Katharine Amies

Katharine Amies is one of Britain's leading botanical artists, capturing the intimate essence of plants in a way photography rarely can. She trained at the Chelsea Physic Garden in 2000, and her work is held in the Shirley Sherwood Collection at Kew Gardens — the largest collection of contemporary botanical art in the world.

Leading British botanical artist

Course

Botanical Painting

Having taught for over 10 years, Katharine Amies has come to see that given the right guidance, anyone can learn to paint if they want to. In this course Katharine invites you to join her in the deeply absorbing and creative process of translating what we see in nature onto a piece of paper, using watercolour. Discover the tools and techniques you’ll need to be able to paint a variety of botanical specimens, from fruit to flowers. The lessons are a practical, step-by-step guide to enable you to produce beautiful artwork, regardless of your experience. Throughout the detailed video lessons, Katharine reveals rules to follow to give you the confidence to keep painting and produce paintings you’ll be proud of. Covering everything from essential kit and colour palette, to techniques for achieving convincing three-dimensional form and shine, this course is sure to get you started on your artistic journey.

16 Lessons

Included with membership

Lesson plan — 16 lessons

01 Botanical Painting

01 Meet Katharine
02 The materials you need
03 How to create the illusion of form
04 A pencil drawing of a shallot
05 How to paint a spherical specimen in colour - Part 1
06 How to paint a spherical specimen in colour - Part 2
07 How to create shine
08 How to paint grapes with bloom
09 White on white: Painting a Japanese anemone
10 Painting a rose - Part 1
11 Painting a rose - Part 2
12 Working with yellow and tackling a leaf - Part 1
13 Working with yellow and tackling a leaf - Part 2
14 How to achieve pattern and detail
15 Final words
16 Christmas holly

Start learning Watch a free lesson

“An excellent course which is very well paced and organised. It simply and clearly communicates the basic technical skills of botanical art. Within a couple of lessons one is practicing and improving. Katharine Amies is a wonderful, encouraging and inspiring teacher.”

Jamary

“I have subscribed to access all the courses so have watched one on interior design and this one with Butter Wakefield who specialises in small garden design. She has a lovely personality and comes across as being a ve...”

Louise Brown Apr 10, 2026

“I love CreateAcademy. I came in for the gardening and floristry courses, but am also watching an interior design one at present. And the photography course is an absolute must, best I've ever done.”

Wellesley Apr 1, 2026

“What a great investment, I have learned such a lot from the first three courses. My evenings have gone from not being able to find anything that captured my imagination on TV to learning and expanding my knowledge on ...”

sojojo Mar 30, 2026

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