!

‘Yewfield Hydrangea’

Watercolour on Hot Pressed Fabriano Artistico paper 640gms.

Artwork size: 27.5 x 29cm

Around the house the flakes fly faster,

And all the berries now are gone

From holly and cotoneaster

Around the house. The flakes fly!--faster

Shutting indoors that crumb-outcaster

We used to see upon the lawn

Around the house. The flakes fly faster,

And all the berries now are gone!

Thomas Hardy 1840 - 1928

We have a little tree that displays its tiny crab apples like bright baubles in the winter, and right now it is covered in birds. It’s like the Twelve Days of Christmas, so many birds; blackbirds, thrushes and fieldfares. We also have shiny red rose-hips on our rose hedge, and the goldfinches really like those. I painted this picture when we had a cold snap last week. The apples and hips were really fun to paint.

‘Winter Crab-Apples and Rose-Hips’

Watercolour on Hot Pressed Fabriano Artistico paper 640gms.

Artwork size: 76 x 56cm

The wood anemone through dead oak leaves

And in the thickest woods now blooms anew,

And where the green briar and the bramble weaves

Thick clumps o'green, anemones thicker grew,

And weeping flowers in thousands pearled in dew

People the woods and brakes, hid hollows there,

White, yellow and purple-hued the wide wood through.

What pretty drooping weeping flowers they are:

The clipt-frilled leaves, the slender stalk they bear

On which the drooping flower hangs weeping dew,

How beautiful through April time and May

The woods look, filled with wild anemone;

And every little spinney now looks gay

With flowers mid brushwood and the huge oak tree.

John Clare (1793-1864)

This is in the grounds of Yewfield Vegetarian Guesthouse just outside Hawkshead. It’s a really special place and I love going there. There were so many beautiful wild flowers this spring, everywhere you looked, such little bundles of April happiness. On this occasion it was a warm and sparking sunny day so we sat in the orchard and sketched and painted. These little star petaled wood anemone were really pretty 🤍

‘Yewfield Wood Anemones’

Watercolour on Hot Pressed Fabriano Artistico paper 640gms.

Artwork size: 38.5 x 38.5cm

This picture has been painted from sketchbook studies I did on location in the churchyard in Hawkshead in the Lake District. It was a beautiful day in April, and everything was growing; the bright green grass (shocking and impudent after winter’s sombre tones), the tentative buds on the trees, the delightful little spring flowers - these ones are wood anemone; they seemed very happy, sociably chatting with each other and nodding to passersby (I myself did nod back). And everywhere, brazen pink cherry blossom splashing out to take centre stage. There is also a beautiful magnolia tree behind the cherry blossom in this picture.

After winter, spring truly feels like heaven to me, it’s colourful, it’s warm, it’s uplifting - a time to grow and blossom! I am enjoying the coming of winter’s rest, and I’m also tending the seeds I have planted in my greenhouse; the wheel will turn and spring will come round again.

‘The Churchyard at Hawkshead’

Watercolour on Hot Pressed Fabriano Artistico paper 640gms.

Artwork size: 36 x 36cm

I grew these white poppies from seed for my daughter’s wedding. They weren’t ready in time, they just needed a few more weeks, but we are enjoying them now, and there are hundreds of them! I’ve run out of room in the garden so half of them are in an empty vegetable bed, and they are fantastic.

They are such fun to paint also, I would recommend painting poppies, but you have to get everything ready beforehand and paint them quick. They open up quickly, changing their shape. These are tiny little paintings which is an ideal way to paint them and also painting them singly means you might just get your picture finished before the petals drop!

"The Lark Ascending"

Watercolour on Fabriano Artistico HP paper

25 x 36 cm

“The true secret of happiness lies in taking a genuine interest in all details of daily life” - William Morris

The ‘fox and her cubs’ are in the garden again, their vibrant orange catches my attention, “Come, come outside and see us, look how beautiful we are, did you ever see anything as alive as we?” I slip my shoes on and go out for a closer look and see the fluffy golden yellow petals, dipped in rich cadmium red, bouncing about atop slender green stems. They are indeed beautiful. I lay down to get a bug’s eye view and I see them dance with the summer breeze, bobbing around amongst the green of the grass, occasionally leaping against the blue of the sky. The incredible colours are a delight.

