Carolyn Jenkins - New Ideas in Botanical Painting: Composition and Colour

Purple carrots ( Daucus carota).

NEW IDEAS IN BOTANICAL PAINTING

Iris, jasmine and neroli. The warm sunlight shining through the translucent petals of this tall bearded iris highlighted a delicate haze of fine purple veins running through the margins of the petals.

Composition and Colour

Carolyn Jenkins with Helen Birch

Carolyn Jenkins

To my sister, Nathalie, who taught me to love plants and who inspired me to begin my botanical painting journey.

Helen Birch

For my cousin, Caroline, for her especial spirit, strength and love.

DelphiniumFaust.

Jasmin, peony and ylang-ylang.

Some people know what they want to do in life, but for me it took many years to hone in on what I love best.

Although almost all of the painting I do now is botanical, it hasnt always been the case. This focus has developed over at least 20 years as Ive realized what Im most interested in and hopefully best at. Ive developed into a botanical specialist only after exploring and experiencing various other subject matters through education, employment, adult training courses and family influence.

I feel lucky to have come from an artistic family. My father was a graphic designer and lecturer at the Royal College of Art. Im sure that my interest in graphic compositions has come from the influence of my fathers work. An upbringing in this creative environment has undoubtedly been a contributing factor to what I do now.

There was always a diverse assortment of art materials to experiment with at home, loads of wonderful art books and a large collection of paintings on the walls. I used to spend hours designing my own magazines and comics and entering artistic competitions I remember winning a prize and a coveted Blue Peter badge in a competition!

In addition to my father being artistic, my great-aunt Joan Warburton was a painter and my great-uncle Peter OMalley a ceramicist and their son Liam OMalley was a painter too. We frequently stayed with them; they were all extremely talented and a lot of fun. I know that one of the reasons I have ended up being a botanical painter is to do with my great-aunts influence and our visits to her home. I was enthralled by the work my aunt did, her garden and particularly her paintings of plants, flowers, fruit and vegetables. She was always working, produced hundreds of paintings in oil, gouache and watercolour, and was constantly planting new and interesting things in the garden to paint. My aunt would show me what she was working on and let me have a go with her paints. Her husband, Peter, also a hugely talented artist and a senior tutor of ceramics at the Royal College of Art, had a studio and kiln at the bottom of the garden where he would let me try out throwing pots and experimenting with glazes.

I was very lucky as a child to be so encouraged and be able to have all of these artistic experiences.

Summer Flowers(1962) by Joan Warburton. Oil painting, 61 x 76cm (24 x 30in).

Cornflower ( Centaurea cyanus). A mixed-media portrait in watercolour and coloured pencil.

Ive always been equally interested in plants and painting, and feel very lucky that these interests gardening and botanical art have come together in the way they have.

Working on this book has helped me to think about my dual roles as an illustrator and gardener and how they fit together. They werent always so clearly defined, but the foundations for both were laid down early.