About Me

As a bank clerk of some 22 years I had no artistic background other than a love of painting as a child, but at the age of 40 (life begins at!) I decided to undertake ‘A’ level art at my local college to see if my enjoyment of art was backed up by any shred of ability. This proved to be a success, leading to other courses and eventually to an introduction into botanical art by a friend who recognised, long before I did, that my style increasingly reflected a love of detail.

My work combines keen observation of the fine characteristics present in nature with an abiding wish to gain further knowledge about the beautiful and complex world of botany. Once I began studying nature in detail I could never view plants in a dismissive way again, even the most simple of structures are a triumph of engineering.

Watercolour and graphite are the mediums I favour for they are versatile enough to capture everything from a delicate windflower to a sold tree branch with equal sensitivity.

Betty Gadsby

Botanical Artist

Timeline

• 2009 Betty enrolled in the Society of Botanical Artist distance learning course which she passed with distinction in 2011.
• 2012 her painting of Hippeastrum ‘Floris Hekker’ was used by the University of Birmingham to illustrate the bulb collection in their booklet on Winterbourne house and garden.
• 2013 Betty was elected a full member of the Society of Botanical Artists and through the SBA gained a commission to produce the front cover for bulb suppliers P de Jager & Sons Limited Spring catalogue. The image used was Lilium ‘Anastasia’. It was the first time this company used an artist from the SBA and happily the alliance still exists today. In the same year she was accepted by the RHS picture committee and gained a Silver medal at their Malvern Show for her work featuring primula auricula.
• 2015 she became a member of the Institute for Analytical Plant Illustration. Betty regularly exhibits with the SBA and at the Pittenweem Arts Festival in Fife and continues to build up her classes and courses which she runs in Warwickshire.