NEWS about Botanical Art and for Botanical Artists

Summer 2023: Ranunculus by H. Isabel Adams (1863 - 1952)

2/6/2023

I've updated my website and Facebook Page banners for new plants as we move into Summer in the northern hemisphere.

For Summer 2023, I've chosen this image by Harriet Isabel Adams (known as H Isabel Adams) . She has who portrayed the ranunculus which are everywhere I look at the moment on my daily "look after my osteoarthritis" walks. Her images have a relaxed appearance leaning towards a very sophisticated page in a sketchbook. Her illustrations have been much admired over the years.

The plants in the Ranunculus genus in the plate are, from left to right:

Field Crowfoot (Ranunculus arvensis)
Creeping Buttercup (Ranunculus repens)
Upright Buttercup (Ranunculus acris var. vulgaris)
Bulbous Buttercup (Ranunculus bulbosus) - or St. Anthony's Turnip!

You can see below her very careful printed and capitalised labels near the base of the drawing - which identify each plant in turn. I do like people who know how to print carefully and position unobtrusively.

Each plate in the book has supporting text identifying all the botanical features of each of the plants - see below for page 6 of the Summer Volume and the plants on Plate 4.

H. Isobel Adams and "Wild Flowers of the British Isles"

As I have written previously Mrs Harriet Isabel Adams FLS (1863-1952) trained at Birmingham School of Art and became a noted 'Arts and Crafts' Illustrator. She sought help from others in gathering specimens but remarkably little is known about her.

On 15th November 1906, 'Mrs Harriet Isabel Adams' was elected as a Fellow of the Linnean Society, having been proposed at the previous meeting.
She was also a member of the The Botanical Society and Exchange Club of the British Isles.

She died age 89 in 1952.

She is best known for having written and illustrated "Wild Flowers of the British Isles" which was published in two volumes by Heinemann in 1910. (digitised in 2016)

You can also view it in the Biodiversity Heritage Library

It's one of my all time favourite books about wild flowers in Britain and I do wish some publisher would get to grips with the task of publishing a facsimile. I guarantee it would sell well to both botanical art lovers and the wider public because it is both informative and her illustrations are so very beautiful to look at.

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SBA Plantae 2023: Award Winners

22/5/2023

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Today's post is about the botanical artists receiving awards from the Society of Botanical Artists and Sponsors at Plantae 2023. The annual exhibition of the Society of Botanical Artists took place last week at the Mall Galleries in London.

It includes images of the artwork receiving awards and more information about the artists (links to their websites are embedded in their names).

It follows on from

For every award I'll be linking to the botanical artist who received the award and including some brief bio details and an image of the artwork which merited the award.

BELOW the various awards are divided into three categories

Society of Botanical Artists Awards
Sponsor Awards (Monetary)
Sponsor Awards: sponsored by art materials companies

NOTE: The Plantae 2023 Catalogue sold out and is being reprinted. It should be available from the shop on the SBA website in about two weeks.

Society of Botanical Artists Awards

These are awards which originate within the Society of Botanical Artists and members past and present. Often as a memorial to a particular member

Joyce Cumming Presentation Award
Legacy from Joyce Cuming (a sterling silver Almoner’s plate) - for a beautiful botanical piece; Certificate for the winner | Chosen by the SBA Council
(7) Prunus by Hee-Soon Baik SBAF

Hee-Soon Baik SBAF lives in Korea. Hee-Soon previously exhibited in Plantae 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022. She also won the Koran National Arboretum Director General's Award at the Botanical Art Worldwide Exhibition in Korea (at the Korea National Arboretum) in 2018.

She has also told her story of her studies and how her career as a botanical artist has developed when elected to as a Fellow of SBA.

"I am not an art major, but I have always been interested in plants. I observe plants, compare how they differ from other plants, look for data, and start drawing when I have some confirmation.

It was 13 years ago when I started to care about Botanic art. It was a time when interest in the importance and preservation of nature spread in Korea.
My interest in plants led to drawing plants, I had to study plants, and I had to learn drawing techniques and skills. I was always worried about how to zoom in and about accurate observation and sketches. There was no place to teach professional Botanic art, so I took a few lectures on drawing plants, painting and exhibiting.

Then I got to know the Learning Course of SBA in the UK, applied for DLDC Course 15, and took a 30-month course.

Luckily, I received the Society of Botanical Artists "PLANTAE 2020" Certificate of Botanic Merit among my Portfolio paints.

