Mary Ellen Taylor – Red Admiral & Michaelmas Daisy

Watercolour and Graphite on Paper

Unframed Dimensions Listed

Listed Price includes VAT

Mary Ellen Taylor

Mary Ellen Taylor’s love of flora and fauna began in the Galápagos Islands and Andes where she lived for 2 decades before settling into London in 2003 to complete her diploma certificate in Botanical Painting at the English Gardening School in the Chelsea Physic Garden.

Still based at the Chelsea Physic Garden, Mary Ellen is now Chair of the Physic Garden Florilegium, has been a member since 2009 and contributes her paintings to the archives to document the Living Plant Collection on site. 

In 2008 Mary Ellen was sponsored to return to the Galapagos in celebration of Darwin’s 200th anniversary, to research and paint the six most endangered birds and their habitat. The resulting watercolour paintings continue to raise awareness and funds for the Galapagos Conservation Trust, based in London.

In 2011, The Chelsea Physic Garden commissioned Mary Ellen to paint the butterflies found within the garden and their nectar source. This was done to honour James Petiver, the ‘grandfather of British butterflies’ and past demonstrator of the Physic Garden. These watercolours were used for a series of note cards sold in their shop, reminding visitors of the delicate environmental balance of this special garden.

Mary Ellen teaches in the UK and abroad, exhibits and her work has been published, sold internationally and recently selected for inclusion in the Transylvania Florilegium being created under the umbrella of the Prince of Wales’s Foundation Romania.