Kate Churchwell: Botanical Artist

For botanical artist Kate Churchwell, the garden has always been a special place of inspiration. Although she didn’t grow up with one of her own, her family would visit RHS Garden Wisley, where Kate was able to run and explore all the greenery. 

When Kate and her husband moved to France almost twenty years ago, they started their own garden. 

“My mother always used to say it gave me a glow, and it does. Not just on the cheeks because it's cold, but because it just gives me a glow from within.”

Kate’s aunt, a botanical illustrator herself, helped inspire that creative spark. Though it started as a hobby, she realized how much joy it brought her to watch things grow and use them in her art, so she decided to pursue it full time. 

Her work consists of bas-relief and cyanotype prints. While the mediums are very different, they both achieve a similar goal: capturing the essence of a plant in that moment in time. No matter what happens to those plant species, Kate will always have a record of them. 

Because of her work, Kate is always foraging. She’s constantly on the search for plants to use in her art, and she values even the plants that others wouldn’t want anywhere near their gardens. 

“A weed is only something that is growing in the wrong place. So, they're not weeds in my garden because they're growing in the right place.”

A film by Leslie Askew.

Produced and edited by Turlough White.