Later, I have forgotten about them, until I am at my kitchen window washing the dishes, looking out into the evening. I suddenly notice them glowing like bright stars from the darkening of the garden. A reminder to me of this brilliant world. Remember the beauty they say, remember the beauty.

These wild flowers, ‘fox-and-cubs’ - so called due to their colour and the open flowers (the fox) appearing beside flower buds (the cubs) - come up every summer in our garden. The insects love them, as do I! I remembered that we had this little William Morris book with the gorgeous orange irises on. I think it goes very well with the flowers, and I’m sure William Morris would agree!

‘Flowers & William Morris’; Watercolour on Hot Pressed Fabriano Artistico paper 300gms; Artwork size: 26cm x 26.5cm

‘ A beautiful thing never gives so much pain as does failing to hear and see it’ - Michelangelo

I was sitting at the kitchen table flicking through this rather old Michelangelo book, when I noticed that the colours on these little pots of flowers nearby on the table were echoing the colours from the cover of the book. So, very carefully (so as to avoid staining or damaging the book of course), I placed the flowers on the book, and instantly loved the effect. I did wonder what sort of challenge I had let myself in for with regard to painting the lettering, but I just took it nice and slowly, without worrying about the end result, and just enjoying the challenge. I also now know how to correctly spell Michelangelo…

It was really fun to paint the book, and I had a fantastic time painting this whole picture. It was a relatively small set up, so not too much to hurt my brain! Also the flowers on the left were pink heathers and so did not move about; while the flowers on the right, were dried wildflower seedbeds and rose buds. So I was able to take my time without worrying about curling and falling petals and so forth!

‘Flowers & Michelangelo’; Watercolour on Hot Pressed Fabriano Artistico paper 300gms; Artwork size: 35cm x 28cm

“In joy or sadness, flowers are our constant friends.” ― Okakura Kakuzo, The Book of Tea

I took some cuttings from my lavender bushes two years ago and every single one rooted; it was so easy, I surprised myself! This petite pot of lavender is from one of the cuttings.

The lavender has flowered at all different times throughout the summer, I’m not sure how that has happened but it has meant we have had beautiful bees all summer long. So, as well as the flowers being my ‘constant friends, the little furry orange bees have too!

‘Lavender’

Watercolour on Hot Pressed Fabriano Artistico paper 640gms.

Artwork size: 24cm x 32.5cm

Please contact me if you are interested in buying this artwork

When my daughter was younger, we had a most amazing house rabbit whose full name, ’The Incredible New Shmoo’ was chosen by my daughter and her dad, and named apparently after a cartoon character.

We just called her Shmoo, but she certainly was incredible. She was gorgeous and lived a long time and we had many escapades with her.

When her indomitable spirit finally went over the rainbow bridge back to bunny heaven, we bought this rose to honour and remember her by, the rose is called Rosa Golden Wings. Shmoo was a golden rabbit in all ways; she was golden brown, with a bold and brave, shining character, and a really big heart of gold.

She would have loved wings (she loved to get everywhere and wings would have helped her to fly over the human erected TV barricade to sit happily in the dark corner eating all the delicious wires) so I’m sure she approves of our choice of rose.

‘Shmoo’s Rose’, Watercolour on Hot Pressed Fabriano Artistico paper 640gms, Artwork size: 30cm x 38.5cm. Please contact me if you are interested in buying this artwork

These roses come from two rose bushes which have been faithfully flowering in the front garden during the summer months for years and years. I can see them from our front room window and every time I leave the house by the front door. They are old friends, very familiar to me, so it is good to spend some time looking at them, appreciating them, thanking them for their beauty and constancy.

