This page highlights botanical artists and illustrators
from Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Russia, Spain, Sweden and Turkey
from Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Russia, Spain, Sweden and Turkey
The banner image above is of part of a series of paintings of "Bee Orchids" by Esmée Somers Winkel (Netherlands)
which won Esmée her third RHS Gold Medal in 2018
which won Esmée her third RHS Gold Medal in 2018
Austria
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Jakob Demus - one of a few botanical artists who are printmakers. He produces etchings and diamond-needle dry points. His Ranunculus Asiaticus is in the Shirley Sherwood Collection and more work is in the Hunt Collection.
Hildegard Könighofer - b. 1954 (Rettenegg, Styria in Austria) She draws and paints plants, insects and minerals in pencil, Indian ink, watercolour and coloured pencil. Currently working on line drawings for the "Flora of Istria“ and a series of studies of Ophrys sphegodes and Ophrys holoserica complex in the north Adriatic region. Selected for the 13th Hunt exhibition
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Margareta Pertl is a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna. She was awarded the prestigious Füger Prize for fine art drawings. She was taught botanical art by Wendy Walsh, Susan Sex at Glasnevin and Annie Farrer at Kew. Since 1998 Margareta Pertl has illustrated orchids from the collections of the National Botanical Gardens, Glasnevin, and the Botanical Gardens of the University of Vienna. Her watercolors of orchids are represented in private and state collections, including the Hunt Institute, Pittsburgh. She lives and works in Vienna and Dublin.
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Belgium
Gertrude Hamilton
born (in 1968) and educated in Belgium. Received graphic arts training in Paris and later studied at the Art Students League in New York, where she discovered the art of botanical and natural history illustration. Her style is influenced by the Dutch and Italian masters. She is a member of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden Florilegium Society. Her 'Red & Purple Currants Raspberries Snail & Bee' 2001 is in the collection of Shirley Sherwood and she also has work in the Sloan Kettering and Lady Bamford collections
born (in 1968) and educated in Belgium. Received graphic arts training in Paris and later studied at the Art Students League in New York, where she discovered the art of botanical and natural history illustration. Her style is influenced by the Dutch and Italian masters. She is a member of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden Florilegium Society. Her 'Red & Purple Currants Raspberries Snail & Bee' 2001 is in the collection of Shirley Sherwood and she also has work in the Sloan Kettering and Lady Bamford collections
France
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Angelique de Folin
Studied painting at the Académie Roederer school of Art. Paris and botanical painting with Anne-Marie Evans. Exhibited at the Hunt (2001) and in a number of group exhibitions of botanical art in the UK and USA. She has a painting in the Highgrove Florilegium and Flower paintings from the Apothecaries' garden. She is also a participant in the Prince of Wales's Transylvania Project. (Lives in the UK) |
Érik Desmazières (France)
Principally an intaglio printmaker. Born Rabat, Morocco in 1948 but lives in Paris. Elected to the Académie des Beaux-Arts de l'Institut de France in 2009. Exhibited at Hunt 15th International. |
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Regine Hagedorn GM (1998, 1999, 2000)
b.1952 Germany, educated in Switzerland and France and has lived in France, near Geneva and the Jura, for many years. Studied design and jewellary in Geneva and then moved into graphic design. Has a very precise and aesthetically pleasing way of rending her botanical art. She's one of my favourite botanical artists. She exhibited with the RHS in 1998, 1999 and 2000 and has won three Gold Medals and also exhibited in the 10th International Exhibition (pdf) at the Hunt in 2002. Her work is collected by Shirley Sherwood (and appears in A Passion for Plants and The Art of Botanical Evolution), the Hunt Institute for Botanical Art, Pittsburg, the Royal Horticultural Society, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, London, and the collection of Alisa and Isaac Sutton, New York. It has also been seen in many exhibitions a Kew - and I always look forward to seeing her artwork. |
Agathe Haevermans
French scientific illustrator working for the French Muséum national d’histoire naturelle in Paris. In charge of scientific illustration at the Institut de Systématique, Evolution Biodiversité. Her botanical illustration developed while participating in scientific expeditions with her botanist husband to collect and illustrate plants. She teaches master classes in botanical watercolour techniques at Paris MNHN. She created the French Botanical Illustration Society (SFIB) in 2011. She is the author of several books on naturalist illustration (e.g. “Le dessin botanique”, published in 2007 and translated is several languages - English, Dutch, Korean, traditional and simplified mandarin Chinese). ASBA Interview with Agathe Haevermans |
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Annie Patterson
Lives in France. Began botanical painting in 2002 after a long career as a designer. She paints in watercolour on paper and vellum. Exhibited at the 11th International Exhibition of Botanical Art at the Hunt. Has work in the collections of the Hunt Institute of Botanical Documentation in Pittsburgh, the Royal Botanical Garden of Kew, the Highgrove Florilegium and the Florilegium of the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney. |
Germany
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Andreas Hentrich - Worked as an artist in Cologne since 1990. His work has been influenced by study trips to Japan. Paints foliage. Exhibited at the Hunt Institute's 16th International Exhibition in 2019.
