NEWS about Botanical Art and for Botanical Artists

Review: RHS London Botanical Art Show

26/9/2021

I visited the RHS London Botanical Art and Photography Show last week. It felt very odd to be visiting some four days after it opened when I'm normally be there from preview night to chucking out time on the second day of the exhibition in the Lindley Hall.

However the exhibition was cancelled in 2020. It then became clear that the 2021 exhibition might not be held as planned - and a decision was taken to move it to the Saatchi Gallery in Chelsea so it was held at the same time as the Chelsea Flower Show nearby - which was being held much later in the year - in September instead of May.

I'm going to comment more about the changes in the exhibition and implications for both the art and photography show in the next post.

I've also written about:

the RHS Botanical Art Awards 2021
my Review: The RHS Botanical Photography Show AND
the Highgrove Florilegium Show - also held at the same time as the RHS Chelsea Show. See my blog post The Highgrove Florilegium on splendid display in Chelsea. I also saw this on Tuesday at The Garrison (Guards) Chapel, Chelsea Barracks (link to location on Google Maps)

THIS POST focuses on the 15 exhibits in the exhibition and my thoughts on them and their characteristics that earn them different coloured medals.

Four paintings from Francesca Ross's excellent Gold Medal winning exhibit of the development of the flower and fruits of Tomatoes

Facts about the RHS Botanical Art Show in London

First some facts.....

What's the same as usual

All exhibitors have applied to the Royal Horticultural Society to exhibit after

either a selection process to get approval to exhibit
or previously winning a medal in an exhibition.

Artists then have a period of five years to submit their artwork after gaining approval or a medal. You can read more about this on my page dedicated to RHS Botanical Art Shows.

Medals awarded for the artwork hung in the show are determined by a Panel of Judges (see #5 How botanical artwork is judged at the RHS Show on my dedicated page) who comprise experienced botanical artists, botanists and/or horticulturalists and RHS officers who aim to moderate standards across the RHS as a whole. I've known an artist in the past who found her exhibit being judged by a panel which included the UK's leading horticultural expert on her plant!

There are four types of Royal Horticultural Society Medal available for awards to exhibits. These are: Gold; Silver-Gilt; Silver and Bronze. It's not unknown for no award to be made - as has happened this year.

In general it is assumed that those approved to exhibit are ALL capable of submitting an exhibit which could at least win a silver medal.

When judging, exhibits of groups of drawings or paintings are assessed first and foremost as botanical illustration i.e. NOT just 'nice paintings of flowers'.

What you need to know about why this exhibition is different

Gallery 1 of the RHS Botanical Art Show at the Saatchi Gallery

This year there has been

a change of venue - from the RHS Lindley Hall to the Saatchi Gallery
a change of process for presenting the exhibit and hanging the show. This was based on the fact that a number of exhibitors might not be able to travel. So the Saatchi Gallery have organised framing and text label and the hang - which has not been without problems. I'll comment more on this tomorrow.
the dates of the exhibition have been extended. It's now open for three weeks until Saturday 9th October 2021

However.....

All aspects of the the display are considered, including the technical skill of the artist, the botanical and horticultural content of the picture and the nature and scale of the project as a whole. Only an artist who has excelled in all areas is awarded a Gold Medal.
Panel explaining the process in the exhibition

So, in effect, the scaled marking system for the exhibits MUST have changed this year since artists did not have control over or the final say on

how their exhibit was presented and hung and
what words accompanied it.

Of which more in the next post.

A Commentary (Part 3)

Exhibits which impressed me

Exhibits can impress at different levels:

as a unique exhibit of a type not presented before;
from a distance OR up close and with a magnifier out AND/OR both!
the content from a botanical or horticultural perspective;
the ambition of the project;
innovation e.g. new plant, new way of presenting a plant in artwork;
when you find out about the background to the exhibit - and the years / work which has gone into it.

In this instance, this last aspect will receive further comment in my final post due to the extraordinarily BRIEF narrative accompanying each exhibit. Background to an exhibit was noticeable by its almost complete and total absence.

How easy it is to tell what is an RHS Gold Medal exhibit?

