Jessica Rosemary Shepherd (born October 1984) is an English painter, artist, publisher and botanist who works under the names of Úrsula Romero and Inky Leaves.

Early career

After attending

Steyning Grammar School Steyning Grammar School is a coeducational comprehensive day and boarding, senior school and sixth form, located in Steyning, West Sussex, England. The school has two lower school sites catering for Years 7 and 8. The original site was located ...

, Shepherd studied for a BSc in botany at Plymouth University and was awarded the

Eden Project The Eden Project () is a visitor attraction in Cornwall, England. The project is located in a reclaimed china clay clay pit, pit.Ordnance Survey (2005). ''OS Explorer Map 107 – Fowey, Looe & Lostwithiel''. . The complex is dominated by two h ...

Prize for her thesis in which she initiated the restoration of Plymouth's historic Drakes Place Gardens. During her time at university Shepherd dedicated time to researching and cataloguing the 19th Century Thomas Bruges Flower (1817–1899) herbarium at

Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery Plymouth ( ) is a port city and unitary authority in Devon, South West England. It is located on Devon's south coast between the rivers Plym and Tamar, about southwest of Exeter and southwest of London. It is the most populous city in Devo ...

alongside her studies. After graduating from

Plymouth University The University of Plymouth is a public research university based predominantly in Plymouth, England, where the main campus is located, but the university has campuses and affiliated colleges across South West England. With students, it is the ...

, she secured a NERC funded grant to study for a MSc in Botanical Taxonomy at

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

and graduated with a distinction after studying the Cytology of ''

Campanula rotundifolia ''Campanula rotundifolia'', the common harebell, Scottish bluebell, or bluebell of Scotland, is a species of flowering plant in the bellflower family Campanulaceae. This herbaceous perennial is found throughout the temperate regions of the northe ...

'' for her thesis. Following her attendance at Edinburgh Shepherd was funded by the

Esmée Fairbairn Foundation The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation is a registered charity founded in England in 1961. It is one of the larger independent grant-making foundations based in the UK, funding organisations which aim to improve the quality of life for people and communit ...

to conduct two years of research into the 18th Century St. Aubyn (1758–1839) herbarium and mineral collection at Plymouth City Museum. Meanwhile she was also employed by the University to continue her work on improving the campus and was the curator of the Muirhead Herbarium. In 2010 Shepherd was employed by the

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. An internationally important botanical research and education institution, it employs 1,10 ...

and was positioned in the

Shirley Sherwood Shirley Angela Sherwood (née Cross, born 1 July 1933) is a British writer, botanist and philanthropist. Early life She was born Shirley Cross. Sherwood was educated at St Anne's College, Oxford. She took a bachelor's degree in botany and a D ...

Gallery of Botanical Art. During this time she freelanced as an illustrator for scientific journals and books whilst developing her own painting techniques and delivered several talks about the

Marianne North Marianne North (24 October 1830 – 30 August 1890) was a prolific English Victorian biologist and botanical artist, notable for her plant and landscape paintings, her extensive foreign travels, her writings, her plant discoveries and th ...

Gallery. She was elected Fellow of the

Linnean Society of London The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript a ...

in 2012 and was elected as a member of the Chelsea Physic Garden Florilegium Society in 2013 and a member of the

Chelsea Arts Club Chelsea Arts Club is a private members' club at 143 Old Church Street in Chelsea, London with a membership of over 4,000, including artists, sculptors, architects, writers, designers, actors, musicians, photographers, and filmmakers. The club wa ...

in 2017.

Career

Shepherd's paintings feature in the Shirley Sherwood Collection, the

Fitzwilliam Museum The Fitzwilliam Museum is the art and antiquities University museum, museum of the University of Cambridge. It is located on Trumpington Street opposite Fitzwilliam Street in central Cambridge. It was founded in 1816 under the will of Richard ...

and

National Botanic Gardens (Ireland) The National Botanic Gardens (Irish: ''Garraithe Náisiúnta na Lus'') is a botanical garden in Glasnevin, 5 km north-west of Dublin city centre, Ireland. The 19.5 hectares are situated between Glasnevin Cemetery and the River Tolka where ...

. Her work has been featured in a number of exhibitions. In 2014, she was featured on the

BBC4 BBC Four is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

documentary "In Search of Rory McEwen" where she demonstrated how to paint on vellum in the

Chelsea Physic Garden The Chelsea Physic Garden was established as the Apothecaries' Garden in London, England, in 1673 by the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries to grow plants to be used as medicines. This four acre physic garden, the term here referring to the scie ...

