I was told I could draw by my teacher, Miss Treleven, when I was just seven: she had entered my Fairy Queen painting into a children’s local art competition and I remember winning a big box of paints and some brushes.  At age 11, whilst on holiday in Italy, I was asked to paint a picture on canvas to replace a wooden wall painting of Madonna and Child which had burned during street celebrations. 

 

Self-taught, I turned professional artist in March 2005.  My favourite subjects are natural history, botanical illustration and illuminated lettering, using gesso and gold leaf. 

 

I designed and planted in 2004 a small ‘wild’ garden to provide specimens of live wild flowers and fauna, such as birds, frogs, newts, toads, hedgehogs, black and grey squirrels and wood mice, and all manner of insects, including lesser stag beetle larvae, damselflies, dragonflies and butterflies.  My friend and neighbour has a very large and beautiful flower garden and grows orchids and other exotic plants in his greenhouse, which together give me a wide selection of flora to paint. 

 

Whenever possible I paint life-size, using live specimens.  In March 2006 I received permission to visit Cambridge Botanic Gardens to paint the wonderful Jade Vine which grows and flowers annually in their greenhouse.  The flower stems are a metre long, and my finished work is over a metre tall! 

 

In February 2008 and in 2009 I submitted five paintings to the Society of Botanical Artists, and was elected an Associate member (AssocSBA).  I am a member of the Marwell International Wildlife Art Society and my first entry in their 2008 (10th Anniversary) Exhibition was sold.  In 2007/8, I submitted work to the National Exhibition of Wildlife Art and sold both times.  Circa April 2009: work to be displayed in the The Darryl Nantais Gallery, Linton, Cambridge. 

 

Other memberships include the Society of All Artists, Cambridge Natural History Society, Cambridge City Group of the Wildlife Trust and the RSPB. 

 

I am still building up my port folio as a professional artist, and my work has been described by the local press as ‘exquisite botanicals’ and ‘nature immortalised in print’. I also design and print my own range of calendars, cards and bookmarks, which can be viewed on my website: www.tinabonedtp.co.uk