Cicely Mary Barker was an English illustrator best known for a series of fantasy illustrations depicting fairies and flowers. Barker's art education began in girlhood with correspondence courses and instruction at the Croydon School of Art. Her earliest professional work included greeting cards and juvenile magazine illustrations, and her first book, Flower Fairies of the Spring, was published in 1923. Similar books were published in the following decades.
Barker was equally proficient in watercolour, pen and ink, oils, and pastels. Kate Greenaway and Randolph Caldecott were the principal influences on her work. Barker studied flowers with an analytical eye and was friend to children's illustrator, Margaret Tarrant. Illustrator Alice B. Woodward also influenced her work.
(source: wikipedia)