With the launch of ROSA Botanical Art Fair over the May Day Bank Holiday weekend, I wanted to show examples of the extraordinary range of contemporary botanical art currently being made. Academic illustrations of plants can be fascinating, educational and beautiful, but they are not the whole story. There is a huge resurgence of interest in the plant world – from vast mycelial networks and exquisitely textured mosses, to ancient forests and carpets of wildflowers – and artists reflect that. Might it be a yearning for the real, the natural in a world of fake news and AI? Very likely. Indeed, 2025’s blockbuster Flowers show at Saatchi Gallery proved so popular that it had to be extended. Here, I’ve chosen works, from the dreamy to the down-to-earth, that demonstrate different approaches to flora in art and design.
Jessica Wood
An interior dreamscape
Sarah Arnett
New Moon Wallpaper Mural
£1,350 for 3x5m (all murals are made
to order and can be resized to fit)
Arnett is a Brighton-based designer artist whose vibrant work blends hand-drawn illustration with digital craft to create surreal, nature-inspired dreamscapes. Her signature style is deeply influenced by a childhood in Zimbabwe and travels through India, resulting in eclectic patterns and textiles that have been featured in collaborations with the likes of Liberty and Dior. Her immersive wallpaper murals will transform a room, expanding the space into the imagination. They can make a small room feel grand, a large space feel intimate, or a neutral setting feel alive with personality. saraharnett.co.uk
Past gems, today’s jewels
Vivienne Ridley, Carved Flower Necklace
Antique carved mother-of-pearl flower (W4cm), custom-made sterling silver loop drop, light sterling silver belcher chain
(L17in). £120
From her south coast studio, Ridley handcrafts one-off pieces, mixing old and new, using traditional methods. She describes herself as a ‘magpie’ for treasures – from antique buttons to lone cufflinks – all meticulously sourced at auctions, car boots, antique and junk shops. Her mission is to create purposeful, recycled jewellery that carries its past into new histories. With this in mind, she expertly balances vintage and contemporary to give these historic fragments a second life. Ridley’s jewellery has an international fanbase and she has sold through prestigious stockists like Harrods and Saatchi Gallery, earning acclaim in The Guardian and The Times.
vivienneridley.co.uk
Flora transformed by light
Lilian Simonsson, Threshold I, 2025
Photograph of petals on lightbox. Limited-edition Giclée print
A4-A1: £250-£800
This latest photographic series from the Lewes-based artist and filmmaker explores changing form through abstract images of petals that have a delicate yet dynamic poetry. They are suspended between movement and stillness, light and shadow, fragility and resilience; Simonsson describes them as ‘an invitation to contemplate transformation as both rupture and renewal, and the moment when something
reveals its essence.’ @lili_simonsson
The blossomest blossom
Julian Le Bas, Blossom Tree, Bishopstone (No.2), May 2025
Oil on canvas, 89x75cm. £2,400
Le Bas is a contemporary master of plein air landscape
painting. Influenced by David Bomberg’s lineage, he translates the weight and volume of the Sussex Downs into robust charcoal drawings and vibrant oil paintings. His work seeks the spiritual essence of form and light. By working directly within the environment, he achieves a shamanic connection to the land, exalting the everyday through a metaphysical lens. Recent large-scale works signal a shift toward more emotive, instrumental colour use in his lifelong reverence for
the natural world. His work is widely collected and held in public collections, including Towner Eastbourne and Hove Museum & Art Gallery. natashaokane.art
Flora and fauna from the earth
Emma Carlow, Oak Creatures
(from the Hamsey series)
Groups from £260
Carlow describes her Hamsey pieces as
a ‘creative dialogue’ with the plants and
creatures that populate a soon-to-be
developed pocket of farmland between
Hamsey and Cooksbridge (near Lewes).
She works quickly, in an attempt to
abandon preconceptions and prevent
a photographic resemblance, using clay
that was a byproduct of building activity
in the area, and glazes and oxides
developed from its waste material. Her
‘clay sketches’ are more about ‘listening’
to the subject and understanding its
essence. Carlow’s folk art-inspired work
is widely shown, including at the Royal
Academy Summer Exhibition 2025,
and she has a huge Instagram fanbase.
meiklejohngallery.co.uk