After that, I found out that my painting skills had improved a lot without realizing it, and I won several awards in Korea and gained self-esteem.

I have been commissioned by the National Arboretum of Korea to draw native plants, and the paintings are circulating at arboretums and botanical gardens nationwide in Korea Also, my personal paintings are sold as goods at shops in the Natural History Museum in Korea."
SBA Facebook Page

Leaves by Izabela Wolska-Kuśmider SBAF

Margaret Granger Memorial Silver Bowl
Certificate for the winner + Name engraved on the Silver Bowl
For the best work or body of work by a member elected in the last two years | Chosen by Council
Four Wet Autumn Leaves by Izabela Wolska-Kuśmider SBAF
(top row Alnus glutinosa; Bottom row: Quercus robur - image is take from the catalogue as the leaves were separated in the exhibition.) You can see how they were exhibited below.

Izabela Wolska-Kuśmider is Polish and lives in Warsaw. She studied at the Faculty of Architecture of the Warsaw University of Technology. She graduated from the SBA's Distance Learning Diploma Course with Distinction. Iza is a Fellow of The Society of Botanical Artists (SBA) and a member of the American Society of Botanical Artists (ASBA)

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SBA's Plantae 2023: Certificates of Botanical Merit

20/5/2023

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This is about the Certificates of Botanical Merit awarded to artists exhibiting at the Society of Botanical Artists' Annual Exhibition - Plantae 2023 - at the Mall Galleries this week

Below you can find:

why the Society of Botanical Artists awards Certificates of Botanical Excellence.
how artworks are selected
the list of those receiving a Certificate of Botanical Art in 2023 in alphabetical order of the artists' surnames plus:
- an image of the artwork and
- a brief profile of the artist who produced it
- links to websites or other related sites are embedded in the name

One of two Certificates of Botanical Merit awarded to Eunhee Park SBA Fellow at Plantae 2023 - this one is for her Artichoke

The SBA Certificates of Botanical Merit

Unlike some other botanical art exhibitions such as the RHS botanical art shows, the Society of Botanical Artists' Annual Exhibition has traditionally not been a "strictly botanical" show.

This is because the SBA's founder Suzanne Lucas MBE FLS HPRMS PPRMS FPSBA HonSWA HSF BMS (1915-2008) believed very strongly that the portrayal of plants need not always be highly scientific and illustrative - as many flower painters would agree.

“To incorporate more recent techniques and styles in a broader interpretation; combining the scientific and representational, giving a rich and varied view of the wonderful world of plants.”
Suzanne Lucas, Founder President 1915 – 2008

However, since the SBA was founded, there has been a gradual move towards a much greater emphasis on 'botanical art' and the current exhibition is less about 'flower painting'. This has no doubt been influenced by the development and promotion of the knowledge and skills imparted via the SBA's very popular Distance Learning Diploma Course in Botanical Art which a major innovation in botanical art education when it started.

As a result, the SBA created the award of a "Certificate of Botanical Merit" in order to:

highlight the importance of drawings and paintings which are created in a botanical style - including some which observe the very precise niceties of scientific botanical illustration
for those botanical artworks in the exhibition which are particularly noteworthy in this respect.

Examples of the coursework by recent graduates of the SBA Distance Learning Diploma Course are on display within Plantae 2023

The selection process

Recipients of a Certificate of Botanical Merit are ALWAYS selected every year by a wholly independent Judge who is well qualified in terms of their botanical / horticultural knowledge.

In recent years that person has been Lucy T. Smith GM BVA MVA

Lucy is a very experienced and multi award-winning professional botanical illustrator who produces botanical illustrations for publication by the Royal Botanic Garden at Kew. Her work has been published in numerous scientific publications.
She has won BOTH
- the very prestigious Margaret Flockton Award in 2014 and 2017 (see Second Margaret Flockton Award win for Lucy T. Smith) and
- the Jill Smythies Award for Botanical Illustration, awarded by the Linnean Society of London in 2004 .
She also works as a botanical art tutor at Kew and elsewhere.

When judging the artwork for CBMs, Lucy is not looking for a presentation along the lines of a strict scientific botanical illustration brief. Rather she's looking for whether an image fulfils the brief of describing the plant accurately and well.

