Colour is Fiona Strickland’s signature approach to botanical watercolour. Her attention to detail and technical virtuosity in the use of transparent washes - used to build her vibrant paintings - highlights her skill in handling colour. Strickland's emotive response to the visual elements of colour, tone, texture and movement in the plant world is captured in her very personal approach to botanical painting.
Although her work continues the tradition of botanical art she endeavours to challenge, inspire and go beyond cold illustration or recording purely for scientific purposes. She strives to produce work which apprehends the spectator so that they stop, look and become captivated by the quality of her paintings. She strives to engage the viewer, persuading them to discover an interesting aspect of a plant, and to appreciate its beauty, when viewed from an unusual angle, when its character is captured in a way that is unexpected or when a plant is sometimes less than perfect.
Fiona Strickland (b.1956, Edinburgh) received a Post Graduate Diploma in Fine Art at Edinburgh College of Art. In 2008 she was elected a member of The Society of Botanical Artists, and has won several awards including; a Royal Horticultural Society Gold Medal (2008) and The Society of Botanical Artists, Certificate of Botanical Merit (2012). Strickland has exhibited widely and her work is held in the collections of The Hunt Institute, RHS and Dr Shirley Sherwood, and numerous private collections in Europe, USA and Australia.