Sylvia Peter
Focuses on wild flowers and the inconspicuous. Work in the Shirley Sherwood Collection. Founded the Forum Botanische Kunst in 2009 - the first gallery in Germany (in Thüngersheim near Würzburg in northern Bavaria) dedicated exclusively to the artistic representation of the plant world and exhibitions of botanical art. |
Andreas Hentrich at a session at the ASBA Conference in Pittsburgh in October 2019
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Ireland
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Mary Dillon
Member of the Irish Society of Botanical Artists and American Society of Botanical Artists. Fellow Member of the Society of Botanical Artists. Former Chair of ISBA. Elected Member of the Watercolour Society of Ireland. Gold Medal and Best in Show in Botanical and Floral Art at Bloom, Dublin, 2016, and Gold Medal at Bloom, 2017. Has exhibited internationally in Italy, Germany, Spain, Austria, the UK and the US since 2014. Exhibited at the 16th International Exhibition of Botanical Art and Illustration at the Hunt Institute in 2019. |
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Shevaun Doherty won a Gold Medal and Best in Show at the 5th Botanical Art Exhibition at Bloom in the Park in Dublin in 2017. She's previously won two Gold Medals at the same show (in 2014, 2015). She lives in Dublin and was admitted as a full member of the Society of Botanical Artists in 2014. She is also the Vellum Tutor for the Society of Botanical Artist's Distance Learning Diploma Course having achieved a Distinction when she did the SBA diploma while living in Egypt. She was a prime mover in the setting up of the Irish Society of Botanical Art. Her work was included in ‘Aibítir, The Irish Alphabet in Botanical Art’.
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Shevaun Doherty with "Prunus domestica ‘Victoria’" (on vellum) which won her a Gold Medal and Best in Show (Bloom June 2017)
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Siobhan Larkin - Winner of a Gold Medal and the Best in Show for Botanical Art at Bloom 2016 (for the second year) for her Crocosmia
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Yanny Petters won "Best in Show" at the Bloom exhibition in Dublin in 2015. This is a work created using Verre Églomisé.
