NEWS about Botanical Art and for Botanical Artists

Nearly 1,000 people at Kew for Worldwide Day of Botanical Art

19/5/2018

Yesterday I attended the events in the Shirley Sherwood Gallery and the Marianne North Gallery at Kew Gardens for one of the UK partner events for the Worldwide Day of Botanical Art.

Nearly 1,000 people came through the doors of the Gallery and shared in the activities which included

four talks,
demonstrations by various artists and
explanations by the team from Kew's Library Art and Archives team who look after the Illustrations and the adult education team and students on Kew's Certificate in Botanical Art

I've uploaded a number of photographs of the day to my Facebook Page (which is public) and which reflect what the Worldwide Day of Botanical Art was like at Kew.

Christabel King showing her work and discussing techniques with visitors

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TODAY is the Worldwide Day of Botanical Art 2018

18/5/2018

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You can see where all the exhibitions of botanical art are In 25 countries on six continents - together with any links I have to the activities today - the Worldwide Day of Botanical Art 2018 - all on one page on this website.

The page is organised by continents and countries as listed below.

If there are more flyers and/or videos out there which need to be added in please send them to me.

AFRICA

Southern Africa

ASIA

China
Indonesia
Japan
Republic of Korea
Thailand

AUSTRALASIA

Australia
New Zealand

EUROPE (Western)

France
Germany

EUROPE (Eastern)

Russia
Ukraine

THE AMERICAS - Central America and the Caribbean

Bermuda
Costa Rica
Mexico

THE AMERICAS - North America

THE AMERICAS - South America

Brazil
Chile
Colombia

For more about the Botanical Art Worldwide initiative you should view

EITHER the dedicated Official Website which has comprehensive information about the purpose of the exhibition and exhibitions in other countries
OR the official Facebook Page
OR the World Wide Exhibition of Botanical Art 2018 page - on this website - which has brief details about all the exhibitions on ONE page

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Worldwide Day of Botanical Art in UK & Ireland on 18 May 2018

13/5/2018

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This is a summary of the various exhibitions, educational events and activities around the UK and Ireland for the Worldwide Day of Botanical Art on Friday 18 May at:

Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art at Kew Gardens
The Peter Scott Gallery, Lancaster University
RHS Lindley Library
Chelsea Physic Garden
The Art Workers' Guild
John Hope Gateway, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh
National Botanic Garden, Dublin.

You'll find more information about events and personnel involved in the links.

England

Kew Gardens

Worldwide Day of Botanical Art - Events on 18th May at Kew

Venue: Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew
Time: 11am - 4pm - To be opened by Shirley Sherwood at 11am.
Admission: FREE - but normal admission charges to the garden apply
Activities:

Digital slideshow of the artwork in the UK exhibition at Lancaster and in botanical art worldwide exhibitions around the world
Botanical artists currently commissioned by Kew will present their work in a series of informal talks and demonstrations

Talks are as follows

11:30 – 12pm – Dr Andrew Brown - From Plant to Plate – how to prepare a complete scientific illustration through meticulous observation, planning and execution.
12:15 – 12:45pm – Lucy T Smith - Largest, Smallest, Oldest – the challenges of working with Kew’s greenhouse collections of giant waterlilies and rare cycads including Encephalartos woodii, one of the Temperate House’s rarest plants.
1:30 – 2:00pm – Hazel Wilks - Dogwoods to Dandelions – the range of work a Kew illustrator undertakes: depicting new plant species, explaining plant anatomy and drawing world floras
2:15 – 2:45pm – Georita Harriot - For the Love of Lavender – the work behind illustrating a botanical monograph in colour, including research into how to mix 1000 different shades of Green.

Work and demonstrations will also be shown by Christabel King GM FSBA, FLS, Anita Barley Recipient of the 2016 Jill Smythies Award for Botanical Illustration from the Linnaean Society Penny Price and Dr Judi Stone.

Sarah Oldridge, Adult Education Co-ordinator, will provide information about courses at Kew.

Lancaster University

Worldwide Day of Botanical Art - Events on 18th May at Lancaster

Title: In Ruskin's Footsteps
Venue: The Peter Scott Gallery, Lancaster University
Time: 12.00pm - 5.00pm
Admission: FREE

Exhibition opens on 18th May
You can see the digital gallery of artwork now on the ABBA website
a slideshow of 1,000 images from Botanical Art Worldwide, including the 40 images from In Ruskin’s Footsteps.

