Rebecca John
June Grasses II. Wales, 5-6 June 2005, 2005
pencil
36 x 26 cm
Copyright The Artist
Since qualifying in 1995 Rebecca John's botanical work has been bought by over 100 collectors worldwide. She is represented in the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff and The Fitzwilliam Museum,...
Since qualifying in 1995 Rebecca John's botanical work has been bought by over 100 collectors worldwide. She is represented in the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff and The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. Over the years she has received many commissions, and has donated work to raise funds for various global charities, a village hall in Wales and the John Soane Museum, London.
‘I am not attracted to lush subject matter, to glossy green leaves and large bright flowers. A leaf reduced to lace by insects, a frond of crinkling bracken, the random geometry of collapsing summer grasses; such subjects regain a strange beauty in pencil and watercolour. For me a wild flower - exquisite in itself - is the most fearsome of subjects to paint. Its delicate engineering allows no room for play and its fleeting life requires swift execution: wild flowers represent the high-wire act of botanical painting. In contrast the weathered surface of a leaf or an object that has ‘had a life’ allow a longer period for study, with surprising insights.’
‘I am not attracted to lush subject matter, to glossy green leaves and large bright flowers. A leaf reduced to lace by insects, a frond of crinkling bracken, the random geometry of collapsing summer grasses; such subjects regain a strange beauty in pencil and watercolour. For me a wild flower - exquisite in itself - is the most fearsome of subjects to paint. Its delicate engineering allows no room for play and its fleeting life requires swift execution: wild flowers represent the high-wire act of botanical painting. In contrast the weathered surface of a leaf or an object that has ‘had a life’ allow a longer period for study, with surprising insights.’
