The books in this section are associated with notable botanical artists and/or leading botanical art teachers - and not otherwise listed elsewhere

They are:
  • Anne Marie Evans - former Director of the Diploma Course at the English Gardening School and tutor of botanical art masterclasses around the world
  • Coral Guest GM - core botanical artist in the Shirley Sherwood Collection. She was the flower painting tutor at Kew Gardens from 1991 to 2002 and also taught Botanical Art Master Classes for Shirley Sherwood in the Orient Express Hotels around the world.
  • Billy Showell - President of the Society of Botanical Artists and a very popular and successful botanical art teacher (face to face / online)
  • Rosie Martin and Meriel Thurstan (of the Eden Project) Now retired but previously ran and taught courses at the Eden Project
  • Leigh Ann Gale - member of various Florilegium Societies and qualified teacher and mentor
  • Sarah Jane Humphrey GM - botanical artist with numerous clients for her illustrations and a shop / studio in Cornwall
  • Simon Williams GM - Current Director of the SBA's Distance Learning Diploma Course - and a gouache specialist
  • Christina Brodie GM - two RHS Gold Medals; she has taught botanical painting for the RHS at Rosemoor. 

Anne-Marie Evans

An Approach to Botanical Painting 
by Anne-Marie and Donn Evans
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: Probably the most "in demand" instruction book about botanical painting in the world.
​This book is associated with the Diploma from the English Gardening School. It has always sold purely on 'word of mouth' and has been much in demand since it was published in 1993. So much so that this book is now out of print.  "As New" copies now sell for astronomical amounts.
The holy grail ! This is the standard, and most respected, work on the subject.
Amazon comment
READ Tania Merian's interview Anne-Marie Evans Discusses Teaching, Learning, & Botanical Art

Picture
This is a photo of my copy!
Anne-Marie Evans (together with her artist husband Donn) wrote and self-published this book about her famous five step method for botanical painting for the 'Diploma Course in Botanical Painting' that she introduced at the English Gardening School, based at the Chelsea Physic Garden in London in 1993.
This book so much better than many other books! Although Anne-Marie still teaches around the world you'll very lucky if you ever get to do a class with her. However this book is the next best thing.

I'm assured by Anne-Marie that she is working on a revised edition of the book. While we wait for a revised edition, the best you can hope for are deep pockets for what it's going to cost you to find a second hand edition in the marketplace.

You can look all you like but I very rarely see this book at anything less than three digits and very good copies now sell for over $500 and I've recently seen one "new" book with a price of nearly £1,000!

I found mine fortuitously priced at the very low end of the spectrum of prices asked - in the online Oxfam Bookshop - and snapped it up! ​So the choice is essentially
  • wait and hope for a revised book; or
  • buy now while there are still copies available!
Publisher: Rutland: Hannaford and Evans
Pages: 183pp.
​Illustrations: Colour plates
Dimensions: 300 x 220 mm (12 x 9 inches)
First Edition: 1993

Average Customer Rating out of 5 stars:​ distorted by one mean person who left a 1* rating with absolutely no explanation.

Most who have reviewed give it 5  stars!
​
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Anne Marie Evans is a Fellow of the Linnean Society, First Honorary President of The Chelsea Physic Garden Florilegium Society, Honorary Director of the American Society of Botanical Artists, and Founder President of the Leicestershire Society of Botanical Illustrators. 
  • 1985: she began teaching her five step method
  • 1993: she became Founder/Director of of the Diploma Course in Botanical Painting at the Chelsea Physic Garden
  • 1998: she started teaching the Anne-Marie Evans Watercolour Botanical Painting Program at the New York Botanical Garden. She also used to teach master classes at the Melbourne School of Botanical Painting two weeks annually.
  • 2005: She was awarded the Royal Horticultural Society's Veitch Memorial Medal in honor of the role she has played in the “resurgence of interest in and greater understanding of the depiction of plants.”
  • She still teaches masterclasses around the world - but these are rarely advertised!