Special Event Open Days on 19th May and 9th June 2018

Venue: Peter Scott Gallery, Lancaster University

19th May and 9th June: Exhibition Tours by Martin Allen. His main role in supporting the exhibition has been to check botanical accuracy in terms of depiction of plants and the nomenclature of the plant species. He is an expert botanist, who regularly works in the field completing botanical surveys and habitat assessments. As well as this he is also a highly skilled botanical artist and tutor, having won many awards. including three RHS Gold Medals (1995, 97, 99)
19th May: Mally Francis, ( see her o=image below) Sandra Doyle and Jackie Copeman will be demonstrating in the exhibition space.
9th June (2pm – 3pm) Talk on ‘Fieldwork and Research Techniques for Botanical Art by Sarah Morrish who has a working background in ecology and conservation and is an experienced botanical and natural science artist and tutor. This will give an overview of how best work to in the field and how you can then research your subject further, through direct investigation of the subject and additional research techniques - from botany to paper.

Chelsea Physic Garden

Art Exhibition celebrating Worldwide Day of Botanical Art

Venue: Education Room at Chelsea Physic Garden
Time: 11.00am - 4.00pm
Admission: FREE with price of admission to garden
Activities:

a slideshow of 1,000 images from Botanical Art Worldwide, including the 40 images from In Ruskin’s Footsteps.
view works from the Physic Garden’s collection of paintings with special emphasis on plants from and native to the United Kingdom. Members of the Society will be on hand to welcome visitors to the exhibition and discuss the paintings.

RHS Lindley Library

Slideshow and Tours: Botanical Art Worldwide

Venue: RHS Lindley Library, 80 Vincent Square, LONDON SW1P 2PE
Time:

Slideshow: 10am - 5pm;
Tours: 11am and 2pm

Admission: FREE
Activities:

a slideshow of 1,000 images from Botanical Art Worldwide, including the 40 images from In Ruskin’s Footsteps.
a curated tour of artworks from the RHS Lindley Library Art Collection on this day. Tour places are limited - please call the library on 020 7821 3050 or email library.london@rhs.org.uk to reserve a place.
View the Lindley Library’s most recent acquisition, Dahlia Twynings After Eight.. a watercolour painting by Heidi Venamore. This will be on display alongside the preliminary sketches for this piece.

The Art Workers' Guild

‘Botany and Painting techniques: a day of talks and demonstrations by SBA artists on painting some of Britain’s indigenous species’.

The Society of Botanical Artists is supporting the Worldwide Day of Botanical Art with two half day events

Venue: The Art Workers' Guild, 6 Queen Square, London WC1N 3AT
Time:

10:45 -13:00 - Morning event is 2 hours, with refreshments
14:15 -16:30 - Afternoon event is 2 hours with refreshments

Admission: PRICED ticketed events - tickets from this site
Activities: talks and demonstrations by:

Morning event: Gael Sellwood GM, SBA, Angeline de MeesterBA(Hons), GM, FLS, SBA, Jarnie Godwin MTcg, BSc(Hons), DipSBA(Dist) SBA and Pamela Taylor PhD, BSc, SBA
Afternoon Event: Sue J Williams SBA FCPFS, Dianne Sutherland Ball SBA BSc Hons (Biology), Jennifer Jenkins SBA, Billy Showell BA PSBA

Scotland

Here's what's happening in Scotland

Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh

Worldwide Day of Botanical Art in Edinburgh

Venue: John Hope Gateway, Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh
Time: 12 noon - 4.00pm
Admission: FREE (no booking required)
Activities: for adults and children throughout the afternoon - organised by the Scottish Botanical Art Collective (SBAC)

Exhibition: Flora Scotia exhibition - runs until 3 June 2018. See also my blog post Selected Scottish artists for 'Flora Scotia' (Botanical Art Worldwide #5)
a slideshow of 1,000 images from Botanical Art Worldwide, including images from Flora Scotia
Meet the artists - Watch demonstrations and try your hand at painting techniques to help make a giant botanical mural
Meet the plants - Enjoy a walk with an expert botanist to a corner of the Garden brimming with native plants.

