Úrsula ROMERO

( 1984)

Tipping Point - Hydrangeas

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Watercolour on paper. 
1000 x 1500 mm. (39 3/8 x 59 1/8 in.)
As the artist has stated, 'Painted between the years of 2018 and 2019, this painting is part of my series on blue flowers. I started it before I went to Tasmania, painting the lighter part before I left and the darker part when I returned. Something permanently altered me in Tasmania - I began my metaphysical work there and since then, my painting has changed. The Hydrangea marks the tipping point - this moment in time where things were permanently altered - i could not go back to how I was before. I looked into my own shadow. by looking at my own shadow I was able to paint the darker parts of the painting, something i had struggled with before Tasmania. I wrote in my blog that in Japan, the Hydrangea has a historical tradition behind it linked to apologies and gratitude. An emperor supposedly gave Hydrangeas to a maiden he loved as an apology for neglecting her when other business took up all his attention. I also wrote my own description of the painting of this suburban flower:



'Betrayed by the dazzling beam of light from a passing car in the early hours of the morning, this weigher of hearts is a revealing of the illicit, tempting, opulence that lurks on even our most quietest of streets'.



It was a mega painting. It marked a point where I changed my style and my vision. It took 6 months to complete on and off. The flowers were bought in the early hours of the morning in Covent Garden Flower Market in May 2018 and drawn out in my friend's house for I was living out of suitcases in those years, as a nomadic artist.'



 
Born Jessica Rosemary Shepherd, Úrsula Romero is a British artist and botanist, as well as a fellow of the Linnean Society. She obtained degrees in botany at Plymouth University and plant taxonomy at the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh. After working as a Curator of Natural History at the Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery, she joined the staff of the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, where she worked between 2010 and 2014, while also active as a freelance botanical illustrator. In 2013 she was elected to the Florilegium Society of the Chelsea Physic Garden in London. Her work is in the collections of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, The Wellcome Trust, the Royal Horticultural Society and the British Library in London and The Box (formerly the Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery) in Plymouth, as well as the Shirley Sherwood Collection of contemporary botanical art and the Botanic Gardens in Denver, Dublin, Edinburgh, London, Madrid and New York. Most recently, her watercolours were included in the exhibition Ellas ilustran botánica in the Casa de las Ciencas in Logroño in northern Spain. The artist lives and works in the village of Albuñuelas, in the Lecrin Valley of Andalusia in southern Spain.

As the artist has stated, ‘I trained in botany before committing myself fully to painting so that I would understand the processes of plants more comprehensively. Equipped with this scientific knowledge, I am now testing new approaches to my artwork to push the capacity for botanical illustration to bring greater awareness of plants and our interaction with them. I hope to inspire people to think beyond their experience whilst enriching our current perceptions of botanical illustration, its applications and how it sits within the larger scope of the visual arts.’

Úrsula ROMERO

Tipping Point - Hydrangeas