Jackie Isard (BA Hons) SBA Fellow CBM GM

Jackie Isard is an award-winning botanical artist having won a Gold medal at RHS in 2022. She is passionate about her work and teaching. Based in Bristol, her delicate watercolours are much admired for their intricacy and detail. She teaches a regular Saturday group and various workshops in Abbots Leigh, Bristol. She also runs workshops with Society groups in the South West, Wales and Gloucestershire. More recently she has been asked to join the Hampton Court Florilegium and looks forward to painting for them in the future.

BIO
In 2015 Jackie tried her hand at botanical painting and hasn’t stopped painting since! She is a graphic designer by trade but has now chosen a new path in life. She is passionate about plants, the beauty of nature and enjoys watercolour as her favoured media. “Nature is so beautiful and it gives me such pleasure capturing it on paper.” The beauty of decaying plants also attracts her and those Autumn tones are her favourites to paint.  

“Botanical illustration has been a passion of mine since I first took up the paintbrush only a few years ago. My journey so far has been inspiring, rewarding and immensely satisfying. As I stroll through nature I see a whole new world opening up to me, the beauty of which words cannot describe but I hasten to say, it fills my heart and soul with a great deal of joy.”

Jackie graduated with a BA (Hons) in Graphic Design from Ravensbourne University in 1989. This was her career until a few years ago when she tried her hand at Botanical painting, now her present career. She is a self-taught artist passionate about flowering plants, nature wildflowers and pollinators. Painting the beauty of decaying plants is also one of her fortes. In her work, she spends a great deal of time researching her subjects and studying their botany under a microscope to ensure she paints true botanical form. Her work is always very detailed and she strives for accuracy.

Jackie has now completed her RHS exhibition entry entitled ‘Wet Meadow Wildflowers ~ their pollinators and as food plants’ and won a Gold medal. Jackie is passionate about wildflowers, pollinators and nature preservation which is why she chose this theme for her RHS exhibition. You can follow her RHS journey on her blog The most recent blog post is https://jibotanicals.com/2021/11/03/blog-29-rhs-adventures-in-2021/. Jackie also posted regularly on her Facebook and Instagram pages (links below) showing images of her work and process.

Jackie began running workshops in 2017 and online courses in 2018 as she loves to teach! Her local courses and other venue workshops are listed on her website www.jibotanical.co.uk. 

“In recent years I have become very passionate about wildlife and meadow wildflowers, as well as important pollinators. I’ve also been following Plantlife and their project to preserve our declining meadowland. This affects our pollinating insects and wildlife and is of great concern. Plantlife and many other organisations are working very hard to ensure our wildlife and wildflowers are protected and I feel very strongly about this, so much so that I decided to choose to portray important wildflower species and pollinators as my theme for my RHS exhibit. I have a great love for nature and flowering plants, especially our native wildflowers. I am passionate about the protection of our declining meadows and the survival of our beloved bees.”

ACHIEVEMENTS

In 2014-2015 Jackie studied Garden Design and was awarded a Distinction. After doing this course her passion for plants and nature began.

In 2016 Jackie was recognised by the Society of Botanical Artists (SBA) and started to exhibit with them.

In 2016 Jackie was accepted to prepare an exhibition for the Royal Horticultural Society.

In 2017 Jackie was awarded a CBM (Certificate of Botanical Merit) for her painting ‘Vessels of Life’ exhibited at the SBA show in London.

In 2017 Jackie started teaching Botanical and Nature watercolour courses at venues in Bristol and at the University Bristol Botanic Gardens in 2018. Jackie very much enjoys teaching and the rewards it brings. “I like to think I inspire, encourage and give confidence to my students!”. She now also teaches online courses.

In 2018 her painting of Origanum Majorana was featured in the book ‘The Illustrated College Herbal – Plants from the Pharmacopoea Londinensis of 1618’ organised and published by Jane Knowles, Henry Oakley and Gillian Barlow.

In 2019 Jackie was awarded Full membership with the SBA becoming an SBA Fellow.

In 2019 Jackie was awarded the Margaret Granger Memorial Award for her Protea Neriifolia ‘Snowcrest’ painting at the SBA exhibition, Mall Galleries, London.

