Gertrude Hamilton

The latest of many visual delights I have discovered by way of Signor Mori’s marvellous weblog cipango are the contemporary botanical watercolours of Gertrude Hamilton.

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Although it is my subject I do not consider myself a botanical painter. I have no interest in merely copying a plant, I think that photography can do a better job. I like to capture the personality of every living thing. Every flower, every cherry is different, and this is what fascinates me… - Gertrude Hamilton.

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The blurb at the Phillips Fine Art website from where I lifted these images cites influences ‘as diverse as Pompeiian frescoes, Piero della Francesca and Dürer’. I can’t say it’s an influence, but these images, with their penlike flourishes, remind me of Joris Hoefnagel’s illustrations in the Mira Calligraphiae Monumenta.