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.

0008 Pink Orchid (Phalaenopsis)

Botanical Illustration. Artist Code: 0008. Completed March 2005. Original SOLD. Water colour. Framed size 20” x 29”

SOLD by Private Sale from my Website, March 2014.

I love orchids, so on a shopping trip to M&S one of my closest friends spotted this one and thought I might like to paint it. The result was described in a featured article in the local newspaper as “a gift from a friend, immortalised in print”. One of my neighbours grows orchids and as the plant’s life began to ebb away, I decided it was time to donate it to his collection, where it is now flourishing.

Poem:

Carolus Linnaeus, in his day,
Wrote ‘Phalaenopsis’, and then would say
‘The species resembles big moths in flight’,
Angled blooms so sweet and light
Sometimes called a Moth Orchid,
A tantalizing pink hybrid