Lucy T. Smith with her painting of the Victoria amazonica leaf - photographed at "The Wonderful World of Water Plants" Exhibition at Kew (2023)

The Certificates of Botanical Merit in 2023

Below artists are listed in alphabetical order of their surname - with the image of the artwork getting a Certificate of Botanical Art above and a profile of the artist below. Links in the artist's name go to their website.

Autumn Hedgerow by Christina Hart-Davies GM (1984, 1986, 1988, 1992, 2018) SBAF

Autumn Hedgerow (51) by Christina Hart Davies

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SBA's Plantae 2023: Exhibiting Excellence Awards

19/5/2023

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The Exhibiting Excellence Awards at the Society of Botanical Artists' Annual Exhibition were introduced by SBA Council to highlight

excellent artworks in different media or
excellent artwork in relation to colour or composition.

The recipient receives a very attractive Certificate of Exhibiting Excellence for their work to frame and hang on their studio wall.

Below I provide:

an image of the artwork winning the award
a profile of the artist based on available information online.

(TIP: Always sort out your online presence and profile BEFORE you exhibit at a major exhibition and win a prize!)

I've chosen an image below for the Introduction of the two artworks which got an award for Exhibiting Excellent in Dry Media (Graphite) - hung next to one another.

They demonstrate what is possible.
The one (on the left) is by a recent graduate of the DLDC who is a first time exhibitor this year.
The other (on the right) is by a very experienced and very accomplished long time member who always draws in graphite.
That's the story of this exhibition..... (see Review: Plantae 23 - Annual Exhibition of the Society of Botanical Artists)

Two Botanical Drawings in Graphite received Exhibiting Excellence Awards - one by a first time exhibitor and one by a long time member

Plantae 2023 Exhibiting Excellence Awards

The EXHIBITING EXCELLENCE at Plantae 2023 cover a variety of differentiating factors:

inspiring use of colour
innovation in composition
depiction of wild flora
contemporary botanical art
use of media:
- dry media (graphite)
- dry media(coloured pencils)
- wet media- watercolour
- wet media - oils
- wet media - ink
- artists chosen media

The numbers after the title of the artwork below refer to the number in the Catalogue for Plantae 2023.

Exhibiting Excellence: Colour & Composition

There were two awards for colour and one for composition.

EXHIBITING EXCELLENCE: Canna Lily (102) by Janice Gazetas

Inspiring Use of Colour
Canna Lily (102) by Janice Gazetas
(watercolour on paper)

Janice Gazetas BSc (hons) PGCE SBA Fellow has always loved drawing and painting. Born in 1951 and brought up in Lincolnshire. She studied Botany and Zoology at University before training to be a teacher. She has worked as a Research Scientist and after having two children, trained as a teacher. got her PGCE and specialising as a science teacher in a Primary School. Like many, she returned to painting only after she retired. She became a Fellow of the SBA in 2019.

I am interested in the complex and unexpected, both in structure and colour.

She has exhibited previously with the Society of Botanical Artists, the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour, Society of Women Artists in the UK and the Botanical Art Agency Of Korea in Korea.

What I liked about her Canna is that it very much reminded me of those that I enjoy in the tropical Garden at Great Dixter which is a real challenge to walk through once they're full on in midsummer with the leaves twisting and turning.

Her botanical paintings are typically complex, bright and intense. However, I found one of her other paintings in the exhibition - a close cropped view of eucalyptus trees - caught my eye every time I walked past and insisted I looked at it - and yet this was relatively subdued compared to her normal botanical paintings.

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Review: Plantae 23 - Annual Exhibition of the Society of Botanical Artists

17/5/2023

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Yesterday I visited Plantae 2023 - the Annual Exhibition of the Society of Botanical Artists at the Mall Galleries to view the exhibition and to choose the winner of award I sponsor.

I'll be going back tomorrow - when it will hopefully be a little less crowded - to review again the artwork and the winners of various awards and Certificates of Botanical Merit. There will then be three more posts after this one focusing on:

Exhibiting Excellence Winners
the Certificate of Botanical Merit
The Main Award Winners (SBA and sponsors)

I'll be focusing in this review on:

what's changed
the scope and quality of the exhibition

Here are the headlines for WHAT'S CHANGED

fewer artworks on the wall
a much more botanical emphasis
more artists from international countries
more younger artists exhibiting
many more people at the Private View
what's missing this year

I'll also be highlighting throughout what I particularly noticed which won't get a mention in other posts.

