Roath Botanic Garden Artists

Celebrating the Flora of Cardiff's Parks and Wild Places.

Artist Profiles:

Helen Lush:
I have been a professional artist for the last 25 years, working from my studio in Cardiff. I use watercolour, pastel and pencil to paint landscapes - often the Welsh coastline. In recent years I have been working on a series I call “Botanica” which reflects my love of plants and dramatises single flower heads against intense colour. My contribution to this show features plants - both wild and cultivated - mainly located in Roath Park. This is my much-loved local park - it’s bridges, water, gardens and wildfowl have often featured in my paintings over the years.

http://www. helenlush.com/home. htm

Louise Young:
I trained as a botanical painter on the diploma course at the Chelsea Physic Garden in London. Since then I have exhibited mainly in London.
I live close to Waterloo Gardens, and on my walks there and round Roath Park I like to identify the plants and discover the many hidden surprises. There are several Medlar trees and I suspect that few people know what they are with their strangely appealing fruit. The Sicillian Honey Garlic grows in spring on the banks of the stream in Waterloo gardens – I think it has found it's way there by accident, and you have to look hard to spot it, but when you do it looks amazingly exotic!

Chris Taylor
Originally trained in horticulture, I retired from this due to ill health, reviving my slumbering artistic talents as a way of keeping the strong emotional connection I feel toward plants. I draw inspiration from their natural beauty, diversity and tenacity, working in watercolour to produce lively plant portraits. I enjoy the challenge of painting the intricacies of surface texture, architectural form and subtleties of colour found in plants. Watercolour as a medium is fun to work with and although it has a reputation for being unpredictable, it produces the subtlety and glowing translucence I need to to capture the dynamic and often transient nature of my subjects. I was elected a member of the Society of Floral Painters in 2011 and achieved a distiction on completing the Society of Botanical Artists Distance Learning Diploma Course in 2013. I joined The Roath Botanic Garden Artists in 2011.

Jill Schoenmann:
In my paintings I have tried to recapture the feelings of my childhood when finding the first primroses and violets of spring. The joy of picking and inhaling the delicate perfume of the flowers. Nowadays picking is forbidden, and quite rightly so. But back then we gathered as many as we liked, unaware of the conservation rules ahead. We still can have the feeling of joy on seeing the new spring flowers, and hope we can preserve the woodlands for future generations to enjoy.

Sally Williams
Cardiff artist and printmaker

Pat Gregory
Lino cuts and mixed media work