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Siobhan Larkin
Won Gold Medals and "Best in Show" (Botanical Art) at both the 3rd (2015) and the 4th (2016) and 7th (2019) Botanical Art Exhibitions at Bloom in the Park in Dublin. Yanny Petters Wicklow based botanical artist and tutor who has work in the Shirley Sherwood Collection and the Office of Public Works in Dublin. She specialises in producing plant portraits using the rare technique of Verre Églomisé, or painting on glass. You can see more her paintings on glass in this link to her 2016 exhibition in Dublin which depict the twelve months of the year in the artist’s County Wicklow garden REFERENCE: Susan Sex GM Lives in Dublin and paints orchids. She has won several RHS gold medals for her orchid paintings.. Awarded the Jill Smythies Award for excellence in botanical illustration by the Linnean Society in 2010. Holly Somerville An Irish artist with an MA in Botany from Oxford. Extensive experience in drawing plants from herbarium specimens (at the Botany Department of Trinity College, Dublin). Commissioned to draw new illustrations for the 7th edition of David Webb’s ‘An Irish Flora’. One of the organisers of the Botanical Art Exhibition at Bloom. |
Yanny Petters with her 'Teasel for Finches' Verre Églomisé (painting on glass - 159 x 48 cm) in the "Abundance" exhibition at Kew (2017-2018)
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Irish Botanical Illustrators and Flower Painters by Patrica Butler
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Hardcover: 160 pages
Publisher: ACC Art Books (1 Jan. 1999) BUY THIS BOOK Irish Botanical Illustrators and Flower Painters
 from Amazon UK
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from Amazon.com
Italy
Simonetta Occhipinti with some of her paintings of 'The Citrus of the Medici Family' which won a Gold Medal in 2016
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Lucilla Carcano GM (2006)
Lucilla has been painting botanical art since 1994. In 2006 she won both an RHS Gold Medal and the Best in Show Award at the exhibition in Birmingham. Simonetta Occhipinti GM (2016) Won a Gold Medal in 2016 for her series of paintings of the Citrus of the Medicia Family. Angela Petrini GM (2018) Won an RHS Gold Medal for her exhibit - Rice of Italy - Cultivars Old and New (Shirley Sherwood bought two of the paintings). Graduate in Law with a Distinction in the SBA Diploma. Has exhibited widely in botanical art shows in Italy and London. |
Silvana Rava GM (2008)
Her RHS Gold Medal was for medicinal plants of Lake Como. She exhibited at the Hunt in 2007. Her work was exhibited at Kew in Botanical Art in the 21st Century. She has been teaching since 2003 and currently teaches courses organised by the Biology Department of the University of Pisa at the Botanical Museum Maria Rita Stirpe b. Frosinone, in Ciociaria, in July 1959. In Italy she has exhibited at the Accademia dei Georgofili in Florence, the Regional Museum of Natural Sciences of Turin, the Botanical Gardens of Rome, Catania, Palermo and Padua and the National Museum Villa Pisani in Stra (VE). She has also exhibited in the USA at the Italian Cultural Institute (Washington), the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation (Pittsburgh) and the Museum of Natural Sciences (New York State). Her work is in. the Shirley Sherwood Collection and has been exhibited at Kew. |
Angela Petrini with her RHS Gold Medal winning display of "Rice Cultivars Old and New"
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Lidia Vanzetti GM (2011, 2016)
Won her second RHS Gold Medal in 2011 with a very pleasing series about the Pears of the Piedmont and her third in 2016 for Grapes of the Piedmont. Marina Virdis GM (2000) b.1950. Has degrees in ceramics and art. She had careers in communication (as graphic designer, consultant and lecturer) and has taught art in middle schools. She has been a botanical painters since 1992, has exhibited extensively in Italy and has been teaching courses and workshops since 2001. She won an RHS Gold Medal in 2000. Silvana Volpato (Italy) Trained as an architect and focused on designing interiors and green spaces. Exhibited at Hunt 15th International. This is an interview with her (turn on auto-translation in Chrome to get the English version). |
Lidia Vanzetti with one of her paintings of "Pears of the Piedmont"
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Netherlands
Esmée ​Winkel won another Gold Medal for her display of pen and ink drawings of rare and endangered orchids at RHS London Botanical Art Show 2016
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Esmée Somers Winkel GM (2013, 2016, 2018)
Awarded the Jill Smythies Award for excellence in botanical illustration by the Linnean Society in 2014. Her work has been awarded Gold Medals at Royal Horticultural Society in:
Esmée was born in Curaçao in the Caribbean. Her home is now in the Netherlands, where she moved to study Biology and Scientific Illustration.She has a BSc degree Biology from Leiden University and a Masters Degree in Scientific Illustration degree from Maastricht University and Maastricht Academy of Fine Arts and Design. She works as a Scientific Illustrator for the Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Dutch Academic research institute and Nationaal Herbarium Nederlands. The techniques she uses are: ink, watercolour, pencil and digital drawing programs. Ria van Elk-van Altena Ria is a founder member of the Botanical Artists Association Netherlands. This is her Facebook account. |
