Page 5 - OSG: Henrietta Abel Smith: An English Country Garden

Henrietta (b.1987) trained at Charles Cecil Studios, Florence and has worked as a portrait
painter in London since 2012. Her portrait commissions include HRH Prince Richard,
Duke of Gloucester, The Earl of Home and The Marquis of Lansdowne.

‘I grew up in the Cotswolds, surrounded by the most beautiful
cottage garden created by my garden designer mother and so

a love of flowers was instilled in me from an early age. I have
always interwoven my portrait commissions with painting
flowers from my mother’s garden; I suppose it was a way for
me to keep nature around me whilst working in the city.

I took what I learnt from my portrait training and applied
it to still life painting; I use a limited palette, often no more
than five or six paints in the whole painting to help create
cohesion throughout. All the still lifes are painted using

the sight size technique and painted from life in the studio.
This creates rather a problem with flowers that don’t cooperate
quite like people do; they twist and turn, lose petals and then
wilt, so I have learnt to paint quickly, mostly alla prima in
order to capture them. Changing moments, whilst challenging,
add to the finished painting. If a rose drops its petals half
way through I will paint that in to the picture. There are

always books open on my favourite artists, Henri Fantin-Latour
and William Nicholson.

This exhibition is the accumulation of two years’ work, most
of which are of flowers or produce from my mother’s garden
with a few donations from wonderful friends. So thank you
to all of them for allowing me to raid your flowerbeds.’