Tina's Fine Art UK

Picture Profile 2307: Galanthus elwesii “Chelsworth Magnet”.

Artist Code 2307. Galanthus elwesii “Chelsworth Magnet”. Water colour on Aquarelle Arches 100% cotton paper 140lb. 10″ x 14″. Completed 14th May 2023

This is the seventh in a series of 12 paintings of snowdrops for the Iceni Botanical Artists Fullers Mill Project.

FLOWERS DECEMBER, JANUARY, FEBRUARY
This snowdrop does not have any particularly outstanding parts except that it has a rather long pedicel (the thin stalk on which the flower head hangs) and a very vague sinus notch at the base of each inner petal (usually a much more pronounced “v” shape in other snowdrops). It is quite rare, and I only had one plant to work with at the start, but then two others came up a bit later, so I did have a variety of flowers to portray. The leaves are rounded with no pronounced features, blue-grey on the underside and similar on the top side, although in the middle the colour is slightly greener. Two of the three flower heads which grew in 2023 at Fullers Mill seemed top-heavy and when the flowers were fully out the stalk arched over nearly to the ground. The third flower head did not open properly and seemed stunted. The variety was first discovered in Chelsworth, Suffolk by Richard Britten and later renamed by John Morley of North Green Snowdrops, Beccles, in 1997.

Galanthus elwesii “Chelsworth Magnet” (No. 7)

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 12 snowdrops – some rare, some not so, and others which are different, and most with a connection to East Anglia.

Galanthus plicatus (Yaffle) (No. 6)
Picture Profile