ALL the Gold Medal winning exhibits stood out from the rest. Some of the reasons are:

Mainly due to the amount of botanical / horticultural content - matched by excellent artistic skills.
They also often read well as a project on the wall (i.e. never ever lose sight of what your exhibit looks like as a whole).
It's not uncommon for them to include a lot of leaves which have NOT been painted in a formulaic way using only one or two greens!

The way to develop an eye for an RHS Gold medal winning exhibit is to look at them without knowledge of the medal result - and try and work it out for yourself.

What I normally like to do when reviewing exhibits at the Preview (in the Lindley Hall) before medals have been announced (in the normal way of things) is to try and second guess which exhibits will get a Gold. My track record is about 90% correct. This time I knew some of the results before I visited the exhibition. Nevertheless I stood in the middle of the two galleries and looked around at the exhibits - without looking at the medal certificates. What proved to be very interesting this year was working out why some very impressive Silver Gilt exhibits had NOT got a Gold Medal.

RHS GOLD MEDAL EXHIBITS

Kimiko Miyahara's exhibit Endemic Plants of Japan's Ogasawara Islands, A Unesco World Heritage Site (below) was simply stunning and very worthy of a Gold Medal and the Best Botanical Art Exhibit.

She has painted six different plants in one location - thus portraying habitat / flora in the traditional botanical sense of some of the greats of the past. A number of her paintings are also identified as vulnerable on International Red Lists - so each is a botanical record in the tradition of the best botanical art i.e. creating a record of a plant which is rare or might disappear.

Her paintings are hugely complex and are also positively stuffed full of detail - but still read extremely well - see one example below. They are, for me, the type of painting which you can spend a very long time looking at.

I also really liked her somewhat stylised way of painting. I've no problems whatsoever with style so long as the painting is botanically accurate.

RHS BEST BOTANICAL ART EXHIBIT AND GOLD MEDAL: 'Endemic Plants of Japan's Ogasawara Islands, A Unesco World Heritage Site' by Kimiko Miyahara

Part of RHS Gold Medal Exhibit by Kimiko Miyahara "Clinostigma savoryanum" (Rehd. et Wills) Moore et Fosberg IUCN Red List (Vulnerable) August 2018 Watercolour on paper

When I think back to the 2021 exhibition in years to come, I think the exhibit that I will remember most - and in some detail is Francesca Ross's exhibit Tomatoes: Flower and Fruit Development.

RHS GOLD MEDAL: "Tomatoes: Flower and Fruit Development" by Francesca Ross

It' a unique exhibit - I don't think I've ever seen an exhibit about tomatoes before and certainly not one which approached the topic in this way. It positively bounced off the wall at me and shouted "GOLD!". It's also just one of those exhibits which you keep coming back to. I loved:

the development of the Tomato in size
the consistency of treatment within in each painting which lent unity to the exhibit across the six artworks - despite the differing sizes
the fact each had a profile, a top down view, dissections and a series re. flower development providing a complete botanical picture not just of each exhibit but how tomatoes have developed over time as they migrated and mutations developed.
the painting of the dissected tomatoes was splendid (see below)
the painting of the small dissections of the flowers (see below) reminded me very much of Francis Bauer's style and format. It's an excellent one to emulate.

Such a very great pity that

the text for this exhibit was edited - about which more in the next post and
two of the paintings have been hung out of order. (Francesca commented on an earlier post) I'm guessing it's the last two as I know the story of the whole exhibit is about mutations caused the tomato to grow over time - which is somewhat lost when they're not in the right order and the overarching theme is not mentioned in the text.

Francesca wrote a very good article about her previous RHS Exhibit and no doubt will do the same again for her excellent tomatoes - and the real story behind the exhibit.

Part of Solanum lycopersicum 'Gigantomo' - one of the six paintings in Francesca Ross's RHS Gold medal winning exhibit of tomatoes

0 Comments

Review: RHS London Portfolio Photography Show

25/9/2021

0 Comments

The Royal Horticultural Society used to have a Botanical Photography Show. What they now have is called a Portfolio Photography Show - and I'll comment more on what this means below.

