Spetchley Blue Iris, Still Life Oil

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Spetchley has been home to the Berkeley family (as in Berkeley Square, London) for more than 400 years, and successive … Read more Spetchley has been home to the Berkeley family (as in Berkeley Square, London) for more than 400 years, and successive generations have collected rare plants, shrubs and trees from around the world. In spring their Iris collection is an inspiration. Here I was working to capture the delicate blues and detail of this iris against the soft blue and green mist of irises in the background.

Sometimes the simple beauty of a limited palette is what is called for. This playful reflection on circles and shadows came into being thanks to the beautiful pot made by the British Ceramicist Jonathan Phillips.

Nicola has developed her work in the past two years to include reflective painting surfaces which emphasize the beauty and translucency of flowers. Her work has been influenced by traditional Japanese screen painting. In this selection of her recent work she uses a gold leaf background or an imitation gold leaf background. The gold leaf is carefully overlaid on a colored painted surface on fine gesso board. The painted under-layer with gold leaf has been used for centuries to enhance the shade of gold, and specks of it can be seen on close examination of the surface. The imitation gold leaf has a more textured appearance whereas the pure gold has a flatter reflective surface. See less