AMATEUR ARTWORK: 2002 to 2005
Please note that all paintings listed by Artist Codes 0000 to 0020 were painted prior to my turning professional. I started to number them in this way not in any particular order, then realized that if I was to be a professional, I needed to have a proper coding practice. So I decided after these 21 pictures that I would have four-digit Artist Codes, the first two digits representing the year, and the second two digits the order in which I either painted or sketched the artworks (not necessarily completing them at the time), i.e. “1023” was painted in 2010 and was number 23 of 23 paintings started during that year.
0001 Bird of Paradise (Strelitzia)
Botanical Illustration. Artist Code: 0001. Completed September 2004. Original SOLD. Life size oil painting on stretched canvas. Framed size 20” x 24”.
SOLD to Private Collector.
My second holiday at Cortijo del Guarda, in early July 2004, saw these beautiful clumps of flowers growing in the terraced garden. I had taken my painting equipment with me to finish off a couple of paintings, but every time I went outside the beauty of these orange and blue starlets haunted me. With the permission of my big sister I cut them and placed them carefully in the middle of my clothes in the suitcase and hoped they would not be damaged in flight. Hardy things, they remained in perfect condition until I had finished my painting back home in England. This painting was featured in the local newspaper and described as an “exquisite picture of an exotic plant”.
Poem:
Gorgeous tassels, blue and gold,
The “birds of paradise” unfold.
With crimson sheath, unfurling fronds,
The blade of leaf together bonds.
This wondrous plant will stir the heart,
Like lovers who will never part.
