Ann Saward
Ann Saward
Botanical Artist
Before coming to botanical art, Ann spent thirty five years as a successful full time, studio potter producing hand-thrown high-fired stoneware selling direct to visitors at prestigious craft venues, and then for eight years from her studio in Devon. Individual commissions were sent to clients around the world and, for a number of years, considerable exports to Japan were achieved.
Retirement from the pottery meant Ann could realise a long held ambition to take up botanical painting, which she did in 2019. Although largely self taught, especially throughout Covid lockdowns, Ann was grateful to receive much valued tuition and advice from Rosie Martin.
In 2022 Ann’s botanical artwork was accepted for exhibition with the RHS. She is now working on a series of six paintings for subsequent exhibition.
“I love the detail and precision of recording a plant within a botanical watercolour painting. My inspiration is around me on a daily basis, from hedgerow wild flowers, and waste ground ‘weeds’, to plants in my steeply terraced south Devon garden. Architectural and unusual plants tend to draw me in with their special challenges. There is real joy in watching a plant gradually take form and ‘grow’ on the paper in front of me, despite the many hours of painstaking work involved.
Painting has made me look so much more closely at plants and their pollinating insects than I ever did before. There is a constant sense of wonderment at the beauty, sheer diversity and ingenuity of the natural world around us.”
