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Fiona Strickland SBA
Biography
Fiona’s proudest achievement to date was to election to full membership to the Society of Botanical Artists in her first year of exhibition, 2008. She studied for her Diploma and Post Graduate Diploma in Drawing and Painting at the prestigious Edinburgh College of Art, where she was awarded a scholarship to study at Hospitalfield House, Arbroath and a travelling scholarship to Italy and France. She taught Art and Design in Scottish secondary schools for 26 years prior to concentrating on her botanical painting full time.
Fiona attributes her standard of work to her love of the subject selected, her formal art training at Edinburgh College of Art and years of teaching observational drawing and painting.
Working in her studio in Central Scotland with her artist husband Robert McNeill, Fiona is already well known for her large abstract paintings which have been exhibited in a number of public and private galleries throughout Scotland. But she is passionate about her botanical painting which she has exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy, the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour, the Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts, The Society of Scottish Artists, Visual Arts Scotland and on her first submission in 2008, with the Society of Botanical Artists in London. Her work was enthusiastically received at the SBA where she was awarded the runner-up for the St Cuthbert’s Mill Award and the People’s Choice Award.
Fiona selects her botanical subjects for their individual aesthetic qualities, fascinated by the unique characteristics of each, which instigates the way the composition evolves. The changing colour, form and texture of plants and flowers as they grow and subsequently wither are her passion. Often when flowers are ‘past their best’ she finds their form and colour quite beautiful. She likes to patiently observe the structure of a plant or flower in pencil first and her ‘quest for perfection’ lies in the meticulous application of watercolour washes to record the way the light falls on the subject, thus contributing to the description of the form.
Her botanical watercolours have been described as ‘simply stunning’ and have been purchased by specialist private collectors. Although new to botanical painting, she has already made a very substantial impact in this field and is currently planning to exhibit nationally and internationally.
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