About

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Katharine's work seeks to capture the intimate essence of plants in a manner that photographs, in spite of their detail, fail to convey.
 

Katharine trained at the Chelsea Physic Garden in 2000, the place where ships carrying plants discovered in voyages of exploration into the new world in the 17th and 18th Centuries docked  to have them nurtured, propagated and painted as a scientific studies.  

This painting tradition developed as wealthy patrons who had built exotic gardens full of newly discovered plants sought to have them painted to form great books or "Flora Legia" - the original coffee table book. 

There has been a renaissance of botanical art in recent years throughout the world encouraged by bodies such as the Hunt Institute at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and the recently built Shirley Sherwood Gallery at Kew Gardens in London housing her world renowned collection of contemporary botanical art - definitely worth a visit. Katharine has had a piece acquired by both collections, a turnip in the Hunt Institute's permanent exhibition and a pumpkin in the Dr. Shirley Sherwood Collection.   

I hope you enjoy the browsing the site and please do get in touch if you would like to commission Katharine or to arrange a group class.  k@katharineamies.co.uk