. On 16 February 2017 Shepherd held her first solo exhibition at

Abbott and Holder Abbott and Holder is an art gallery and dealership in London, England, that specialises in low-price, 19th- and 20th-century English paintings, watercolours, drawings and prints. The gallery has been located at 30 Museum Street, London WC1, ...

in London and in conjunction published her first book titled ‘Leafscape’ featuring her collection of watercolour paintings on leaves. For the collection, Shepherd worked in collaboration with musician Hoodlum Priest (Derek Thompson) to produce a soundtrack which was released by Concrete Music Publishing. In late 2017, inspired by

Novalis Georg Philipp Friedrich Freiherr von Hardenberg (2 May 1772 – 25 March 1801), pen name Novalis (; ), was a German nobility, German aristocrat and polymath, who was a poet, novelist, philosopher and Mysticism, mystic. He is regarded as an inf ...

' unfinished

Bildungsroman In literary criticism, a bildungsroman () is a literary genre that focuses on the psychological and moral growth and change of the protagonist from childhood to adulthood (coming of age). The term comes from the German words ('formation' or 'edu ...

'Heinrich von Ofterdingen', Shepherd began her next project on the Blue Flower. In 2018 Shepherd launched INK Quarterly (INKQ) – a collaborative art publication that acts as a stage for thinkers and artists to talk freely about their ideas and practice for an educated audience. 2018 also saw the birth of the Inky Leaves podcasting channel which, via a series of talks and interviews, discusses and promotes botanical art.

Personal life

Shepherd was a model and muse for well known ceramic artist, printmaker and painter Eric James Mellon between 2004 and 2006, frequently appearing in his work wearing hats. She has also been a model for other well known artists includin
Piers OtteyGym Hamala
and

Youth Youth is the time of life when one is young. The word, youth, can also mean the time between childhood and adulthood (Maturity (psychological), maturity), but it can also refer to one's peak, in terms of health or the period of life known as bei ...

and spent a year studying the history of painting under the tuition of YBA artist Nick Fudge.

Exhibitions

* July 2023 - 'Beauty in Individualism - Collection of works by women artists of the 20th and 21st Centuries', Stephen Ongpin Fine Art, London, UK * February 2022 - 'Ellas ilustran botánica', Casa de las Ciencias, Spain * May 2021 - 'The Botanical Rainbow', Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art,

Royal Botanic Gardens Kew Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. An internationally important botanical research and education institution, it employs 1,100 ...

, London, UK * January 2020 - 'Herbarios Imaginados', Centro de Arte Complutense, Spain * August 2019 - TV show and art festival, Granada, Spain * July 2019 - The Long Gallery,

Salamanca Arts Centre The Salamanca Arts Centre (SAC), established in 1976, is a major arts hub in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. It is a combination of theatres, galleries and arts administration located behind the historic facade of Georgian warehouses in Salamanca Pl ...

, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia * May 2019 - Nazari Garden, group exhibition with painters Gareth Lister and Nick Fudge, Spain * October 2017 – International Watercolour Festival, Moscow, Russia * February 2017 – Leafscape,

, London, UK * July 2015 – The Incredible Exploding Pomegranate, Granada, Spain * May 2014 – Aibítir, Dublin, Ireland * April 2014 - RHS Botanical Art Show, London, UK * May 2013 – Natural Selection, Espacio Gallery, London, UK * April 2009 – Darwin to Digital, Cube³ Gallery, Plymouth, UK

Sound

* Thompson, D. and Shepherd, J. R. (2017) Leafscape D Concrete Music Publishing, UK

Publications

* Shepherd, J. R. (2017) Leafscape ardback Inky Leaves Publishing, Chichester, UK.

Illustrations by Shepherd

* Patel Ellis, S. (2018) The Botanical Bible, William Collins-Harper. London, UK. pp. 320–321. * Wendell, B. (2018) L’unico mondo che abbiamo, Piano B edizioni, Prato, Italy. (front cover) * Morris, H. (2013) Tree Pruning: A Modern Approach, International Dendrology Society Yearbook, pp. 209–229 * Thurstan, M. and Martin, R. (2012) Exotic Botanical Illustration with the Eden Project, Batsford Ltd. * Morris, H. (2011) Tree Pruning: A Short History, International Dendrology Society Yearbook 2010, pp. 217–225

Essays

* Shepherd, J. R. (2018) INK Quarterly, Inky Leaves Publishing (editorial) * Shepherd, J. R. (2009) Bringing a Herbarium to Life at Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery, NatSCA News, Issue 17, pp. 43–51 * Shepherd, J. R. (2009) The Collector, Geoscientist, Vol. 19, No. 12, pp. 6–9 * Shepherd, J. R. (2009) St. Aubyn Mineral Collection (c 1794–2010) at Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery, Geological Curator, Vol.9, No. 2, pp. 45–56

References

External links

Official Inky Leaves website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shepherd, Jessica Rosemary 1984 births Living people 20th-century English women 20th-century English people 21st-century English women 21st-century English painters 21st-century British women painters Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Alumni of the University of Plymouth Artists from Sussex English botanical illustrators English women curators English women painters Fellows of the Linnean Society of London People educated at Steyning Grammar School