Esmée ​Winkel and her gold medal-winning 'Leguminosae' Photo copyright Katherine Tyrrell
Anita Walsmit Sachs
President of the Dutch Society of Botanical Artists which she founded in 2006. Head of the Art Department and scientific illustrator until 2013 of the Nationaal Herbarium Nederland, part of the University of Leiden, now Naturalis Biodiversity Center. Anita has work in international collections including the the Hunt Institute in Pittsburgh and the Highgrove Florilegium. This is an ArtPlantae interview with her |
Poland
Barbara Oozeerally
born 1953, Poland. Lives and works in London, England. (See UK Page)
born 1953, Poland. Lives and works in London, England. (See UK Page)
Portugal
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Toni Dade GM (2021)
Studied Natural History Illustration in the 90s. Born in the UK but moved to Portugal in 2005 and has lived and worked there ever since as an artist and teacher for the last 15 years. Started painting botanical art for the first time in 2017, approved to exhibit at RHS in 2019 and won an RHS Gold Medal for her exhibit of Punica granatum (pomegranate) at her first attempt in 2021. She is an SBA Fellow and has exhibited with the SBA every year since 2017 with SBA and now also exhibits with ABBA. I find inspiration from the beauty & decay of the seasonal nature around where I live and walk. |
Toni Dade with the first four paintings in her exhibit about the life cycle of Punica granatum (Pomegranate) at the RHS Botanical Art Show 2021
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Russia
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Dasha Fomicheva
b.1968. Graduate of Surikoff State Academic Art Institute in Moscow, Russia and renowned watercolor specialist in botanical illustration. She illustrated Jordan in Bloom: Wildflowers of the Holy Land. Two paintings in the Shirley Sherwood collection Yuri Ivanchenko b.1961 in Sverdlovsk / Ekaterinaburg. Studied at the Repin Institute of Painting in St Petersburg Exhibited in London, Geneva and Russia and in group exhibitions. Work held in the Museum of Modern Art in Moscow. Read this article about an exhibition in London - Russian painters' gentle meditation on life and death Olga Makrushenko b.1956 Exhibited at the 11th International at the Hunt Institute . Five paintings works in the Shirley Sherwood collection. (Hunt Bio as pdf). She has paintings in State Biological Museum, Moscow; RHS Lindley Library; Natural History Museum, London; and the Library and Archives, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. |
August by Yuri Ivanchenko (which is periodically exhibited at Kew)
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Alexander (Sasha) Viazmensky
Born 1946 in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) where he now lives. He specialises in painting fungi. He has an Electrical Engineering degree from Leningrad Technical College and graduated from the Graphic Design School, Leningrad (1984) and from Leningrad Academy of Arts (1991). He is a well known teacher of botanical art and has conducted botanical art classes in USA since 2004 and organised the first botanical art classes in Russia in 2012. His work is included in the collections of the Hunt Institute in Pittsburgh, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the Shirley Sherwood Collection, the RHS Lindley Library and the Komarov Botanical Institute in St. Petersburg and several other collections. His work also appears in several specialist publications.
(Note: Fungi are not plants but have been commonly accepted as subject matter for botanical art over the years).
Born 1946 in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) where he now lives. He specialises in painting fungi. He has an Electrical Engineering degree from Leningrad Technical College and graduated from the Graphic Design School, Leningrad (1984) and from Leningrad Academy of Arts (1991). He is a well known teacher of botanical art and has conducted botanical art classes in USA since 2004 and organised the first botanical art classes in Russia in 2012. His work is included in the collections of the Hunt Institute in Pittsburgh, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the Shirley Sherwood Collection, the RHS Lindley Library and the Komarov Botanical Institute in St. Petersburg and several other collections. His work also appears in several specialist publications.
(Note: Fungi are not plants but have been commonly accepted as subject matter for botanical art over the years).
Slovenia
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Anna Supranenko GM (group 2019) - born in Kazan in Russia, she now lives and works in Ljubljana, Slovenia. She became interested in botanical art in 2014 and was taught by Alexander Viazmensky. She is a Fellow Member of the SBA; ABA; ASBA and BAGSC. She's exhibited internationally in more than 30 exhibitions in 8 countries including the UK, USA, Russia, Italy and South Korea. She received a (group) RHS Gold Medal (2019); the Jurors’ Award at the Botanical Art Worldwide Exhibition “Flora of Russia“ (2018) and a Certificate of Botanical Merit at the SBA Plantae 2019 and an Exhibiting Excellence in Watercolour Award at SBA Plantae 2022 in London.
