I have a multidisciplinary art practice inspired by the historical and contemporary traditions of Botanical Art and Contemporary Art practice, currently with a focus on drawing, watercolours and photography. As an ‘ethno botanical artist’ I work with plants as a way of telling stories about our relationships with ourselves and the world around us. My practice is informed by over twenty years of experience as a horticulturalist in therapeutic settings in Community Gardens. My work embodies many layered considerations and narratives including social, environmental, personal, historical, and spiritual.
Exploring the botanical world and its many treasures is a constant inspiration, intertwining the lattice of colour, form, narrative, and symbolic potency.

2025 has been a very busy year, making new work focusing on both large-scale graphite drawings and watercolour paintings. In the spring I had work selected for the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours Exhibition at the Mall Galleries in London. Followed in May where my work featured at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show as part of Sarah Cooks stand displaying the Sir Cedric Morris Irises together with paintings from the Sir Cedric Morris Florilegium collection, and which was awarded a Gold medal. In the summer I was part of a special Iceni Botanical Artists exhibition, the culmination of our project to document the rare and unusual plants at Fullers Mill Gardens. We have published a book ‘A Jewel in the Forest’ which features artwork from the project.

Exhibiting again at Blackthorpe barn is a seasonal highlight for me and has become a touchstone in my practice.

Gallery (click to view)

Biography
I came away from university with a first class honours degree in Fine Art and have exhibited extensively. My practice is informed by over 20 years’ experience as a horticulturalist working in City farms and community gardens, a career which began when I had my studio at Hackney City Farm in London. Going on to initiate the ‘Coriander Club’, a women’s horticultural project at Spitalfields City Farm, grower at ‘Growing Communities’ in north London and then to run the Biodynamic Market Garden and Herb Workshops at the Blackthorn Garden in Kent working with adults with chronic mental health issues and long-term conditions.

Recent Exhibitions
‘Herbals and Harvest’, The Iceni Botanical Artists Exhibition at Ely Cathedral. 29th September to the 13th of October 2023, part of the year long celebrations of the life of St Etheldreda who first established a monastery in Ely in AD 673.
The Sir Cedric Morris Forilegium, delighted to be a one of the contemporary botanical artists asked to paint plant portraits of some of Cedric’s beautiful iris cultivars, an exhibition of the paintings is to be held at Gainsborough house in Sudbury in June 2024.
Delighted to be awarded a Silver Gilt Medal for my paintings at The Royal Horticultural Society Botanical Art Show April 2022 at the Saatchi Gallery, London.
‘Seeds of Hope’: Seeds were the focus of my RHS exhibit, with their incredibly sophisticated, intricate, often astonishing structures which indicate their different dispersal mechanisms.
But more importantly these seeds are very special as they all come from ‘The Seed Co-operative’, who together with a network of growers, develop and sell organic, open-pollinated seeds, and are striving to support those making agroecological farming, food security and seed sovereignty a reality. I hoped that my paintings will help highlight their work and of how vital seeds and seed diversity are for the future.
I am a member of and exhibit with the Sir Cedric Morris Forilegium, Iceni Botanical Artists, Artworks and Echo Arts. Former member of the Chelsea Physic Garden Florilegium Society and Bedgebury Pinetum Florilegium.
2022 The Royal Horticultural Society Botanical Art Show, Saatchi Gallery, London. Awarded a Silver Gilt Medal.
2019/20 The Art of Trees, Outdoor Art Exhibition at Bedgebury Pinetum with the Bedgebury Pinetum Florilegium Society.
2018 Commissioned to paint Rosa damascena for the prestigious Royal College of Physicians anniversary publication ‘The illustrated College Herbal’, Plants from the Pharmacopoeia Londinensis. The specimen accessed from the Royal College of Physicians Herb Garden.
2018 Botanical Art Worldwide Exhibition UK. My painting of Rosa rubiginosa selected for ‘In Ruskin’s Footsteps’ exhibition at Lancaster University.
2016 and 2018 ‘FLORUM’ Selected Botanical Art Exhibition, Kent Wildlife Trust, Sevenoaks Nature Reserve, Kent
2016 ‘Bedgebury Pinetum Florilegium Society’ Exhibition at the Artichoke Gallery, Ticehurst, Kent
2014 Artist in Residence – self initiated with Lyminge Archaeological Project, University of Reading
2014 and 2017 The Society of Botanical Artists Annual Exhibition, London
2013 Ko-Ax Drawing, selected Exhibition, Mascalls Gallery, Kent.

Website: www.juliagroves.co.uk

Instagram: @juliagrovesartist

Email: info@juliagroves.co.uk

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Contact Julia Groves