I'm also going to be uploading photos I took yesterday to my BA&A Facebook Page once this review has been published - and I'll include links here once that's been done.
(Now included below)

What's different about Plantae 2023?

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The Making A Mark Award: Interview with Inês-Hermione Mulford

10/5/2023

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This is an interview with Ines-Hermione Mulford who last summer won the first Making A Mark Award for Botanical Art at Plantae 2022 - the Annual Exhibition of the Society of Botanical Artists (see Plantae 2022 - and a new Award and The Making A Mark Award for Botanical Art)

Part of the award is an interview as a blog post about her artwork. Next week Plantae 2023 opens at the Mall Galleries in London and I'll be on the lookout for the next winner!

The interview with Ines-Hermione covers:

how she became an artist
her approach to drawing and painting plantsâ€‹
about entering the exhibition and lessons learned

Plus a note about what happened next!

"Holdfast" by Ines-Hermione Mulford - 30x31cm pencil drawing on recycled paper - selected for Plantae 2023

I determined that the criteria for the award is that the winner needed to be somebody who fulfilled one or more of the following

a first time exhibitor at the exhibition who impresses
people who bring a fresh and different approach to botanical art and illustration
artwork demonstrating a genuine new perspective on how to portray habitat
artwork about plants which don't often get illustrated
drawing excellence - maybe in less used media

I knew I'd picked somebody with an unusual perspective on how to represent plants - which is why she won the award. What I didn't appreciate at the time was quite how unusual that perspective is!

Last time I saw the painting below it was hanging on the wall in Plantae 2022 in the Mall Galleries. In the Autumn of 2023 it's going to form part of a Bryophyte and Lichen Trail in the Dundee Botanic Garden!

Dwindling by Ines-Hermione Mulford - in a forest

About the artist: Ines-Hermione Mulford

â€‹Tell me about yourself. How did you get into art and why are you an artist?

â€‹I have always been creative, something nurtured by my granny with many summer holidays painting flowers in her garden in Devon from a young age, but I was also very interested in science.

When I discovered the work of Leonardo Da Vinci, I think I must have been about 9, It felt like a lightbulb moment. I wanted to be him! I wanted to paint in a way that mimicked reality, I wanted to design, engineer, study science. But growing up it became obvious that past 16 this wasnâ€™t really an option. Choosing my A-levels, and on from that university, meant I had to choose either the arts or the sciences. Something that didnâ€™t make sense to me, and to be very honest, I still donâ€™t get it, in fact I vehemently oppose strict boundaries of learning and wish we were far more interdisciplinary.

Ultimately, I chose art as it was what excited me the most and is largely due to my secondary school art teacher who was an absolute hero. Unsurprisingly I found my practice routed again, and again, in the sciences and I think my career has been very linear, albeit unconventional, since.

At Art school, Edinburgh College of Art, I found my love of classical realism, and chose the anatomy elective which was linked with the medical school there and through that found a love of medicine, that led me to surgical and medical art which is a huge part of my practice now.

I started shadowing surgeons in 2015 where I felt an affinity with their desire, and need, for highly skilled, craft-based work. I am still doing this work today, and actually went back to university to do a Masters in Social Anthropology at the University of Edinburgh to ensure that my research was ethical, something that was invaluable as I have just completed a residency with the Surgeonâ€™s Hall Museum in Edinburgh, producing paintings on the human relationship between surgeon, robot and patient in robotic surgery.
â€‹
Social Anthropology has been instrumental to developing my career as an artist as both are a looking at and a living with the world around us. They are explorations of the lived experience and the expression of humanity, the natural world and life as we know it. They are both disciplines where subjectivity and personal experience are celebrated.

A lot of my practice as an artist is project based, which feeds that desire in me to learn, and Iâ€™m currently working on two projects, one with Breast Cancer Now, a charity based in London where I am exploring the organisation as a holistic support system; the other is with the University College Dublin teaching hospital Mater Mericordial, visualising their pioneering research in digital biopsies of cancer diagnosis. But it was the robotic surgery which led my personal practice back to the wonderful world of flora.

