Fiona Strickland is a leading internationally renowned watercolour artist of botanical subjects. Working with only transparent watercolour on Fabriano Artistico Hot Pressed paper, she is passionate about recording the natural environment. Her process is grounded in acute observation and her emotive and artistic responses to nature. Captivated by any one of several visual elements, her love of light and colour and her extensive acquired artistic knowledge fuels this selection process, engages her senses and compels her to paint with a scrutiny and forensic analysis that begins on first sight.

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She demonstrates exceptional technical virtuosity in the communication of visually complex plant forms and has little interest for scientific representation. With her extraordinary attention to detail, she captures a moment in time through her curiosity for the diversity of the overlooked and the beauty that exists when a plant is sometimes less than perfect.

 

In her studio outside Edinburgh, she is working on a collaborative project with her husband, Robert McNeill relating to their local natural environment and the rich habitats that contribute to natures biodiversity.

 

Fiona was tutored by Dame Blackadder DBE, RA, RSA Hon RWA in the School of Drawing and Painting at the prestigious Edinburgh College of Art where she was awarded a Scholarship to Hospitalfield House and a Travelling Scholarship to Italy and France, before completing her Post Graduate studies in a studio overlooking the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. 

 

Since developing her work in botanical subjects, she has received an R.H.S. Gold Medal and Dawn Joliffe Botanical Art Bursary, Best in Show and the Diane Bouchier Award for Excellence in Botanical Art from the American Society of Botanical Artists, and multiple awards from the Society of Botanical Artists. Recently Fiona received the W Gordon Smith and Mrs Jay Gordon Smith Award at the 144th Exhibition of the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in watercolour.

 

With a passion for teaching, she has travelled extensively to tutor, but, more recently artists have travelled from UK, Europe, Asia, and USA to learn with her in Scotland.

 

Included in many books and articles Fiona has work in the collections of Dr Shirley Sherwood O.B.E., the R.H.S Lindley Library and the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation as well as numerous private collections worldwide. With paintings exhibited at Masterpiece Art Fair London, Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art the Royal Botanical Garden Kew, Fulham Palace, London the Manggha Museum, Krakow Poland, the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, the Horticultural Society of New York and exhibitions with the Jonathan Cooper Gallery London, it is perhaps no wonder her work is highly sought after by collectors

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