Beatrix Potter
I have been looking at artist Beatrix Potter because of the relevance between the styles of our work because of the playfulness of her animal drawings that have the slightly child-like feel to them based on her work being for children's stories and the illustrations to go alongside them. Flower painting was a conventional subject for a girl of Beatrix’s class. From a young age she drew inspiration from books such as John E. Sowerby’s British Wild Flowers, a lavish present from her grandmother, and Vere Foster’s popular drawing manuals. Mostly, however, Beatrix shared the Pre-Raphaelites’ passion for the ‘meticulous copying of flowers & plants’ from life. These drawings blend characteristics of botanical illustration, concerned with the accurate depiction and identification of plants, with those of flower painting, a genteel art celebrating the beauty of nature. Whether drawing for serious study or for enjoyment Beatrix combines scientific detachment with a keen sense of wonder and an expert appreciation of composition and design. Beatrix later remarked that the ‘careful botanical studies of my youth’ informed the ‘reality’ of her fantasy drawings. Precisely drawn flowers people her prettiest and best known books: geraniums in The Tale of Peter Rabbit; carnations and fuchsias in The Tale of Benjamin Bunny; water lilies in The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher; foxgloves in The Tale of Jemima Puddle-duck, and an abundance of lilies, pansies, roses and snapdragons in The Tale of Tom Kitten.
My own work has an illustration like theme to it because of how my own drawings are based on a form of escapism and are made to seem happy and lighthearted compared to the harsh reality that nature really entails, as well as her botanical illustrations linking to my own sketches of flowers that reappear throughout many of my drawings and paintings.
