Original artwork description:

This is a copy of the 17th century English entomologist Alexander Marshall's tulip. Before painting this flower, I listened to a lecture about botanical artists of the past. I learned about the pigments that artists extracted from flowers and stems. How many of them went on long journeys to get rare plants and lots of other interesting things!

I also learned that the first tulip wasn't introduced into Europe until the mid-16th century. It was prized by English gardeners and was very expensive. Alexander Marshall painted tulips so much in his Florilegium, that I could not resist their graphic beauty.

The work is on 100% cotton Saunders Waterford archival quality 300g/cm watercolour paper, using the world's finest watercolour paints with the highest index of lightfastness.

Materials used:

Watercolor

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