A two-month exhibition by some of the most talented plant and flower artists in Norfolk and Suffolk is being held in Diss during May and June at the historic Corn Hall now back to playing a leading role in the life of the town.

On show will be work by the Iceni Botanical Artists, painters with a passion for the flowers which grow and flourish in this beautiful part of the British Isles.

Called Spring into Summer this is more than just a collection of paintings hanging on walls. Members will be offering places on two one-day workshops on Wednesday May 8 and Saturday June 1 covering drawing and botanical painting.

The group specialises in painting the world of plants in all mediums with a majority favouring watercolour. Their styles vary from botanical plant portraits requiring hours of patient painting with a high level of accuracy and detail through to natural habitat landscapes and pieces inspired by nature.

Membership includes several nationally distinguished, award-winning, artists.

In 2014 they worked on a three year Breaking New Ground project funded by a Heritage Lottery Grant teaching the painting of wild flowers, insects, and landscapes featuring pine trees and fungi.

The beautiful Brecks landscape, which is at the heart of the IBA's area, is rich in biodiversity and rare flora and fauna.

And the twelve local workshops taught by IBA tutors proved very popular introducing some 250 people to the delights of the unique Brecks.

Later IBA members produced 45 plant portraits of some of the rare and endangered wild flowers of the Breckland region which formed a touring exhibition. A book, Breckland Wild Flowers – Heaths and Grasslands was published in 2016 and is into its third edition.

The picture selected for the image on the exhibition poster is 'Caltha Palustris' painted by Tina Bone. She brought a specimen inside in a washing up bowl so she could paint it.

'It took so long to complete that the flowers in my washing bowl turned to seedheads, so I added one to the painting,' she said.

Spring into Summer by the Iceni Botanical Artists opens at Diss Corn Hall on May 4 and runs until June 30.