Úrsula ROMERO
( 1984)
27 Degrees
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Watercolour on paper.
1000 x 1500 mm. (39 3/8 x 59 1/8 in.)
1000 x 1500 mm. (39 3/8 x 59 1/8 in.)
This very large watercolour is part of a recent series of works devoted to blue flowers, on which the artist has been working for the past several years, and which has taken her as far afield as the island of Tasmania in Australia. As has been noted, ‘Úrsula Romero has been immersed in the colour blue since 2017, exploring what this intense and captivating colour means to us culturally; why regardless of race or religion, it is the worlds’ favourite colour and why paradoxically it is so rare in nature. In the footsteps of the 18th Century Romanticists, Úrsula has been travelling across the globe in her search for the unattainable; seeking new ways of depicting the beauty of blue flowers with each journey she takes…Blue Flower is not a theoretical and rational study of botanical art, but an exploration of the visual directions in which the natural world can lead us…Blue Flower will remain unfinished.’
According to the artist, this monumental watercolour of poppies was done soon after she met the enigmatic British artist Nick Fudge in Spain. As she has noted of the present work, ‘I decided to title the painting ‘27 Degrees’ because the petals of the central flower make a cross, a destined cross that is also present in the astrology charts of two people who both had eclipse points at 27 degrees of the fixed signs - YBA Nick Fudge and myself. We met back on 4th May 2019 in a village in Granada. It was an unexpected event that shook up my world, the way I paint, and the way I saw other paintings. For the next three years, Nick taught me the history of art and we developed a friendship through correspondence during the Pandemic. He was isolated in Lisbon at the time and I myself in a small isolated house in the mountains of Granada. The painting 27 Degrees is about this bolt out of the blue. A divine intervention. A happy, fated event that paved the way for two painters to help each other with their work during an incredibly challenging time in our world’s history.’
According to the artist, this monumental watercolour of poppies was done soon after she met the enigmatic British artist Nick Fudge in Spain. As she has noted of the present work, ‘I decided to title the painting ‘27 Degrees’ because the petals of the central flower make a cross, a destined cross that is also present in the astrology charts of two people who both had eclipse points at 27 degrees of the fixed signs - YBA Nick Fudge and myself. We met back on 4th May 2019 in a village in Granada. It was an unexpected event that shook up my world, the way I paint, and the way I saw other paintings. For the next three years, Nick taught me the history of art and we developed a friendship through correspondence during the Pandemic. He was isolated in Lisbon at the time and I myself in a small isolated house in the mountains of Granada. The painting 27 Degrees is about this bolt out of the blue. A divine intervention. A happy, fated event that paved the way for two painters to help each other with their work during an incredibly challenging time in our world’s history.’
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.’
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.’