In 2020 Jackie wrote a book on colour mixing for the botanical artist and started a mini-series of books for beginners. ‘Watercolour Mixing Techniques for Botanical Artists‘ (published by The Crowood Press in 2021) and ‘The Little Book of Watercolour for Beginner Botanical Artists’ (Self-published).

In 2022 Jackie entered six paintings to the renowned Royal Horticultural Society Botanical and Photography Show and won a Gold medal. She was a first-time exhibitor. The subject of her exhibition was ‘Wet Meadow Wildflowers ~ as food plants and their pollinators’. The series of wet meadow plants included: Cardamine pratensis (Cuckooflower), Silene flos-cuculi (Ragged Robin), Geum rivale (Water Avens), Lotus Pedunculatus (Greater Bird’s foot Trefoil), Succisa pratensis (Devil’s bit Scabious) and Sanguisorba officinalis (Great Burnet). Some of these are featured on the gallery page of my website www.jibotanicals.co.uk and there is a collage of them all below. Two of these paintings are now held in the RHS Lindlay Library and the Shirley Sherwood Collection.

In 2023 Jackie was invited to teach in Transilvania by James de Candole at the Transilvania School of Botanical Art and Illustration in Copșa Mare. She will be teaching there for a week in October 2024. Exciting news! https://www.podart.space/

In 2024 Jackie was delighted that her painting, ‘Vessels of Life’, had been accepted to be exhibited by The Hunt Institute in Pittsburgh in 2024. This painting is now held in The Hunt Institute Library. Thank you for this great honour!

​In 2024 Jackie was selected to be a tutor for the DLDC Diploma course run by the Society of Botanical Artists (SBA). She is very honoured to have this opportunity. Thank you Simon Williams!

In 2024 Jackie was delighted that her painting, ‘Vessels of Life’, has been entered into The Hunt Institutes’ prestigious permanent collection. Thank you for this great honour!

​In 2025 Jackie travelled to Copșa Mare, Transilvania to paint alongside the renowned artist Sally Pond. A week of painting grasses from the area together.

In 2025 BAWW (Botanical Art Worldwide). I prepared a painting for this exhibition during 2024/2025 which will be exhibited in May. The subject matter is so very interesting this time, ‘Crop Diversity’. There are different categories and I selected the ‘Wild Relatives’ subject, and painted a foraged food. My subject was Fragaria vesca L., wild woodland strawberry, which has been foraged by man since 10,000BC. This is the second Botanical Art Worldwide Project and this time will celebrate biodiversity in the crops that have been closely associated with the human species over thousands of years.

In 2025 the RHS produced a book exhibiting RHS Gold winners in which my painting of Geum rivale is featured.

In 2025/2026 I wrote a new book called “Floral Botany and Dissection for Botanical Artists’. This tutorial book will teach you about flower botany and will give you an understanding of how to draw a flower dissection accurately. This book is only available to botanical students and botanical artists/tutors worldwide (it is an educational book and is not for sale in the public domain).

AWARDS

Certificate of Botanical Merit – 2017

Margaret Granger Memorial Award – 2019

SBA Full Fellow Membership awarded – 2019

RHS Gold medal – first time exhibitor 2022

Two of Jackie’s paintings are now held RHS Lindlay Library and Shirley Sherwood Collection – 2022

2023 – Jackie’s ‘Vessels of Life’ painting is now held in the Hunt Library, USA

MEMBERSHIPS

SBA (Society of Botanical Artists)

ASBA (American Society of Botanical Artists)

ABA (Association of Botanical Artists)

PNBA (Pacific North Botanical Artists)

BAGSA (Botanical Artists Guild of Southern Alberta)

AsPIB Bureau (Associations des Passionnés d’Illustration Botanique)

FACEBOOK & BLOG

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jackie.isard

Instagram: @jackieisard

I’m very pleased that my blogs have interested my botanical artist friends and others. I love reading other artists blogs, you can learn so much from them. It pleases me to write interesting blogs for you to read, and I thoroughly enjoyed sharing my RHS journey on Facebook and Instagram. On this journey I hope I have encouraged others by sharing my experiences, knowledge and discoveries along my way.

To contact me:

Email: jackieisard@googlemail.com