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Anna Suprunenko with one of her painting. Photo by Gernot Werner.
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Spain
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Juan Luis Castillo GM (2000)
Trained as a biologist but is now a professional scientific botanical illustrator illustrating scientific publications (more than 60 articles and more than 20 books). Notably he has contributed very many scientific botanical illustrations for the Flora Iberica project developed by the Royal Botanical Garden, Madrid. He was also the first Western illustrator to contribute to the Flora of China. RHS awarded a Gold Medal in 2000; the Linnean Society awarded him to the Jill Smythies Award for excellence in scientific botanical illustration (2001). He achieved second prize in the Margaret Flockton Award in 2007. Media used for illustration include, Chinese ink, watercolour or gouache and latterly digital illustration. Past member of SBA and ASBA. |
Marta Chirico GM (1999)
b. Madrid 1963. Degree in Biological CC from the Autonomous University of Madrid. Studied for four years as a post-graduate, at the fine Arts Faculty in Madrid. Elected as member of the SBA Scientific Illustrator, Royal Botanical Garden Of Madrid And Other Institutions. In 1999 awarded an RHS Gold Medal for illustrations of "Aquatic Plants of Castilla - La Mancha". Has taught Botanical Drawing classes at the Royal Botanical Garden of Madrid, the Jardín Botánico Atlántico de Gijón and The Juan Carlos I University. Her 1993 painting of Siberian Iris is part of the Shirley Sherwood Collection. |
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Úrsula Romero
(formerly known as JR Shepherd) Úrsula Romero (Jessica R. Shepherd) is a British artist, publisher (of Inky Leaves Publishing), curator and botanist. She has described herself in the past as a 'rebel flower painter'. Her collaborations with scientists and artists across the world are documented in her work and publications.
See also articles:
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At her Leafscape exhibition at Abbott & Holder in February 2017
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Sweden
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Annika Silander Hökerberg
Born Sweden 1949. A painting of Siberian Iris: Iris Sibirica was acquired by Shirley Sherwood from the artist 1995. Exhibited at the 8th International Exhibition of Botanical Art & Illustration at the Hunt Institute in 1995/6. Author of Botanical Discovery in the Age of Exploration: How Linnaeus shaped the World's views of Plants |
“I suspect a new star is in the ascendant of botanical art… her paintings of tulips, lemons and Irises demonstrate great confidence of execution and design.” |
Turkey
Gulnar Eksi winning her third RHS Gold Medal in 2013 for Plants from the Woods and Forests of Chile
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Gülnur Ekşi GM (2010, 2012, 2013, 2015)
Currently completing her PhD in Botany at Ankara University. Since 2007 she has been a visiting botanical artist to the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) and her paintings for the RGBE project Plants from the Woods and Forests of Chile have earned four Gold Medals from the RHS. |
Işık Güner (GM 2014) (BISCOT GM 2011)
A visiting botanical artist at RGBE (Facebook Page) and also one of the botanical artists who worked on "Plants from the Woods and Forests of Chile" (see the video below). Işık's painting of Gunnera Tinctoria (which you can see here and in the video below) won the RHS Best Painting in Show in Spring 2014. Currently working on an Illustrated Flora of Turkey (a "lifetime project") and various other major collaborative projects between universities and botanical gardens in China, Wales and Scotland (e.g. Two Dragons Garden Project) |
Işık Güner with her 2014 Gold Medal for her paintings of "Plants from the Woords and Forests of Chile"
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Read "Painting Chile - an RBGE book reveals hidden gem" in Issue 61, Summer 2015 of the Botanics Magazine, published by the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, which covers the Chilean project and the book which both Işık and Gülnur supported through their paintings.
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Below - for those who understand Turkish.
Includes views of Işık painting and her two brush watercolour technique.
I find it educational despite not understanding a word of what she is saying!
Includes views of Işık painting and her two brush watercolour technique.
I find it educational despite not understanding a word of what she is saying!
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