Botanical portraits

A portrait doesn’t have to be of a person. I also paint gardens, flowers and plants that hold a special meaning for the people who live with them.

The idea for my plant portraits began when a client asked if they could commission me to paint a portrait of their garden instead. It made me think about how naturally portraiture could extend into the botanical world. Like people, plants are living, changing and shaped by their surroundings. A garden can have its own character, colours, rhythms and sense of place.

I approach a plant portrait in much the same way I approach a portrait of a person: trying to capture its character and atmosphere at a particular moment in time.

I’m especially drawn to the wild, layered compositions found in naturalistic gardens, where unexpected colours, shapes and textures overlap and interact. The gardens of Dutch landscape designer Piet Oudolf have been a major inspiration for me.

Whether it is a beloved garden, a favourite plant, or a natural landscape that holds a special memory, I treat each commission as a portrait of something living and meaningful.