Ireland

Part of the exhibition - Éireannach – Celebrating Native Plants of Ireland

Worldwide Day of Botanical Art in Dublin and ISBA Open Day

Venue: Visitors’ Centre at the National Botanic Gardens
Time: 10:00 - 16:00
Admission: FREE (entry to the garden is free also)
Activities:

Exhibition: Éireannach – Celebrating Native Plants of Ireland - continues until 27th May. See also my blog post Selected Irish Artists for Éireannach Exhibition (Botanical Art Worldwide #7)
digital slideshow of images from 24 other Botanical Art Worldwide exhibitions plus images from Éireannach – Celebrating Native Plants of Ireland
tour of the exhibition by Zoe Devlin wildflower expert and mentor to the Irish project
botanical painting demonstrations by members of ISBA
cards, prints and merchandise by ISBA artists

The book Éireannach – Celebrating Native Plants of Ireland will also be for sale (I've now my copy and it's STUNNING! Review coming up later this week)

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Selected Dutch Artists for Wild Plants in the Netherlands exhibition (Botanical Art Worldwide #11)

12/5/2018

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The Dutch Botanical Art Worldwide Exhibition - focusing on native wild plants of the Netherlands - opened at the Museum De Zwarte Tulp in Lisse on Thursday 10 May 2018.

Below you can find

details of the exhibition
how native plants are defined
a list of the participating artists and the plants they portrayed
the Worldwide Day of Botanical Art on 18 May 2018
other activities during the exhibition

About the exhibition

Exhibition

Theme: Botanical Art Worldwide - Wild Plants in The Netherlands - 68 artworks by 25 artist members of the Dutch Society of Botanical Artists.
Venue: Museum De Zwarte Tulp (Museum The Black Tulip), Grachtweg 2A, 2161 HN Lisse
Dates: 10 May to 2 September 2018
Exhibition Catalogue: ‘Wild plants in the Netherlands’ will also be available in May 2018 for € 17,50.

The Exhibition Catalogue: ‘Wild plants in the Netherlands’

Native Plants of the Netherlands

What, exactly, is a ‘native’ plant of the Netherlands?

After considerable research, the Dutch Society of Botanical Artists identified two different perspectives for indigenous plants of the Netherlands:

The original native plants, the plants that were ‘always’ here and
The original native plants plus all the plants introduced in the Netherlands before 1492, the year that Columbus discovered America.

The artists decided which species they wanted to draw or paint.

Various plant groups are presented at the exhibition: mosses and ferns, flowering plants, shrubs, and trees.
In addition, the exhibition includes species that are associated in particular with different types of habitat found within the Netherlands. These include plants from the dunes, deciduous forests, stream valleys, heaths, and verges.

Participating Botanical Artists

Below is a list of the participating artists in alphabetical order. All are members of the Dutch Society of Botanical Artists.

You can visit their website, if the artist has one by clicking the link to his or her website that is embedded in the name.

Interspersed between the names are images of some of the artworks in the exhibition.

Verbascum thapsus by Gesine Beermann-Kielhöfer

Jacomien van Andel:

Iris pseudacorus
Bellis perennis
Humulus lupulus

Gesine Beermann-Kielhöfer:

Eryngium maritimum
Eurhynchium striatum en Dicranum scoparium
Pulmonaria officinalis
Verbascum thapsus

Nicolien Bottema:

Drentse Aa, stream valley vegetation
Campanula rotundifolia
Narthecium ossifragum

Janneke Brinkman-Salentijn:

Ribes rubrum
Digitalis purpurea

Ingrid Elias:

Hippophae rhamnoides
Ilex aquifolium
Digitalis purpurea

Ria van Elk- van Altena:

Caltha palustris subsp. palustris
Mespilus germanica
Aquilegia vulgaris

Giuliana Gallo:

Acer campestre
Cirsium dissectum
Leucanthemum vulgare

Els Hazenberg:

Hippophae rhamnoides
Geranium robertianum, Rumex acetosella
Grasses

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Book Review: The Illustrated College Herbal. Plants from the Pharmacopoea Londinensis of 1618

11/5/2018

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Today sees the book launch of The Illustrated College Herbal: Plants from the Pharmacopoea Londinensis of 1618 at the Royal College of Physicians. I'll be there this afternoon!