‘Grandad’s Rose & Marjorie Fair’; Watercolour on Hot Pressed Fabriano Artistico paper 640gms; 26.5 x 26.5cm; £175. Please contact me if you are interested in buying this artwork

“But listen to me. For one moment


quit being sad. Hear blessings


dropping their blossoms


around you.” - Rumi

These blooms are from a beautiful, large mock orange shrub that is in our front garden. For a few weeks it has masses of lightly scented pure white blossoms in mid summer which get lifted by the breeze and sail off like summer snow settling on the grass below and all around. Generous blessings indeed.

‘Mock Orange’; Watercolour on Hot Pressed Fabriano Artistico paper 640gms; 33.5 x 28.5cm; £175. Please contact me if you are interested in buying this artwork

As I was doing some tidying in my garden, this little bit of pelargonium broke off the main plant. I took it indoors and popped it in the the first container I put my hands on. I was struck by how handsome this pairing looked and so I painted it! It was a joy and a pleasure to paint these perfectly pink petals and this glorious green bottle.

The pelargonium came from the fantastic Sarah Raven (I have bought plants from them on and off for years and they are always good. There is such a generous amount of free information on the website too, and the website is a feast for the eyes). I received a voucher some years ago for my birthday and bought various tiny pelargoniums that are now big and strong. This particular one is called ‘Apple Blossom’. The glass bottle was bought from Unity Yard in Holmfirth which is like an Aladdin's cave, with cake. And plants. If you live nearby, do go and visit and support them.

‘Pink Pelargonium in Green Glass Bottle’; Watercolour on Hot Pressed Fabriano Artistico paper 640gms; 28.5 x 33.5cm; £150. Please contact me if you are interested in buying this artwork

In the garden, the flowers of these hardy geraniums are everywhere, dotted about like luminous shimmering summer stars, delicately floating and bobbing about on top of their stems, glimmering and twinkling in their incredible blue-violetness.

They have a beautiful, gentle presence, lifting the spirits and the hearts of anyone that has the good fortune to have time to sit and look at them… and also of anyone that has the opportunity to paint them!

‘Gentle Geraniums’; Watercolour on Hot Pressed Fabriano Artistico paper 640gms; 25.5 x 28.5cm; £80. 50% of the proceeds of this picture will go to the Malala Fund. Please contact me if you are interested in buying this artwork

The flowers are picked, the vases are full, the windowsill is happy. White Poppies, still and serene, overseers of life’s joys, will tell you of the wonders if you stop to listen. Dog Rose ripples with her early summer beauty, living gently amongst the hedgerows, her sweet flowers a balm for the soul. Oats sing the songs of love, ever higher and higher, catching the flash of the wing of the dove. The Wild Sweet William is wild indeed, free, excited to be living Life’s Great Adventure in the sun.

Summer is here and bird song drifts in through the window followed by deep, sharp green scent of trees. The curtains begin the dance of Life; ‘Dance, they say, everyday of your life! Smile and dance and laugh!’ Join now the grand dance of Life.

As summer deepens, autumn arrives and the display on the windowsill fades into a mellow symphony of gentle seed heads and pods. Winter quiet finds the windowsill treasures sparkling in the moonlight, deep in darksky dreams, a thousand stars singing about love.

At last spring returns and new shoots arrive. Here come the adventures again, always a new day, always a new wonder. Never stop looking, never stop listening, never stop loving.

Wild Sweet William: Gallantry

Oats: The witching soul of music

Poppy: Happiness

Dog Rose: Pleasure

This is the UK’s native, wild daffodil, ‘pseudonarcissus’. It is the one that Wordsworth wrote about. It is a gorgeous little daffodil. I planted some bulbs in the grass at the bottom of my garden some years ago and they always pop up around now. These had been bent over and were looking a bit squashed so I cut them and brought them in. Daffodils can be difficult to paint due to their colour - yellow being not the easiest colour to work with in watercolour; and their trumpet shape can be tricky especially when face on - but these were beautiful to paint with their ballet dancing, joyful petals.

