Fiona Strickland The Vital Moment
Fiona Strickland The Vital Moment
Jonathan Cooper
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Fiona Strickland As a long time collector of botanical watercolors, (with a collection of more than one hundred paintings) my discovery of the work of Fiona Strickland was a very happy moment in my life. I am also a professional flower and garden photographer specializing in abstraction and color forms, and was given the honor at the American Society of Botanical Artists of conducting a walk-through of the show to give my impression of the work on display. In describing Fiona Strickland’s poppy to a large group of visitors, artists, and collectors, I found myself falling madly in love with her work, and eventually buying the painting for my home. There are few botanical painters who approach their subject with the abandon and surety of Fiona Strickland. What she sees and how she sees it departs from much of the work done in the past. I can sense the influence of other artists who came before her, the moderns, Rory McEwen, Jessica Tcherepnine, Barbara Oozerally, and others. Her admiration and close study of the great historic flower painters, such as Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717), is equally evident. Ms. Strickland presents to us the lusciousness of 17th, 18th and 19th–century Dutch and French still life paintings. What distinguishes her work is the musical quality of her flowers. They are anatomically correct, but they are caught in stages of growth and bloom not often taught in botanical art classes, and they sing off the page. Because of this, her originality truly stands out.
Fiona and I have discussed the synergy in her art including the rhythmic and musical energy of her flowers, and her extraordinary use of color, which is drawn directly from life in the garden. She captures the tenuousness of the moment: look at the Estella Rijnveld tulip with its stretched and almost impossibly open petals, which defy gravity. There is great energy in this watercolor painting, and the blossom’s tenacity is palpable. See the windblown tulip Rococo, in its last stages depicting its petals embracing its stamen as well as one another. Ms. Strickland responds to the sensuality of a flower, she proves to us that the blossom can be greater in its demise than in its full flowering. She gives us the ability to see the flower in a new dimension, and to experience its very essence. The only thing missing is the scent. This should truly be the definition of the “everlasting”: it can hang on our wall and bring joy forever after. Barbara Macklowe, 2016
Barbara Macklowe is an award-winning professional art photographer, and author of the book “India In My Eyes.” Together with her husband Lloyd Macklowe and her son Benjamin she owns the prestigious Macklowe Gallery, New York, specializing in TwentiethCentury Decorative Arts. They are keen collectors and supporters of contemporary botanical art.
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Iris (Iris ‘Action Front’) Watercolour on Fabriano Artistico HP 640 gsm 19.75 × 25.25 ins ( 50.2 × 64.1 cm)
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Tulipa Watercolour on Fabriano Artistico HP 640 gsm 20 × 15.25 ins ( 50.8 × 38.7 cm)
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Hippeastrum (Hippeastrum ‘Apple Blossom’) Watercolour on Fabriano Artistico HP 640 gsm 20.75 × 19.5 ins ( 52.7 × 49.5 cm)
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Rococo (Tulipa ‘Rococo’) Watercolour on Fabriano Artistico HP 640 gsm 25.5 × 20.75 ins ( 64.8 × 52.7 cm)
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Late Spring Tulip Watercolour on Fabriano Artistico HP 640 gsm 12.75 × 9.75 ins ( 32.4 × 24.8 cm)
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Estella Rijnveld (Tulipa ‘Estella Rijnveld’) Watercolour on Fabriano Artistico HP 640 gsm 25 × 20.75 ins ( 63.5 × 52.7 cm)
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Tulipa ‘The Lizard’ Watercolour on Kelmscott vellum 7 × 4.25 ins ( 17.8 × 10.8 cm)
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Tulipa ‘Absalon’ Watercolour on Kelmscott vellum 7 × 9 ins ( 17.8 × 22.9 cm)
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Black Parrot Bud (Tulipa ‘Black Parrot’) Watercolour on Kelmscott vellum 7 × 4.25 ins ( 17.8 × 10.8 cm)
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Early Spring Tulip Watercolour on Fabriano Artistico HP 640gsm 12.75 × 9.75 ins ( 32.4 × 24.8 cm)
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Parrot Tulip, Rococo (Tulipa ‘Rococo’) Watercolour on Fabriano Artistico HP 640gsm 27 × 21 ins ( 68.6 × 53.3 cm)
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Perfect Timing Watercolour on Fabriano Artistico HP 640gsm 16.25 × 22 ins ( 41.3 × 55.9 cm)
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Autumn, Bellsdyke Watercolour on Fabriano Artistico HP 640gsm 19.25 × 23.5 ins ( 48.9 × 59.7 cm)
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Autumn, Torwood Watercolour on Fabriano Artistico HP 640gsm 19.25 × 27 ins ( 48.9 × 68.6 cm)
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Rhododendron ‘Horizon Monarch’ Watercolour on Fabriano Artistico HP 640gsm 18.75 × 24.25 ins ( 47.6 × 61.6 cm)
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Duet (Tulipa ‘Insulinde’) Watercolour on Kelmscott vellum 8.75 × 5.75 ins ( 22.2 × 14.6 cm)
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Open Absalon (Tulipa ‘Absalon’) Watercolour on Kelmscott vellum 7 × 9 ins ( 17.8 × 22.9 cm)
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The Vital Moment Watercolour on Fabriano Artistico HP 640gsm 29.25 Ă— 37.25 ins ( 74.3 Ă— 94.6 cm)
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Rococo Bud (Tulipa ‘Rococo’) Watercolour on Kelmscott vellum 7 × 4.25 ins ( 17.8 × 10.8 cm)
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Almost Over Watercolour on Kelmscott vellum 8.5 × 11.75 ins ( 21.6 × 29.8 cm)
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Fiona Strickland – (Born in 1956, in Edinburgh) is a Graduate and Post Graduate of Edinburgh College of Art. She is a multi award winner and R.H.S. Gold Medallist, recipient of the Dawn Jolliffe Botanical Art Bursary (awarded by the Royal Horticultural Society), and the American Society of Botanical Artists and the Horticultural Society of New York’s ‘Best in Show’, 2015. In 2014 her work Poppy was featured in a Royal Mail commemorative stamp marking the anniversary of World War I. A member of the American Society of Botanical Artists, she tutors botanical art internationally, and in October 2016 will be teaching at the ASBA's 22nd Annual Conference, held in conjunction with the Hunt Institute’s International Exhibition of Botanical Art & Illustration in Pittsburgh. Her paintings are held in the R.H.S Lindley Library, the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, the collection of Dr Shirley Sherwood OBE, and numerous private collections in the UK, Europe and the USA.
Jonathan Cooper 20 Park Walk London SW10 0AQ t: +44 (0)20 7351 0410 mail@jonathancooper.co.uk jonathancooper.co.uk
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The Vital Moment (detail) illustrated fully on page 25
Marja Stiijkel and Fiona Strickland, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (photo Robert McNeill)
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