This new illustrated herbal features watercolour paintings and woodcuts of nearly 200 plants from the Pharmacopoea Londinensis beds in the RCP’s Medicinal Garden at its home on the edge of Regent's Park.

The book has an interesting history and this book review precedes comments on its contents with a short history of its antecedents and the reasons why it has been published this year.

I recommend this book to all those interested in the history of medicinal plants and herbals in particular. In addition to the high quality content and production it also contains a lot of information about the plants identified for medicinal use

The Pharmacopoea Londinensis (1618) and the Royal College of Physicians

Title Page of the Pharmacopoea Londinensis 1618

The Pharmacopoea Londinensis was Britain’s first Pharmacopoeia. That is, an official publication containing a list of medicinal drugs with their effects and directions for their use. It was first published in 1618. (You can read a digital copy on the Wellcome Library website). It contained:

430 compound medicines
a list of the plants, minerals and animal ingredients which were used to make them
of the 774 ingredients listed, 634 are plants and 140 are minerals or animal products.

The aim of publishing this new Pharmacopoeia was to provide the Worshipful Company of Apothecaries, newly formed in November 1617, with a standard set of guidelines on the formulation and administration of medicines and was intended for use across the kingdom.

The Royal College of Physicians is an older institution and was founded in 1518. In 2018 it celebrates its 500th anniversary; marked in February by an official visit by HM The Queen and the publication of a modern day RCP500 charter.

The publication of the Illustrated College Herbal in turn marks:

the 500th anniversary of the Royal College of Physicians
the 400th anniversary of the publication of the Pharmacopoea Londinensis by the College.

About The Illustrated College Herbal

Tamus communis (Bryonia) by Beth Phillip

This book results from a collaboration between:

the Garden Fellows of the RCP
the Gardeners who look after the Medicinal Garden - where about 200 plants listed in the Pharmacopoea Londinensis are now grown.
the botanical artists and illustrators commissioned to contribute to the book - who were mainly members of the Chelsea Physic Florilegium Society (founded 1995), the Hampton Court Florilegium Society (founded 2004) and others.

The book has been created by Jane Knowles (Head Gardener) and Henry Oakeley FRCP (Garden Fellow) who wrote the text. Gillian Barlow (artist in residence at the Medicinal Garden in 2012-13) commissioned the paintings - and created the painting for the front cover. Naturally a lot of people also contributed to the creation of the book - not least the botanical artists

The contents include:

a preface regarding the reason for its production
a brief history of the Pharmacopoea Londinensis
Illustrations and brief details of the plants currently grown in the Medicinal Garden which were included in the original herbal
a Glossary of long forgotten medical terms
a Catalogus Simplicium - which matches the name in the Pharmacopoea Londinensis with the Current name - according to the way they were listed in the former eg Roots; Barks and Peels; Woods; Herbs; Flowers etc
an Artist's Directory - which includes with a mini profile of both career and contact details which was very gratifying to see! I'd like to see this happening more in books about botanical art where the art has been donated.
Bibliography - which provides a great list for those researching Herbals from the past! (Although I was a little surprised not to see the seminal works about Herbals by Arber, Blunt and Rohde on the list)

The one thing that's missing is an Index or a cross-reference from artist profile to pages on which their artwork appears. It's only after a while it dawned on me that artists other than Gillian Barlow had made a significant contribution - although I'm guessing this in part relates to which of the artists have also been previous artists in residence e.g. Mayumi Hashi in 2010.

Next more detailed comments on my real interest - the illustrations!

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'Flora Russia' opens in St. Petersburg

9/5/2018

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Flora Russia - participating artists at the opening of the exhibition on 8th May 2018 (Photo by Anastasiia Shliago)

The Flora Russia exhibition opened its doors yesterday and continues until 20 May 2018. This is part of the Botanical Art Worldwide initiative being held during 2018.

It comprises:

82 artworks from a total of 61 artists which were selected from a total submission of 129 paintings.
You can meet all the artists on this page
The exhibition is being held at the St. Petersburg Artist Union Building. Morskaya Bolshaya ul., d. 38, St. Petersburg 190000, Russia
You can see photos of the artwork and the artists below.