Seeing the human body through the eyes/lens of the da vinci robot, on a macro level, made me completely rethink how I situate myself in the world. The almost abstract landscape, this alien world that was so foreign and yet part of us, was bizarre yet stunning. I began to notice similarities texture and, after further research, function, to the mosses and lichens that have fascinated me all my life.
â€‹
For me it has felt very linear, figurative art and realism drove me to study anatomy, which developed my understanding of the human body, leading me to surgery and medicine, the human body, our flesh, functions etc. which led me onto the natural world, its fascinating structures, functions, beauty and our undeniable dependence on it. My practice is interdisciplinary as I feel that art has the ability to be boundary-less, and is all the more successful for it.

About drawing and painting plants

Dwindling by InÃªs-Hermione Mulford (Wooly fringe moss with highland granite and lichen Oil on 120x120cm Backed Board

How has your experience in drawing and painting people helped you in drawing and painting plants?

Ooft difficult question! I learnt a lot through painting and drawing people, the skill-based side, so the honed skills of observation and retention, while my background in anatomy helped me to really understand what I was looking at, and not just make things up!
In an â€œartierâ€ sense I suppose, I see drawing as an encounter with something. I actually ended up writing my dissertation for my masters on how drawing in the field aids social research.

Drawing is a form of active looking that, each line leads you to see, it is the product of an encounter, while also being an encounter itself. You are in conversation with what is being observed. Whether that is a literal conversation with an individual, or metaphorical!

It is the combination of learning about the anatomy of something, in this instance taking time to really research the structure of the mosses, and then also be led by what you are actually seeing; that engagement is so important and the process of drawing itself.

What do you find appealing about drawing plants generally?

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Margaret Flockton Award 2023: Call for Entries

30/4/2023

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Two important dates in May for scientific botanical illustrators:

The deadline for entries for the 2023 Margaret Flockton Award is Sunday 21 May EST
You can start submitting entries on Monday 8 May.

What is the Margaret Flockton Award?

The Margaret Flockton Award - organised annually by the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney - commemorates the contribution Margaret Flockton (1861-1953) made to Australian scientific botanical illustration.

Every year, illustrators from around the world submit scientifically accurate drawings that accompany the published taxonomic description of a plant, clearly highlighting all of the distinctive features of the species. Original taxonomic illustrations are highly detailed black and white drawings primarily undertaken in pen and ink, pencil or digitally rendered.

You can read more about past winners on my dedicated page The Margaret Flockton Award for Excellence in Scientific Botanical Illustration

Who can enter the Margaret Flockton Award?

Entries are welcomed from all those who generate scientific illustrations of plants.

All previous winners of the Margaret Flockton Award are eligible to enter, EXCLUDING the 2020, 2021 AND 2022 first prize winning artists.

Typically, the people who submit illustrations for this award - and win awards are professional botanical illustrators / people who produce scientific botanical illustrations for botanical gardens and botanists on a regular basis. However they' are NOT the only people who enter.

Enthusiastic botanical illustrators ALSO make up at least half the entries

this competition is NOT limited to those who generate income producing scientific botanical illustrations
scientific illustration entries from a wider group are always welcomed.

What can you enter?

The page relating to the Award includes a Guide to Scientific Botanical Illustrations - which I recommend you read before processing any further.

All illustrations MUST have been have been produced in the last two years i.e. after May 2021
Each artist may submit up to two illustrations. If you'd like to see the standard of work submitted you can view the 2020 Flickr Gallery for the Margaret Flockton Award 2020
Only full plate illustrations will be accepted (inclusive of habit study and diagnostic features of the species).
- There are very precise dimensions for the images you can submit
- Inclusion of scale bars, whilst not compulsory, is highly recommended.
Illustrations MUST be MONOCHROMATIC (i.e. not coloured - see above)
- EITHER black and white illustrations (for example created using pen and ink, graphite or scraperboard)
- AND/OR monochromatic, digitally rendered illustrations
- either published or unpublished
The illustration should include a small legend
- with plant name and all lettered components
- neatly written or typed at the bottom of the artwork
- outside of the image area
All illustration MUST be 100% of original artwork size
- the image area MUST be:
  - no larger than A3 (295 mm x 420 mm) and
  - no smaller than (180 x 250 mm), EXCLUDING legend.
  - Illustrations outside of these parameters will not be accepted.
- The digital canvas size may only be longer than A3 to allow for the legend.
All illustrations must be intended for 2D printed output.
- Animated or 3D rendered works or images dependent on digital viewing, as well as photos and photo montage works, are NOT eligible for submission.
- Eligible entries may be printed at 67% of original size to assess reproducibility at judging.
High resolution digital images of the each illustration MUST NOT exceed 200MB

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