Işık Güner ​

Botanical Illustration from Life: ​A Visual Guide to Observing, Drawing and Painting Plants
by Işık Güner
​HIGHLY RECOMMENDED - by very many people
​This book provides a comprehensive and authoritative guide to the basic techniques used by botanical illustrators in producing botanical illustrations combined with top quality design and production values. 
This will become the NEW handbook by an individual artist/author for all aspiring botanical illustrators.
​
Learn how to:
  • draw plants accurately by observing basic botanical shapes and structures
  • examine colour and textures in detail
  • develop your skills of observation and perception to: see shapes; judge angles; draw in proportion;
  • how to represent form through tonal value; use light and shade to make your drawing life-like; use watercolour washes and mix colours.​ 
RHS Gold Medal winning botanical illustrator and tutor Işık Güner shares her approach to:
  • observing and recording plants in the wild
  • researching plants
  • creating artistic compositions which record the plant accurately.
I LOVE the content sections - which are just so obvious but nobody has done before
  • Start - understand the role and history of botanical illustration and different approaches
  • Observe - an emphasis on the essential aspects of observation and practice when working with live specimens plus how to collect and preserve
  • Draw - covering the absolute basics of how to draw as a botanical illustrator, including how to hold a pencil, do a measured drawing, incorporate perspective and aerial perspective and produce complex drawings. Plus composition!
  • Paint - a very detailed but accessible explanation of how to paint botanical subjects
  • Explore - why you need to understand botany; understanding different types of plants - plus roots, stems, buds, leaves, flowers
  • Master - finding your style with practice and finding inspiration
It also fabulous images of a botanical illustrator at work.​
​About the author
Işık Güner (GM 2014, BISCOT GM 2011) - Işık's painting of Gunnera Tinctoria won an RHS Gold Medal and the RHS Best Painting in Show in Spring 2014.

She has worked as a botanical illustrator on various international botanical projects around the world. Currently working as the Art Editor for an Illustrated Flora of Turkey in Turkish (Patron: President of Turkish Republic).

​She is also a multi-lingual visiting tutor for the Diploma in Botanical Illustration at the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh and also delivers tuition through workshops in Europe.
​SPANISH
Publisher: Editorial Parramon, Barcelona
Language: Spanish
ENGLISH
Publisher: Search Press in UK
Language: English 
​Publication date: 30 September 2019
Format: Paperback
208 pages | ?? colour images
Size: 22.9 x 29.2 cm

Average Customer Rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars (based on 250 customer reviews) 
​
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Coral Guest

Painting Flowers in Watercolour: A Naturalistic Approach
​by Coral Guest
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: Coral Guest was the Flower Painting Tutor at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew from 1991 to 2002. This book is based on her teaching there and is endorsed by Kew (on the front cover). In 1997 she also started to teach botanical painting Master Classes in the Orient-Express Hotels around the world at the request of Shirley Sherwood.
"...her 'Painting Flowers in Watercolour' is an excellent teaching book"
Shirley Sherwood - in "A New Flowering" biography of Coral Guest
​Coral Guest is one of the "core artists" in The Shirley Sherwood Collection - with 19 paintings in the collection. 
Coral is much more of a fine artist than a botanical illustrator. In fact she describes herself as a painter of flowers.

This is a great book to study if you want to know more about her naturalistic approach to painting plants (e.g. life size) after seeing them in an exhibition.

​In terms of contents:
  • Part 1 covers the various technical aspects and challenges for painting flowers in a naturalistic style.
  • Part 2 tackles various flowers across the colour spectrum
This book was strongly recommended by my art professor at the New York Botanical Garden.
Amazon review
​The book is now nearly 20 years old and is out of print. However you can still buy copies online. New books are rather expensive but used copies are more reasonable.

​UK Hardback: 128 pages
Publisher: A & C Black Publishers Ltd 
​Original Publication: 31 May 2001

​Average Customer Rating out of 5 stars:
  • in UK: 4.8 based on 23 customer reviews
  • in USA: 4.8 based on 21 customer reviews​

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Billy Showell

GO TO: Botanical Painting Books by Billy Showell

Billy Showell is the President of the Society of Botanical Artists

However she is best known as a best selling author of four very popular and highly recommended instruction books about botanical painting. Her books are very much about botanical art rather than botanical illustration.  

She is also a very popular teacher of botanical painting through courses, workshops and her online website
​Her books - in order of publication - are:
  • Watercolour Flower Portraits
  • Watercolour Fruit & Vegetable Portraits
  • A-Z of Flower Portraits - An Illustrated Guide to Painting 40 Beautiful Flowers in Watercolour
  • Billy Showell's Botanical Painting in Watercolour 

Leigh Ann Gale

Botanical Illustration - The Complete Guide
by Leigh Ann Gale
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: This book is a very thorough and well-structured and methodical manual of information about the process for producing botanical illustrations of a high quality. It includes a lot of visual information / images covering different aspects of the process. It's also rated 5* on Amazon.

READ REVIEW: Botanical Illustration - The Complete Guide by Leigh Ann Gale for more details
The botanical illustrations in this book are of the type found in Florilegia Collections rather than in the pages of scientific publications - hence why it's in this section rather than the botanical illustration section.

