Until, that is, the day she was waiting for a client’s business meeting to begin and she picked up an issue of Country Life magazine. Sir Roy Strong had an article in it about a botanical illustration course taught by Anne-Marie Evans at the Chelsea Physic Garden in London. Annie was stunned. Here was a subject matter and an art much more attractive than anything she was working on. Straightaway, she went to see the student graduation exhibition. And “That was it! I bought her book and decided I really wanted to do the Diploma course.” And she never looked back. Her clients did have to learn to accommodate her mysterious absences on Mondays. But that was a small price to pay. She was happily laying a new foundation. 

Anne-Marie Evans had a unique approach to botanical art. She did no demonstrations herself, nor did she illustrate a technique using her own work. Visiting tutors routinely passed through, Gillian Barlow and Pandora Sellars among them. And, of course, attending the many exhibitions available in London, as well as perusing the burgeoning number of publications devoted to botanical art, was encouraged. But in class the emphasis fell upon developing one’s own art—under Anne-Marie’s strict eye. 

But not for Annie. She grows her plants from seeds and cuttings, supplementing them with finds from specialized nurseries. True to her Anne-Marie Evans upbringing, she spends a great deal of time observing them, dissecting them, drawing them—making many quick sketches of the specimen and supplementing that with photographs as needed, and then arranging everything in a pleasing composition before commencing painting. All very “straightforward and logical,” she says.

Easy for her to say.