The Artists: Bridget Gillespie
Bridget Gillespie has been a botanical illustrator for over 30 years. After training in Graphic Design she began painting flowers when a friend asked her to paint her wedding bouquet and Bridget became hooked on plants. She produces precise botanical studies, chiefly working in watercolour on paper but also in ballpoint on vellum. All pieces are the result of close observation from plant specimens and so her work is determined by the seasonal cycle of growth, fruiting and decay. Never relying on photographs means she has to capture details quickly and accurately before the material dies.
Many of Bridget’s paintings are of fruit and vegetables as well as familiar subjects from her rural environment. She has exhibited at the Society of Botanical Artists, the Royal Horticultural Society and gained a Certificate of Botanical Merit, 4 RHS Gold medals and ‘Best in Show.’ Her work is in the historic collections at the RHS Lindley Library and the Hunt Institute in Pittsburgh as well as private collections and published in ‘The Northern Pomona, Apples for Cool Climates,’ 2007, and ‘RHS Botanical Illustration, the Gold Medal Winners, 2019.
She tutors in botanical illustration at Harlow Carr in North Yorkshire and has demonstrated and lectured at the RHS in London and Edinburgh Botanic Gardens as well as giving talks on the History of Botanical Illustration.
Many of Bridget’s paintings are of fruit and vegetables as well as familiar subjects from her rural environment. She has exhibited at the Society of Botanical Artists, the Royal Horticultural Society and gained a Certificate of Botanical Merit, 4 RHS Gold medals and ‘Best in Show.’ Her work is in the historic collections at the RHS Lindley Library and the Hunt Institute in Pittsburgh as well as private collections and published in ‘The Northern Pomona, Apples for Cool Climates,’ 2007, and ‘RHS Botanical Illustration, the Gold Medal Winners, 2019.
She tutors in botanical illustration at Harlow Carr in North Yorkshire and has demonstrated and lectured at the RHS in London and Edinburgh Botanic Gardens as well as giving talks on the History of Botanical Illustration.