This year the Show includes 19 exhibits - from submissions in 2020 and 2021 - in Gallery 3 - which is the smallest gallery at what's this year being called the RHS London Botanical Art and Photography Show 2021 at the Saatchi Gallery in Chelsea.

Exhibits have been awarded medals and you can read who got what in the Portfolio Photography Awards list (155kb pdf)

Those winning Gold Medals and the Best Exhibit in summary are:

Shelley Lawrence Kirkwood - ‘I’ll Follow The Sun’ - who also won Best Exhibit
Jo de Banzie - TENDER. Love letters from the Garden
Francesca Wilkinson - ‘Full Circle – Studies of Cyclamen coum and Cyclamen hederifolium’.

and you can see these three exhibits and some accompanying commentary below.

BEST EXHIBIT AND GOLD MEDAL: ‘I’ll Follow The Sun’ by Shelley Lawrence Kirkwood -

This collection of work looks closely at bits of debris and foraged plants from the Sonoran Desert and the forests and meadows of western Massachusetts — two distinct landscapes I have inhabited for most of my life. ....the objects photographed here are diminutive, their scale has been dramatically enhanced to suggest their echos within a larger system, as well as their monumental significance in my own history.

Shelley Lawrence Kirkwood work and life is divided between Arizona and New England and always been oriented around nature. Foraging has for many years, been central to her art practice. She has a Master of Fine Arts, Photography, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ and a Bachelor of Arts, Photography, Hampshire College, Amherst, MA. It shows.

I liked this exhibit and thought it both very worthy of a Gold Medal but also the Best in Show.

GOLD MEDAL: 'TENDER. Love letters from the Garden' by Jo de Banzie

Jo de Banzie has a MA Photojournalism & Documentary Photography (Distinction) from the London College of Communication (UAL) and she has a Fellowship British Institute of Professional Photographers (BIPP) and a Fellowship The Master Photographers Association (MPA). She seems to have become interested in photographing gardens.

The photographs were shot using a large format camera and the wet colloidal process.

Verges on the too much aesthetic / fine art and too little horticulture for me.

GOLD MEDAL: ‘Full Circle – Studies of Cyclamen coum and Cyclamen hederifolium’ by Francesca Wilkinson

To create her photographs, Francesca uses an improvised technique of camera-less photography using the flatbed scanner attached to her computer as a lens.

Francesca Wilkinson - ‘Full Circle – Studies of Cyclamen coum and Cyclamen hederifolium’.

Francesca graduated from the MA Photography course at the University for the Creative Arts with Distinction in 2013 as describers herself as a botanical photo artist. She's currently studying towards a BA(Hons) in Environmental Studies.

I just found it very difficult to see these plants. They look much better - and much clearer - on her website viewed using a high quality screen than they did in the Gallery the printed out. Mind you the light in the gallery is not great!

I really don't see what is improvised about her technique - it's been much used by others wanting to create images of plants and even I've used the black velvet scanning technique! Others have used a scanner for plants to much better effect.

I simply couldn't understand how you can be awarded a Gold Medal when your labels don't indicate which plant is which. She at least identified the plants in her main text - but not on the labels. However I'm suspicious that she actually doesn't know which is which - since it's not an editing issue as the website does not say either!

RHS Portfolio Photography

You'd think from the title RHS London Botanical Art and Photography Show 2021 that this was a Botanical Photography Show.

But it's NOT.

Neither is it intended to be a fine art exhibition.....

Here's my critique of the concept behind this exhibition followed by a commentary on this year's exhibition.

One wall in the exhibition which includes a bronze medal exhibit by one of last year's Gold Medal Winners - plus an exhibit which I'm not sure should have been selected for show.