The cold ground is still bare and brown but the little violet iris appears as a messenger from Winter’s earth up to the sky and the emerging golden sun of Spring. The earth is inviting the sun to send its light and warmth, ’I have rested all winter long and now it is time to dance and play once again.’ The February sun smiles on the earth, on the little iris, and sends its rays to light up her petite petals and Spring is born.

Nature gives us gifts. After winter comes spring and little bits of heaven arrive on the bare soil.

This picture is another, more easterly, window view from the Welsh cottage. The wet winter clouds cleared a little for a brief time and so this created a subtle contrast with the previous snowdrops view, suggesting a hint of the spring to come.

‘The Messenger’; Watercolour on Hot Pressed Fabriano Artistico paper 640gms; Artwork size: 35 x 32cm; £300 unframed. Please contact me if you are interested in buying this artwork

It has been raining and windy but it is quiet now. The mists are sitting on the hills shrouding the valley in a soft hush. Inside, the snowdrops make their bows, the star performers on the windowsill stage. The audience appreciates the opportunity to sit still, and see the wonder and beauty of this world. 

We stayed in a remote Welsh cottage over the winter. It was a joy to make peaceful drawings and paintings in the soft quiet of the dark, short days. There was a wonderful dinner set that had woodland animals and birds on and they were great fun to paint. The windows were tiny with deep sills - deep enough to host a flower performance on! 

‘Dance of the Snowdrops’

Watercolour on Hot Pressed Fabriano Artistico paper 640gms.

Artwork size: 37 x 35cm

This painting is SOLD

This painting is the front view from my house in February. The fluttering red leaves of the beech hedge are glorious and uplifting at this time of year. The little pink flowers are from a beautiful viburnum that magically flowers in winter on bare stems. When I looked up close at the old buddliea flowers (that are white in summer) they were composed of intricate dried seed and flower heads that wove a lovely lacy pattern. And to crown all of this, a little goldfinch nest that has hung on since last summer, staying firmly put high up in the mock orange through all the wild rain and winds we have had this winter.

‘The Beech Hedge’

Watercolour on Hot Pressed Fabriano Artistico paper 640gms.

Artwork size: 35 x 52cm

£250 unframed

Please contact me if you are interested in buying this artwork.

I worked on this painting over a ten day period, from Boxing Day to early January. It rained, snowed, was sunny, cloudy, misty, windy and calm. The resulting image has a little bit of all these elements in - very fun. There were also a lot of blackbird visitors over that time and I painted just a few of them. They were all either eating the crab apples, or queuing up to eat them. The wood pigeons appeared at the very last moment as I was just finishing, they only just made it!

‘Beyond the Garden’

Watercolour on Hot Pressed Fabriano Artistico paper 640gms.

Artwork size: 24 x 43cm

£250 unframed

Please contact me if you are interested in buying this artwork.

This rose is still flowering in December. It was bought for my daughter’s 18th birthday which is also in December so it’s perfect. This is its twelfth year and even so, every year I’m amazed to still see the flowers in early winter. The flowers are a wonderful pink - happy and jolly. It’s always a joy to bring in a bunch for the kitchen table, which is where this was painted. The beautiful fabric is from Liberty (the fabric asked to be painted with the roses, of course. A perfect match) and the background is a textile artwork from Yewfield Guesthouse in the Lake District.

‘Liberty Roses’

Watercolour on Hot Pressed Fabriano Artistico paper 640gms.

Artwork and paper size: 34.5 x 34.5cm

£275 unframed

Please contact me if you are interested in buying this artwork.

I painted this pelargonium in November when it was giving off its last burst of flowers for the year. I got a few seedlings with a gift voucher from Sarah Raven (what a marvellous gift that was!) and it has been exciting to watch them develop. They have been steady, cool and serene plants (compared with some raucous and rowdy pelargoniums I have) perfect for providing me with a quiet moment during this busy year. I’ve brought two in and left one in the green house and I’ll see how they get on over the winter, and with a bit of luck they’ll flower their regal flowers again next year. When I was a child I absolutely loved drawing giraffes - they are very satisfying to draw and paint - you should try it!

