In 2020, the Gloucester Society for Botanical Illustration received the Finnis Scott award for a collaborative exhibition with Royal Worcester Porcelain Factory Museum. The idea for the exhibition was twofold. First, to celebrate the life and legacy of Stuart Lafford (1953 – 2016) who had been a tutor to many of the society’s members and who started his career as an apprentice at the Royal Worcester Porcelain Factory; and second, to celebrate the importance botanical art has played throughout the history of the design and inspiration of Worcester porcelain.
The artists were given access to the museum and the archives in order to develop some new works that were inspired by the collections. I was due to visit at the end of November 2020 and at that time we were in the middle of a pandemic and in lockdown. Also, I had a problem; I had tested positive and I was self-isolating!
Well, where there is a will, there’s a way. I spoke to Louise Price at the museum who was fantastic. Louise offered to give me a virtual tour of the museum, the collections and some of the archives and, in spite of not feeling my best, what a great tour we had! She showed me the collections in the different galleries and sent me loads of images of anything that I was particularly interested in which was a lot as there are so many wonderful collections. Being in self isolation however had its advantages I was able to plan!
I decided to do two pieces of work using as my inspiration the Blush Ivory Ware; one of the largest collections. In the 1890s Royal Worcester developed new ornamental wares inspired by the European Art Nouveau style. This porcelain was designed to look as though it was made from natural materials, with asymmetric arrangements of flowers and embellished with gold. The process was complex, and the resultant finish and glazes gave a soft cream/ivory colour.
I love working on natural vellum and I felt it would perfectly reflect the cream/ivory colour of the blush ivory porcelain. I explained to Paul at William Cowley what I was looking for and he found me two lovely pieces of soft creamy natural calfskin vellum which were just perfect. These he stretched into two panels for my works.
To work on vellum the surface needs to be pounced and for this I like a pounce made from a mix of pumice and cuttlefish. I like to pounce the surface well as this not only removes the grease from the surface but also raises the nap and creates a great base for the paint.
Creating my first panel Passiflora rubra
Watercolour and 24 carat gold leaf on William Cowley natural cream calfskin vellum
I had seen an image of a Royal Worcester Blush Ivory vase from 1885 with passionflowers and this was the inspiration for my choice of Passiflora rubra for my first design. The Royal Worcester porcelain and blush ivory ware had lots of gold embellishments. So, I thought about how I might be able to include some gold leaf in my design.
The passionflower that I drew, grows and scrambles over a trellis and has lots of lovely curling stems and tendrils.
I wanted the flowers, stems and tendrils to look as they do when they grow as naturally as possible. I also wanted to reflect some of the asymmetrical and sinuous curling lines that are typical of Art Nouveau design. I decided that the gold would take the form of radiating gold lines behind the flowers to reflect the sunburst motif characteristic of many Art Nouveau designs.
Once I finished my first design, I then had to transfer it to the vellum. I always find this is a bit tricky as it is a balance of having enough graphite on the vellum to be able to see the design without ending up with too much and having to rub it away affecting the surface of the skin.
Once drawn I used a water-based size for the gold. The size needs to be left for a minimum of five hours before gilding and I was fortunate that we had a nice rainy day to create a humid atmosphere! It always helps when laying gold leaf to have a nice damp day which means the gold will stick better. As the gold is applied there are always lots of scraps of gold which are far too precious to waste, so I like to collect these and grind them later with some gum arabic to make some gold paint.
I laid the gold and it stuck well which is always a relief, so I was able to give it a gentle burnish with some cotton wool.
With the gilding now complete I made a start on the painting.
I started at the top with the leaves.
Then I began work on the flower as I felt it was important to get the balance between the pinky red of the flower and the green of the leaves.
When working on vellum, I like to lay down initial colour to create the areas of light and dark as an underlayer before adding the detail and stronger tones with small strokes and a dry brush.
With the flower mostly complete it was time for the buds. As this is not only decorative but a botanical painting, I wanted to show all the aspects of the plant in the design. This included an open flower, an opening bud as well as closed buds. I started work on the buds and some more leaves. These showed both the front and the back of the leaves with the patterns of the veins and the red edges to the leaves which are so pretty on this variety and reflect the colour of the buds and flowers.
Lastly, I added the sweeping tendrils which were tricky to paint but important as I wanted them to reflect the sinuous lines of many Art Nouveau designs.
Creating my second panel Iris hollandica
Watercolour and 24 carat gold leaf on William Cowley natural cream calfskin vellum
For my second design, I chose a purple iris hollandica. Irises appear in the designs for Royal Worcester and I chose this purple florist’s iris for my design. I wanted to create a panel that would complement the passionflower panel. Once again, my influence was the blush ivory ware, and I chose a pale cream vellum to reflect the colour of this porcelain
In this composition I wanted once again to reflect the sinuous curling lines and sweeping curves typical of Art Nouveau design. I decided to do this in the positioning of the curling leaves of the iris. Again, I wanted to include gold leaf to reflect the gold embellishment on the blush ivory Royal Worcester porcelain. For the gold on this piece, I placed a series of gilded blocks at the base of the stems to reflect the flat perspective, repeat patterns and right-angled designs also typical in Art Nouveau.
I laid the size and then completed the gilding.
Gilding complete it was time for the purple flower. I like predominantly to use winsor and newton colours which are bound with gum arabic. With some colours and in particular some of the purples and mauves there is a lot of binder which can make the paint quite sticky. When paining on vellum you need to add the paint with small layers of individual brushstrokes and with these slightly sticky colours this needs care and lots of patience to apply smoothly.
When an area is gilded it is important to keep this covered with crystal parchment to protect it.
With the main flower in place, I added the dark purple bud and the green leaves to be able to check the balance of tones between the purples and greens. The newly opening bud was also a slightly darker purple than the fully opened flower.
The sinuous lines of the curling leaves, reflecting many Art Nouveau designs were tricky to paint and needed a steady hand!