The illustration on the cover is used as an example for the different processes covered by the book.
A large part of the book focuses on painting - preparing, developing and completing a painting but also includes
  • sections on basic botany and
  • what follows on after a painting is completed.

The illustrations are of a very high standard and also include those by her students.
About the author
Leigh Ann Gale has an honours degree in Graphic Design. She completed the diploma in botanical illustration at the English Gardening School, (now the Chelsea School of Botanical Art). She is a member of the Florilegium Societies for Hampton Court Palace, the Royal Botanic Garden in Sydney and Nymans. Her work is held in the Hunt Institute of Botanical Documentation. She is a qualified teacher who teaches in the South of England and mentors students on botanical illustration diploma and certificate courses.
Published: 26th June 2018
Publisher: The Crowood Press Ltd;
Paperback: 
  • 208 pages | 391 colour images
  • 280 x 220 mm
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1785004190
Note: I was sent a copy to review by the publishers

Average Customer Rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars based on 28 customer reviews

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Rosie Martin and Meriel Thurstan (the Eden Project)

GO T0: Botanical Illustration Books with the Eden Project

Rosie Martin and Meriel Thurstan are the principal illustrators and authors of four books about botanical illustration.

The first three books were written in co-operation with the Eden Project, in Cornwall, and the students on the course taught by Rosie Martin and organised by Meriel Thurstan.
  • Botanical Illustration Course with the Eden Project - this in essence covers the content of the year-long diploma course taught at the Eden Project
  • Contemporary Botanical Illustration - this book aims to develop the skills and knowledge covered by the first book 
  • Exotic Botanical Illustration - focuses on the skills needed to portray the exotic plant material found within the Eden Project
The final book ​Botanical Illustration for Beginners (not formally associated with the Eden Project) is the 'sign-off' of the two authors - and the "prequel" to the other books for beginners. ​
These books grew out of the extremely successful diploma course in botanical illustration at the Eden Project in Cornwall. This course then developed into weekly classes, demonstrations, workshops and a distance learning course.

The course was designed and delivered by Rosie Martin and Meriel Thurstan and used to be run in association with the internationally renowned ​Eden Project in Cornwall.  

Rosie and Meriel have now retired from teaching at the Eden Project and workshops and courses are now run by the Eden Project Florilegium Society

Sarah Jane Humphrey

Botanical Art with Scientific Illustration
by Sarah Jane Humphrey
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: This book is PACKED full of content relevant to the aspiring botanical artist and illustrator who wants a career in botanical art and illustration - a lot of which is NOT covered in other books.
READ REVIEW: Botanical Art with Scientific Illustration by Sarah Jane Humphrey for more details

Overall, I'm impressed with this book. It very much comes across as the work of a full time professional botanical artist/illustrator/tutor who earns her keep from her work. I'd recommend botanical artists wanting to make a career from their art to buy this book on the strength of Chapter 12 alone - about professional practice.
This is emphatically NOT  a "how to paint" step by step book. 

​This book is much better suited to all those who have acquired skills and competence in drawing and painting - and now need to move their artwork - and career - up a gear.
About the author
Sarah Jane Humphrey is a botanical artist, a natural science illustrator, an author and a tutor. Graduated from Falmouth University with an Honours Degree in Illustration. In 2018 she was awarded a Gold Medal by the RHS for Medicinal Fruits and their symbiosis with Pollinators. ​She delivers workshops on Botanical Illustration in Cornwall . She is represented by the Wildlife Art Company for illustration work. She has had a wide variety of clients for her illustration work.
Publication date: 11 July 2018
Publisher: The Crowood Press Ltd;  Illustrated edition 
Format: Paperback: 176 pages
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1785004190
Retail Price: £18.99
Note: I was sent a copy to review by the publishers

Average Customer Rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars (based on 20 customer reviews)

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Simon Williams

Botanical Painting in Gouache by Simon Williams (Author)
There have been a lot of botanical painters in the past who have used gouache (an opaque watercolour paint) for their paintings. Today, rather fewer artists use it - quite possibly because of the lack of instruction on how best to use it. Simon Williams has sought to remefy that.

​Author Simon Williams became the Director of the SBA Distance Learning Diploma Course after Margaret Stevens PPSBA retired.

He won an RHS Gold Medal in 2018.
If you prefer an opaque medium to the transparency of watercolour then it's worth trying gouache which works particularly well on a coloured support. 

Most of Simon's book is concerned with step by step guides for those who like a bit more guidance on how to approach a new medium.

