Botanical Paintings by J R Shepherd

What I do

Predominantly a painter, I enjoy playing with light and scale to create intimate, poetic engagements between people and their natural environment. I make works that bring us closer to the mystical, the irrational and the sublime.

Around my creative axis spin ideas about longing and desire, and being lost or overly confined, which are concurrent with the ridiculously mundane trivia of the everyday. My time devoted to a Masters’ degree in science has allowed me to be able to blend this more logical, rigid understanding of the world with that of the mythological; crossing boundaries and producing works that I consider to be more holistic and poetic in their approach.

I also work on a number of other projects outside the realm of flowers. I am a writer, publisher and curator and travel widely, collaborating with institutions, artists and scientists around the world in their work.

If you are interested in what I do you can follow me on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

Proposals to exhibit my work and all reproduction and commission enquiries can be made using the form at the end of this page.

Illustration

News

CORONAVIRUS: Courses indicated below may be subject to postponement.
Please contact the organiser you booked with for more information.
It is possible that courses will be rescheduled for a later date.

Blue Flower: USA (field work, exhibitions, talks and workshops)
January – March 2023

Blue Flower: Canada (field work and workshops) 2021

Three day workshop in Moclín, Spain
24th – 31st August 2021
(Places available – read more here)

Three day workshop in Moclín, Spain
3rd – 7th June 2021
(Places available – read more here)

Blue Flower: Transylvania (field work and workshop)
28th May – 2nd June 2021
(Places available – read more here)

Paintings on exhibition at ‘Herbarios Imaginados’
January to March 2020
Madrid, Spain

Blue Flower: Cairo, Egypt (field work and workshops)
January 2020

Paintings on display in ‘Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art’
19th November 2019 – 15th March 2020
Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, London, UK
The book can be bought here

Exhibition and a public talk at Space Mountain Festival
11th – 14th October 2019
Albuñuelas, Spain

Sun orchid paintings, The Long Gallery for Tarkine in Motion
18th – 29th July 2019
Hobart, Tasmania, Australia

INKQ on display at the John Hope Gateway.
11th April 2019
Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh, UK

Blue Flower: Europe – Switzerland and Ireland (field Work)
July – September 2019

Blue Flower: Australasia (field Work)
October – March 2018

Large painting on exhibition at Royal Botanic Gardens Kew
6th October 2018 to 17th March 2019
London, UK

Talk in the library at the Real Jardín Botánico
11.00am on 27 April 2018
Madrid, Spain

Offical Launch of INK Quarterly, London
1st March 2018
London, UK

Guest Artist at the Moscow Watercolour Festival
20th – 22nd October 2017
Moscow, Russia

Artist in Residence
River Cottage HQ
17th – 29th June 2017
River Cottage, Dorset, UK

‘Leafscape’
16th – 25th February 2017
Solo exhibition at Abbott and Holder,
London, UK

May 2016: Live painting demonstration at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

Group exhibition The Incredible Exploding Pomegranate
15th July – 15th October 2015
Granada, Spain

February 2015: Appearance on BBC4’s documentary ‘In Search of Rory McEwen‘.
An excerpt of the programme can be watched via the video link below.

In 2014 Inky Leaves was invited by the RHS to set up a pop-up studio at their RHS Botanical Art Show in London.

Read the review

In 2013, Inky Leaves exhibited at the Espacio Gallery, London, as part of the Chelsea Fringe. Below left is a video made for the Espacio Gallery during the exhibition.

Connect with Inky Leaves

If you are interested in following Inky Leaves, subscribe to the newsletter where news about her work can be delivered directly to your inbox. We will never send you spam or pass your details to third parties.

For any questions about obtaining prints and originals and proposals to exhibit my work can be made using the form below to get in touch with me or you can telephone on +44 7904 449 599.

EMAIL mail@inkyleaves.com