from ignoring my creativity for years…. to award winning artist at 27.

I was an avid artist for my entire childhood. But then I did what so many of us do, I put away that much loved activity and got the ‘sensible job’ - in my case in local government management (yawn). My paint brushes were put away and I didn’t pick them up again for 8 long years.

What changed?

I started to garden. Just a teeny garden of a rented house, but I planted seeds and took huge pleasure in watching them grow and flowers bloom. 

the start of an enduring love affair with flowers & nature. 

I’d not slowed down like this in years. Not observed things this closely. Taken in so much beauty. 


Their patterns, their colours, their joy. Flowers and fruit can seem almost other worldly when you really look. And yet so many people just walk past them every summer without pausing and taking all that in. 


Becoming this inspired, I felt called to start painting those flowers in my garden. And I found that by painting them BIG I could capture all of that detail. After a few months of doing it I trained my eyes to SEE more detail too. 


Observing and painting flowers & fruit gave me joy I knew I never wanted to be without again. So I did something then that I’ll forever be grateful for...

I backed myself. 

I bought myself some new watercolour paints and paper.

I dedicated time before work to practising painting. 6 months later I entered an RHS botanical art competition and won a gold medal and Best in Show.

I started selling by exhibiting at Chelsea Flower Show and I quit that sensible job. 🙌

Later I started teaching the method I’d made up myself at places like the RHS Garden at Wisley as well as in the US. That led to me having two books published in 6 languages and launching my online school, Nature Studio in 2014 where I teach via video classes. Now something of a movement, having taught tens of thousands in over 100 countries, I've found enormous fulfilment from teaching others to access their own creativity & capture the beauty of nature on their paper for themselves.

working in different styles.

I worked for over 15 years in my realistic botanical watercolour style and with it I built a big online following. During those eventful years I also married my soul-mate and biggest cheerleader Phil, became a parent, and moved to the countryside. ❤️

as an artist you can’t stay still.

After I had my children, Ben & Fern (now 7 and 5) the same inner voice that told me to start painting again all those years ago begun to urge me to work a little more loosely and to play with different mediums.

With Phil's unwavering encouragement, I went for it.

I'm always drawn to capturing detail but find I can do that in different ways depending on the subject.

So now you'll find acrylics, oils, as well as looser, more sketchy line & wash watercolours here too.

it is still a beautiful world.

My life's thrown me plenty of curve balls too. I've had cancer in my 20s, went through IVF in my 30s, and more recently in 2024 I have become a widow and super-strong single parent when wonderful Phil died totally unexpectedly. You can read more about this on my blog here.

Phil's favourite poem, Desiderata, contains the line 'It is still a beautiful world' and that has become my mantra as I have navigated this most emotional and challenging time.

Slowing down with my art and feeling gratitude for the beauty in nature and all the good still in my life has been a real source of peace & calm to me. And every time I paint I can hear Phil, who was also an artist, cheering me on to share beauty & love with the wider world.

I'd be delighted to bring more beauty, calm & joy into your life through my art.

~Anna xx

Browse the prints

some career highlights.

  • RHS Gold Medal and Best in Show award 2007
  • Paintings in the RHS Lindley Library Collection and also the Shirley Sherwood Collection
  • Exhibited at the Chelsea Flower Show 2008-2013
  • Election to Society of Botanical Artists 2009
  • Commissions by David Austin Roses 2008-2012
  • Grand Prize Winner in International Artist Magazine for ‘Strawberries Everest’ 2011
  • Juror for the Denver Botanic Gardens/ Guild of Natural Science Illustrators (GNSI) exhibition ‘Plants, Birds & Pollinators’ 2013
  • Finalist, Artist of the Year competition, Artist & Illustrators magazine 2013
  • Book, The Modern Flower Painter published by Search Press in 2014
  • 2-man exhibition at the Marie Selby Botanic Gardens in Sarasota, FL 2013
  • Solo exhibition at RHS Garden Wisley October 2014
  • Book, Anna Mason’s Watercolour World published by Search Press in 2018
  • Featured in the RHS book Botanical Illustration: The Gold Medal Winners by Charlotte Brooks 2019
  • Regular contributor to Artists & Illustrators magazine