FOUR STUDIES FROM FLOWERS OF THE COAST AND OTHER WATER PLANTS (I-IV)
(i) signed with monogram and dated 80 lower right; (ii) signed and dated Mary Grierson '81 lower left; (iii) signed and dated Mary Grierson '80 lower centre
and inscribed Hippophae rhamnoides - Sea-buckthorn lower left; (iv) signed, inscribed and dated Mary Grierson 1980 / Nuphar Lutea. lower right
each pencil and watercolour on paper
(i) 33 x 23 cm; 13 x 9in; 51.5 x 40cm; 20 1/4 x 15 1/2in (framed); (ii) 51 x 33cm; 20 x 13in; 70 x 50.5cm; 27 1/2 x 19 3/4in (framed); (iii) 47 x 32cm; 18 1/2 x 12 1/2in
66 x 49cm; 26 x 19 1/4in (framed); (iv) 30.5 x 42cm; 12 x 16 1/2in; 49 x 59cm; 19 1/4 x 23 1/3in (framed)
(4)

Property from a Private Collection, Surrey

including (i) seabirds' eggs with seaweed and feather; (ii) welsh poppy meconopsis cambria with male fern, bugle ajuga reptans and speckle wood butterfly; (iii) seabuck thorn hippophae rhamnoides with painted lady butterfly; (iv) yellow water-lily nuphar lutea with water forget-me-not and banded agrion dragon-fly

Born in Wales to Scottish parents, Grierson is considered as one of the most distinguished floral artists in her field. She studied at Battersea Polytechnic and served in the Women's Auxiliar Air Force during the Second World War where she examined aerial photos taken after air raids in Germany to assess the damage done. After the war she worked for Hunting Aerosurvey, a cartographical firm making maps from aerial photographs. In the late 1950s the company sent Grierson on a botanical illustration course at Flatford Mill in Suffolk where she was mentored by John Nash (1893-1977) for the following next 10 years.

From 1960-1972 she worked at Kew Gardens, starting as the Herbarium's artist in residence and became the official Illustrator & Artist to the Royal Botanical Gardens in Kew. From 1966-1983 she took over running the annual botanical illustration course at Flatford Mill from John Nash, was elected a Fellow of the Linnean Society and won many RHS gold medals. From the late 1970s onwards, her work was exhibited widely including in Johannesburg, Pittsburgh and Leipzig and in London with Spink & Son. Her sole exhibition at Kew Gardens was in 1993 and her last exhibition at Spinks was the following year. She was awarded the Victoria Medal of Honour by the RHS in 1997.

Grierson illustrated the a range of books including Mountain Flowers (1967) by Anthony Huxley, An English florilegium (1987) with W.T. Stearn and C. Brickell, A Hawaiian Florilegium: Botanical Portraits from Paradise (1996) in collaboration with Peter S. Green, The Genus Cyclamen by C. Grey-Wilson, The Country Life of Orchids by P. Francis Hunt and Orchidaceae (1973) by P. Francis Hunt (1973). Grierson also supplied numerous paintings for Curtis’s Botanical Magazine and other journals, and designed the set of British Flora stamps in 1967.