Working with vellum todayД¬ontemporary artist Fiona Strickland at work in her studio (Image courtesy of and copyright Fiona Strickland)Д¬ontemporary painter Fiona Strickland is among those taking up the challenge of capturing botanical subjects on vellum, and has spent the past two years creating 18 vellum paintings that will be exhibited at Jonathan Cooper Gallery in London this September, a project that she describes as вЂa labour of loveвЂ™. From around 1700, however, miniaturists began painting on ivory, with vellum used mainly by botanical artists, such as Pierre-Joseph RedoutГ© (1759вЂ“1840), a tradition that was revived in the mid-20th century by the remarkable Scottish painter Rory McEwen (1932вЂ“1982), whose work has inspired an entire generation of botanical artists. The techniques used by artists in illuminated manuscripts also lent themselves well to portrait miniatures, which first became popular in the court of Elizabeth I, ensuring that vellum played an important role in art history even as paper and the printing press increasingly replaced manuscripts. In the Middle Ages, vellum was used in precious illuminated manuscripts, such as the Lindisfarne Gospels (produced in around 715 to 720 AD), and for important secular records, such as the Doomsday Book of 1086, and the Magna Carta in 1215.

Vellum has a long and illustrious history, and was described by the Greek historian Herodotus in the 5th century BC. The opening of St LukeвЂ™s Gospel in the Lindisfarne Gospels, circa 715 AD (image in the public domain)

Vellum paper