‘Giraffe Pelargoniums’

Watercolour on Hot Pressed Fabriano Artistico paper 640gms.

Artwork: 35.5 x 52 cm

£300 unframed

Please contact me if you are interested in buying this artwork.

I’m calling this picture ‘Rebel Poppies’ as I read recently that when assigned as a girl’s name it can have a rebellious feel as compared for example, with Lily, Rose or Iris. So, with blatant disregard for the rules this cheeky orange poppy appeared in a shady damp bed outside my dining room window (visually calling to me daily to admire it and paint it) in October and absolutely flowered its socks off until mid November. Certainly seems a bit rebellious to me! The background is based on gorgeous paper from The Vintage Paper Company. The fabric is from a favourite Benetton shirt.

‘Rebel October Poppies’

Watercolour on Hot Pressed Fabriano Artistico paper 640gms.

Artwork: 34 x 35 cm

£250 unframed

Please contact me if you are interested in buying this artwork.

The heavenly scent of these stocks has been wafting into the kitchen all summer rom the back door where they have been planted in a wooden box. They are such beautiful plants, I love the way they flop about in their ruffled and unruly petals. I might plant them at the back door every year!

‘Back Door Stocks’

Watercolour on Hot Pressed Fabriano Artistico paper 640gms.

Artwork and paper size: 35 x 24.5cm

£125 unframed

Please contact me if you are interested in buying this artwork.

I could not resist painting this first little pink flower to open up on my new Attar of Roses pelargonium plant. This whole plant is utterly divine, it is large and generous with soft and scented leaves. I could cuddle this plant.

‘Attar of Roses’

Watercolour on Not Fabriano Artistico paper 640gms.

Artwork and paper size: 23 x 23cm

£125 unframed

Please contact me if you are interested in buying this artwork.

I grew these wild carrots from seed for the first time this year. They have such a gentle nature. Very softly flowering on and off all summer long, each plant seeming to take it in turns to have its day in the limelight. I’ve loved watching the way the seed heads form after the flowers have delicately dropped away onto the soil like little summer snow flakes. The seed head turns in on itself into a soft squishy green ball. Probably a fairy football…

‘Fairy Footballs’

Watercolour on Hot Pressed Fabriano Artistico paper 640gms.

Artwork and paper size: 25 x 22cm

£125 unframed

Please contact me if you are interested in buying this artwork.

These poppies were such gorgeous colours all summer long, and in so many colours, whites, greys, pinks, purples and almost blacks. I never knew when or where they were going to pop up, but it was fun waiting for them. Life is like a bed of poppies, glorious and exciting.

‘Life is Like a Bed of Poppies’

Watercolour on HP Fabriano Artistico paper 640gms.

Artwork and paper size: 27 x 24cm

£125 unframed

Please contact me if you are interested in buying this artwork.

These white buddleia flowers come tapping at my living room window every summer. They are usually covered with butterflies which we get a good view of from inside the room. I love the dignified structure of this cool white buddleia, it is very calming and serene.

‘Cool Buddleia’

Watercolour on Not Fabriano Artistico paper 640gms.

Artwork and paper size: 36 x 53cm

£150 unframed

Please contact me if you are interested in buying this artwork.

This sweet rocket shines out pure and white from a shady area of the garden early in spring. It often gives a second showing in August and then a third in October. It’s so generous. It’s a beautiful flower and a real joy to have as a cut flower in the house. It has a real character about it. The fabric with the luxurious roses on is one of my favourite scarves that I wear all the time.

‘Shining Sweet Rocket’

Watercolour on Hot Pressed Fabriano Artistico paper 640gms.

Artwork and paper size: 37.5 x 38.5cm

£200 unframed

Please contact me if you are interested in buying this artwork.

