Picture Profile 2212: Galanthus Three Ships.
In January 2022, the Iceni Botanical Artists, IBA (of which I am a member, and Chair from November 2021–), decided that their next botanical project would be to paint a year of the flora and fauna in Fullers Mill Garden, West Stow, Suffolk, designed and planted by Bernard Tickner and his wife, Bess. It was decided that it should be a two-year project and completion of all artworks was set for 1st January 2024.
Annie Delbridge, head gardener (with permission from the Charity Perennial who now look after the garden) supplied the IBA with a list of plants which grow in the garden and the animals, birds, insects, fish etc., which live in or visit the garden. Iceni Artists have been free to choose which plants, vistas and fauna they would like to depict and it is hoped that we will hold an exhibition of all the artworks, as well as publishing a book with a selection of paintings.
My main task for the project is to paint 11 snowdrops – some rare, some not so, and others which are different, for example, white and yellow flowers and parts, rather than white and green.
Artist Code 2212. Galanthus “Three Ships”. Water colour on Aquarelle Arches 100% cotton paper 140lb. 10″ x 14″. Completed 4th January 2023
This painting is the second of the 11 snowdrops. Sadly, as this one is quite rare, I was unable to have sight of the bulbs. But I hope the character of this “bulbous” snowdrop and its “chunky” short leaves shows well in the painting so that it can be identified. Magnified sections of the plant’s particular flower patterns are shown (x3) – completely different from the Queen Olga, the first painting in the series (see below).
“Three Ships” DETAILS:
FLOWERS AS EARLY AS CHRISTMAS DECEMBER
“Three Ships” is a clump-forming, bulbous perennial with broadly-strap-shaped, greyish- green leaves and flowers produced in early winter, this cultivar is often in flower by Christmas Day. The rounded flowers have heavily-textured white outer segments and flared inner segments with broad green markings at the base and an inverted V-shaped marking at the apex Galanthus plicatus subsp. byzantinus ‘Three Ships’.
