Jenny Phillips (b. 1949)
Hollyhocks

Pencil and watercolor on paper
Signed and dated lower right, ‘Jenny Kaye Phillips 2005’

Paper size: 22 1/2 x 17 3/8 in.
Frame size: 32 3/8 x 27 1/8 in.

#AP02988

Jenny Phillips was born in Victoria, Australia, in 1949, and has become one of the most celebrated contemporary botanical artists. Her career represents a rare and sustained dedication to a single subject pursued with deepening mastery over more than five decades.

Her artistic formation was shaped by two powerful forces: rigorous immersion in the Old Masters and a lifelong devotion to the garden. As a young artist, she undertook extensive study in the museum libraries of England, France, and Italy, absorbing the precise observational standards set by the great draftsmen and painters of Western art. This training instilled in her both a reverence for botanical accuracy and a deep appreciation for the expressive potential of line and the luminous watercolor wash.

From 1971 onward, Phillips committed herself wholly to botanical subjects. Her drawings and watercolors are distinguished by their extraordinary delicacy, nuanced handling of light and texture, and their ability to render the unique character of a plant rather than merely its outward form. Her love of gardening further enriches this work, lending it the warmth and authenticity of someone who has tended her subjects firsthand and understands their seasonal rhythms, fragility, and resilience.

Phillips has exhibited widely in the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States, and South Africa, with her work held in numerous private collections, including that of Dr. Shirley Sherwood, one of the world's foremost collectors of botanical art. Her achievements have been recognized with gold medals from the Australian National Print Awards in 1987 and the Royal Horticultural Society of London in 1993.

Equally committed to education, Phillips founded the Botanical Art School of Melbourne in 1994, which she continues to direct, dedicated to grounding artists in the fundamental principles of drawing and painting. Since 1997, she has taught master classes around the world, at venues including the Orient-Express Hotels in Cape Town, Charleston, Johannesburg, Sydney, and Venice, as well as at the New York Botanical Garden. Over the course of her career, she has personally taught more than 3,000 students, earning recognition not only as a leading practitioner of botanical art but as one of its most influential advocates.