On Amazon it's received mixed reviews from
  • "Too advanced for a beginning painter" to
  • "an excellent guide for me, a beginner with both gouache and botanical illustration, but of intermediate experience with traditional watercolor (painting)."​
Hardcover: 128 pages
Publisher: Batsford Ltd
Publication date: UK - 10 March 2016 

Average Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars based on 22 customer reviews

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Christina Brodie

Drawing and Painting Plants
by Christina Brodie
​RECOMMENDED: This book is strong on botanical aspects which need to be considered when tackling specific subjects.
It also includes some aspects missed out of other botanical art books - particularly in relation to flowerless plants


​Author Christina Brodie has won two RHS Gold Medals and has taught botanical painting for the RHS at Rosemoor.
This book is a manual that covers:
  • techniques for both drawing and watercolour
  • looking at the flowers, fruits and stems of flowering plants
  • leaves, stems and roots of flowering plants
  • different sorts of media for painting and drawing
  • how to measure and magnify plant parts
  • how to tackle trees and fungi - including lichens
  • Flowerless plants - ferns, seaweeds, mosses, liverworts and lichens
  • presentation of your work
  • topics for further study - including helpful organisations re. projects
Paperback: 144 pages
Publisher: 
  • UK: A & C Black Publishers Ltd (2006)
  • USA: Timber Press (2007)

Average Customer Rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars based on 20 customer reviews

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Drawing and Painting Plants​ from Amazon UK

Karen Kluglein

PUBLISHED JUNE 2020
Drawing and Painting Botanicals for Artists
by Karen Kluglein
Cover of
Cover of "Drawing and Painting Botanicals For Artists" by Karen Kluglein
SCOPE
This book aims to show artists at all skill levels how to translate careful observation into impressive botanical art.
​It provides:
  • a brief history of the art form - including guidance on developing observational skills for botanicals, key botanical terms and concepts and the differences between botanical illustration, botanical art, and flower painting.
  • detailed guidance and demonstrations for drawing and painting botanicals in various media
Drawing:
  • Techniques: loose gestural drawing, precise measuring and rendering, and working from photographs
  • Media: graphite, colored pencil, finepoint markers, pen and ink, and silverpoint.
Painting:
  • Techniques: Master color mixing, washes, layering, gradations, values, and adding details. Plus guidance on adding “personality” to your work and knowing when a painting is done.
  • Media: watercolor, gouache, and acrylic
COMMENTARY:
A general concern I have about ALL books for "all skill levels" covering various media - is that they very often tend to disappoint more than they impress. Which is not to say this one will (I've not seen it) however, the content suggests this book maybe rather more of an introduction than indicated - with generic techniques rather than the specifics  required by the particular demands of botanical art and illustration. ​ Effective instruction in drawing and painting botanicals to my mind builds on a good grounding having been already achieved in drawing and painting basics and is then related to skill levels already attained and/or a specific medium AND the particular requirements of botanical drawing / illustration / painting. I'd like to be pleasantly surprised as Karen's own artwork is very accomplished.
BASICS:
  • Paperback: 160 Pages
  • Publisher:  QuartoKnows / Rockport Publishers (USA)
  • Publication Date:  16th June 2020
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1631598570
  • ISBN-13: 978-1631598579
  • Shipping weight: 1.1 pounds
  • Product Dimensions: 
The For Artists series are intended to provide expert guides for artists at all skill levels who want to
  • develop their classical drawing and painting skills 
  • create realistic and representational art.​​

Average Customer Rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars based on 156 ratings

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AUTHOR
Karen Kluglein graduated from the School of Visual Arts in 1980. Her botanical work developed in the 90s and she licenses her artwork and welcomes commissions. She is an award-winning member of the American Society of Botanical Artists and has taught workshops at the New York Botanical Garden. She also makes and sells instructional downloads and DVDs on her website.  Her career as an illustrator (for packaging and point of display work) brought her many varied clients which she lists on her 'about' page on her website. She lives on Long Island, in East Hampton, New York.

Books by other leading Artists in the UK

  • The Modern Flower Painter: A Guide to Creating Vibrant Botanical Portraits in Watercolour 
    by Anna Mason
  • ​Botanical Sketchbooks by Helen Bynum and William Bynum

Books by Leading American Artists

  • Botanical Art Techniques - by Bente Starke King
  • Botanical Illustration in Watercolor - by Eleanor B. Wunderlich

Books by Australian Artists and Educators

  • The Botanical Art Files Composition: The Design Guide for Botanical Artists (Volume 1) - by Rita Parkinson
  • The Botanical Art Files: Narratives (Volume 2) - by Rita Parkinson