Opening of the exhibition

As with all good exhibitions there were speeches at the opening!

Opening of the exhibition

Alexander Viazmensky speaking at the opening of the exhibition and referencing "A Passion for Plants"

Organisation of the Exhibition

This is the Organizing Committee:

Alexander Vyazmensky (botanical artist, ideologist of the exhibition "Botanical Art Worldwide. Russia")
Natalia Alatortseva (botanist, botanical artist)
Svetlana Lance (botanical artist, teacher)
Fomicheva Darya (botanical artist, teacher)
Yaroslava Bazanova (representative of the LECTOROOM team, host of the exhibition project Мастера Акварели )

The host of the project in Russia is Lectoroom (an online platform for art education and exhibitions) with the support of the American Society of Botanical Artists.

The Organizing committee of "Flora Russia". From left to right: Natalia Alatortseva, Yaroslava Bazanova, Svetlana Lanse (Photo by Anastasiia Shliago)

Flora Russia: artists and artwork

Below you can see a SLIDESHOW of the artists and artwork

The participating artists are (alphabetical by surname):

A

Julia Aksenova
Natalia Alatortseva
Olga Alekseeva
Anna Aleshina
Alexandra Antonova

Olga Bulavenko

Maria Chernobrovkina
Svetlana Chernysheva
Galina Chikov
Katia Coees
Marina Chugunova

Elena Denisenko
Lydia Dukhnevich

Victoria Esaulova-Ivanova

Evgenia Gaidarova
Alexandra Golovina
Irina Golubeva
Anastasia Goncharova
Ekaterina Gorenchuk
Olga Gudzera

Olga Kamalova
Tatyana Kaplun
Victoria Karpunina
Elena Kataeva
Victoria Konovalova

Svetlana Lance
Irina Lebedeva
Olga Lovigina
Elena Lyubimova

Anastasia Maksimova
Marika Maltseva
Xenia Mamonova
Daria Matveyeva
Olga Melikhova
Victoria Mezenova

Alena Nalivkina
Elena Nechitailova

Victoria Obuhova

Ksenia Panferova
Julia Petrova
Irina Pichkova
Maria Poponova
Elena Poyarkova
Marina Protsenko
Pavel Pugachev
Tatiana Pushnaya

Maria Rudina

Daria Shaptseva
Olga Sokolova
Irina Stolyarova
Anna Suprunenko

Marina Ulanova
Natalia Ustinova

Irina Volodarskaya
Alexander Vyazmensky

Yulia Yerkina

Ekaterina Zaikina
Natalia Zueva

Events during the exhibition

A two day event will be held on 10th and 11th May 2018 - details in the exhibition flyer, on the dedicated Facebook Page and in this link
The Worldwide Day of Botanical Art will be held on 18th May 2018.

More information

Flora of Russia's Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/baw.russia/
Programme of Activities: http://watercolormasters.ru/programma-baw

Exhibition Flyer and event schedule - in Russian

What about your country's exhibition?

You can see a profile of all the rest of the exhibitions ON ONE PAGE on this website. I'm currently adding inposters and flyers!

If you would like your country's exhibition to feature on my blog please take photographs of the artwork and the artists at the opening of the exhibition - with links to all relevant details about the exhibition and associated events - and then contact me and I'll give you an email address to send them to.

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A Curious Performance: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Art of Natural History

7/5/2018

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Maria Sibylla Merian was a woman of both Art and Science. She was a Botanical & Natural History Illustrator who was the first to record metamorphosis

A Curious Performance: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Art of Natural History by Kate Heard at the Linnean Society

BELOW you can view the video of the presentation at the Linnean Society - A Curious Performance: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Art of Natural History by Kate Heard, Senior Curator of Prints and Drawings at Royal Collection Trust. This was part of the 300th

I attended the talk last December and, despite having already already created a resource about her, I learned a few new things that evening!

It covers her life but also the Merian illustrations which are in the Royal Collection kept at Windsor Castle. It includes comparisons of the printed image with the watercolour on vellum in the Royal Collection.

This video is very much recommended viewing for all Merian fans- however the presentation and the video lasts 45 minutes

Find out more about Maria Sibylla Merian

See About Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717)

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