These roses are from a rose bush that we have had for several years in the front garden. The rose bush commemorates my father in law and we refer to it as ‘Grandad’s Roses’. The multiple colour of these roses is beautiful. It changes through various shades of dusky red and peach, clear pink and palest yellow. It’s difficult to say what its colour is! It also changes colour according to if it has been cut and put in water, taking on a binary strawberries and cream colour. It is a gorgeous rose and was a sheer delight to paint. It was really fun to paint the fabric scarf with the flying chaffinches as they complimented the rose petals and helped to bring the whole picture alive with movement. The scarf was a lovely gift from a friend.

‘Grandad’s Roses’

Watercolour on Hot Pressed Fabriano Artistico paper 640gms.

Artwork and paper size: 56 x 56.5cm

£300 unframed

Please contact me if you are interested in buying this artwork.

These poppies were sown from a packet of Chilterns Seeds: ‘a selection of unnamed varieties of papaver sominferum, for a surprise mix of these pretty poppies’. They really did surprise me. On a daily basis I would wake up and wonder what colour poppy would flower today. The individual flowers last quite a short time, depending on how windy it is! Maybe three or four days. But as soon as one goes over, another takes its place, and it is so exciting to see what it will be like. Because I had bought unnamed varieties and because I have not grown any before, I have no idea what any of them are. But I am enjoying this element of no control, of allowing the flowers to just be. The feverfew also just popped up out of nowhere and so they suit each other, rebel flowers!

‘Surprise Poppies and Feverfew’

Watercolour on Hot Pressed Fabriano Artistico paper 640gms.

Artwork size: 44 x 36.5cm

£200 unframed

Please contact me if you are interested in buying this artwork.

I picked these blooms from the garden in early September. There was just one small stem of each of the roses and cosmos. I didn’t think they would amount to much but when I put them together with the few remaining stems of petite Jenny and the (plentiful!) Mexican fleabane in this old pottery mug they looked really lovely. There’s even a single sweet pea in there somewhere. It just shows you only need a few flowers to make a lovely posy for the kitchen table, and a reminder of a lovely summer in the garden with the insects, butterflies and bees buzzing all around. I am transported there now!

‘Late Summer Garden Posy’

Watercolour on Hot Pressed Fabriano Artistico paper 640gms.

Artwork and paper size: 38 x 38cm

£200 unframed

Please contact me if you are interested in buying this artwork.

I was so surprised to see this blossom on the cherry plum. I had planted it as a tiny bare root sapling about 30cm long and it hadn’t looked like it was doing very well during its first years. Then on top of that I moved it during the autumn (thinking that probably this would really finish it off). It has blossomed with the most delightful and delicate pure white flowers this spring. I am in love with it. The sprig of spring heather accidentally broke away from it’s main stem whilst I was doing some weeding and so I brought it into the house and popped it with the blossom. The lace edging on the fabric mirrors the blossoms and heather.

‘Determined Cherry Plum Blossom’

Watercolour on NOT Fabriano Artistico paper 640gms.

Artwork and paper size: 36 x 37 cm

£200 unframed

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‘Cactus and Russian Doll’

Watercolour on Hot Pressed Fabriano Artistico paper 300gms.

Artwork: 42 x 31 cm

£225 unframed

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It has been so wonderful to see these little parcels of beauty. The purple crocus with their orange centres and the pure white snowdrops are like sparkling gems on the bare winter soil.

‘Sparkling Winter Gems’

Watercolour on Hot Pressed Fabriano Artistico paper 640gms.

Artwork: 34 x 34cm

£200 unframed

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I sowed these Californian poppies last year, they were free with a magazine and I’d never heard of them before. Bright orange isn’t normally a colour I go for in flowers but they were free and I didn’t want to waste the seed. Well now, they might nearly be my new all time favourite flower! They are beautiful. They somehow manage to be both bold and delicate. When the petals fall and begin to dry, they turn into intense bright jewels. Gorgeous. They are still flowering now, in the front garden, but when they stop, I will be counting down the days until next summer, when I can bring them into the kitchen again.

‘Californian Poppy Jewels’

Watercolour on Hot Pressed Fabriano Artistico paper 300gms.

Artwork: 57x 50 cm

£300 unframed

Please contact me if you are interested in buying this artwork