EXHIBITION: “Temple of Flora” Dorothy Circus Gallery, London March 30 – April 25, 2026

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I am very pleased to announce my solo exhibition Temple of Flora at the Dorothy Circus Gallery in London. The show runs from March 30 thru April 26, 2026. The title of the show is a nod to Robert John Thornton’s Temple of Flora – a folio of botanical illustrations from 1807. Thornton’s flower portraits set in enigmatic landscapes possess a surreal magnetism that has always fascinated me.

This collection of paintings is a florilegium: an anthology or a gathering of flowers and of literary blossoms. The paintings are paired with excerpts from poems by Shakespeare, Mary Oliver, Rilke, Hafez and others ~ poetry that celebrates not only flowers but life and love.

More paintings coming soon…. To inquire please contact the Dorothy Circus Gallery in London
info@dorothycircusgallery.uk Tel.: +44 (0) 755 192 9124

It was a lover and his lass,

   With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,

That o’er the green cornfield did pass,

   In springtime, the only pretty ring time,

When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding;

Sweet lovers love the spring.

~ excerpt from “As You Like It” by William Shakespeare

Twin Flames
30×36 inches, oil on aluminum panel
©️2026 Fatima Ronquillo

Oh Rose, you perfect thing beyond compare,
infinitely restrained
and infinitely lavished, oh, head
of a body with far too much wandering sweetness,

nothing is equal to you, oh you supreme essence
of this inconstant hour,
your perfume wanders all about
this space of love we have scarcely entered.

~ Rainer Maria Rilke (translated by David Need)

Profile with Roses
12×10 inches, oil on aluminum panel
©️2026 Fatima Ronquillo

Hand with Lover’s Eye, Poppies and Butterflies
12×12 inches, oil on aluminum panel
©️2026 Fatima Ronquillo 
The poppies send up their
orange flares; swaying
in the wind, their congregations
are a levitation

of bright dust, of thin
and lacy leaves.
There isn’t a place
in this world that doesn’t

sooner or later drown
in the indigos of darkness,
but now, for a while,
the roughage

shines like a miracle
as it floats above everything
with its yellow hair.

~ excerpt from "Poppies" by Mary Oliver 
Perhaps the tulip know the fickleness
Of Fortune's smile, for on her stalk's green shaft
She bears a wine cup through the wilderness

~ from Hafez Translated by: Gertrude Bell

Hand with Serpent and Tulips
10×10 inches, oil on aluminum panel
©️2026 Fatima Ronquillo

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