Cromarty ex-police woman earns Scottish Society of Botanical Artists’ accolade for her work in art genre loved by King Charles

For Julie Price, working life was once all about cuffing criminals.

These days the retired police constable spends her time making arresting works of art.

The Cromarty woman’s excellence in the lesser known field of botanical art – a favourite genre of King Charles – has just earned her two impressive accolades.

The 59-year-old, who admits self-promotion “has never been a strong point”, has been invited to become a director of the Scottish Society of Botanical Artists (SSBA) in recognition of her work and teaching.

Shortly after that offer, Julie received notification that one of her botanical illustrations was to be published in a prestigious ‘florilegium’.

Florilegiums provide a permanent visual record of plants grown, collected, studied and named in one particular area, such as a garden or estate.

The King is a huge supporter and collector of botanical art and his own Highgrove Florilegium was published about 16 years ago. It retails at £12,950 by mail order.

Julie was commissioned to paint the Hellebore Orientalis (winter rose) as the florilegium recording of plants in a property in the south of England where Jethro Tull once lived and with an estate and gardens of stunning beauty.

Always keen on art, drawing and painting was sidelined in her life when Julie joined the police from school.

“Even then, in 1984, there weren’t many women in the police - one female in each section,” she recalled.

“We were only just coming out of the 70s and it was very much the Life on Mars type of situation (TV drama featuring John Simm as a modern-day cop transported back in time to Philip Glenister’s decidedly un-PC Manchester station) which was very accurate, I have to say!

“I’d always had an interest in drawing and painting, but going into the police at 18, it wasn’t something I’d ever pursued.

“When I left the Sussex Police in 2002, I went to the Chelsea Physic Garden (one of the capital’s oldest botanic gardens, established in 1673) and saw a diploma course with the English Gardening School being promoted. I just thought ‘why not?’

“We then moved up here 15 years ago, just as I was finishing it. I graduated and began running classes, with a workshop in our garden

“It was a complete change having worked police shifts for 20 years on the sharp end of life. I ended up in the control room laterally, but even that was very stressful, taking 999 calls and issuing jobs to vehicles, a huge responsibility.

“It was quite a change in career.”

Working quietly at her art, Julie’s talents were identified by the Scottish Society of Botanical Artists, formed (in June 2014), who were keen to spread knowledge and activities in the genre beyond the central belt where a lot of botanical artists live.

“After Covid, I ran some courses at Aviemore for the SSBA, two-day workshops, that they funded and repeated in Dumfries, so I became their northern tutor and was brought onto the committee,” Julie said.

“It’s gone from there and I’ve now been asked to be one of their directors.

“I’ve not had a career plan where I’ve set out to do this or that, it has just evolved.

“My husband has been ill since the first lockdown and that’s impacted on my work as I’ve been his carer, really until last summer when he started to improve.

“Hopefully, things are starting to look up and I can focus more on me now!”

Botanical art’s strong focus on accuracy distinguishes it from those artists who simply enjoy painting or drawing impressions of nature.

The form began in the 1600s as explorers, obviously bereft of photography, documented new plants discovered overseas.

Some of her works are painted on vellum, the ancient calf-skin form of surface used in works such as the Lindisfarne Gospels.

“It is quite expensive and a very tactile and moveable surface, only made at one place in the country now - William Cowley parchment makers in Newport Pagnell near Milton Keynes.

“It can be very time-consuming as you can’t use much water on skin or it blows up

Julie had already been a member of the SSBA for a number of years, latterly serving on the education sub-committee.

She is also a member of the alumni group Amicus Botanicus and has exhibited in London and Edinburgh, earning a medal from the Royal Horticultural Society.

The approach to her by the SSBA came out of the blue and Julie added: “This is a fantastic opportunity to promote botanical art in the north of Scotland as well as being instrumental in the future of the Society across Scotland.

“I feel honoured and delighted to have taken this directorship.”

Anyone interested in Julie’s weekly classes in painting flowers, foliage, seeds, birds and insects at her home, Clunes House, can make contact via her website, www.juliepriceart.co.uk

Do you want to respond to this article? If so, click here to submit your thoughts and they may be published in print.