Photography has always been exhibited at the RHS London Shows in the Autumn.
I've been viewing RHS Photography exhibits - alongside Botanical Illustration either literally or metaphorically - at RHS Shows for a number of years:

starting with exhibits by the likes of Clay Perry (GM 2012) in the Laurence Horticultural Hall where he won a Gold Medal at the RHS Botanical Art Show in 2012 for his suite of photographs of Heritage Fruit and Vegetables which had both a strong horticultural theme and at the same time paid homage to the still life artwork of Juan Sanchez Cotan (1561 - 1627).
continuing through the extremely innovative and highly botanical exhibits produced by Laurence Hill GM (2014, 2017, 2018) - see this page on my website - and should have had a fourth in 2015 if the Judges had read and understood the text for his extraordinary exhibit.
and others who have demonstrated techniques with different forms of photographic media and rather less with involvement with horticulture or botany.

There have been quite a few changes in organisation and nomenclature in recent years

Prior to 2018 it was referred to as the RHS Botanical Photography exhibit and it was always part of one of the RHS London Shows.
In 2017, it changed
- and became an exhibit at the Chelsea Flower Show (which made it completely inaccessible to a lot of people given the competition and expense of tickets for Chelsea)
In 2018, it was combined with the Botanical Illustration Show for a Joint Show (Plant and Art Fair 10-12 July 2018) - with photography held in the Lawrence Hall - with not a lot of visitors! Much the same as in previous years when held as part of the London Shows.)
In 2018, the Portfolio category became part of the RHS Photography Competition and was held alongside the RHS Botanical Illustration Show as part of the RHS London Art and Photography Show 2018 - with Photography in the Lawrence Hall and the art in the Lindley Hall.
In 2019, the art and photography show were held in the same hall - and all the trade / educational exhibit stands disappeared

Somewhere along this path, the emphasis has changed

from being about a horticultural society having a competition telling the story of botany and/or horticulture - through the medium of photography (with skills in the latter being a given)
to some sort of photographic competition with the botany and horticulture vey much taking a secondary role to an emphasis on photographic techniques.

I'm not sure 'Botanical Photography' per se is any sort of priority for the Royal Horticultural Society - at least if you go to its website - where absolutely nothing comes up if you put the term into the search box.

This is what the competition says it is about - in principle.

To my mind, "Portfolio Photography' seems to have morphed into a competition to provide a source of photos to keep visitors to RHS Gardens entertained and a ready supply of images for The Garden Magazine.

That might be a commercial imperative - but it would be nice to think that a Society as well endowed as the RHS doesn't need to sideline the technical botanical / horticultural issues / events / innovation in a photographic competition given these are also part and parcel of the work of people who are serious botanical photographers - rather than simply generalist magazine photographers.

Speaking personally, I don't get this and I think the emphasis is wrong.

There's any number of photographic competitions where the emphasis is on photography and the subject matter can include plants or gardens.
There are extremely few where the emphasis is on the plants or gardens with photography used to tell stories about for example:
- important heritage
- or plants winning awards of garden merit
- or innovation in the display of little known botanical or horticultural facts.

But, in reality, there's precious little of the latter in this exhibition - there's just too many 'pretty pictures' and 'conceptual art' and not enough horticulture.

0 Comments

The Highgrove Florilegium on splendid display in Chelsea

23/9/2021

3 Comments

“The Highgrove Florilegium:
Watercolours Depicting Plants Grown in The Garden at Highgrove”

Paintings are organised according to the different parts and rooms within the garden at Highgrove

After visiting the RHS London Botanical Art & Photography Show in Chelsea on Tuesday (of which more later), I walked down to Chelsea Barracks to see what I think might be the first display in London of all the paintings completed for the Highgrove Florilegium (Volumes 1 and 2) since 2009.

“The Highgrove Florilegium: Watercolours Depicting Plants Grown in The Garden at Highgrove” is only on until Sunday 26th September. It's also very easy to access for those visiting the Chelsea Show. The paintings are hung in the former Guards Chapel in the former Chelsea Barracks - now known as the Garrison Chapel - which is now owned by The Prince's Foundation Trust - hence the location of the exhibit.

I cannot recommend this exhibition too much. The quality of the paintings is excellent.
In fact, this is a much better exhibition of contemporary botanical art than the current RHS Botanical Art Show.

The Cottage Garden

To my mind, it's also a much better exhibition than the original one twelve years ago, which was in a very small space in the Garden Museum at Lambeth Palace. (See my original review of the exhibition Exhibition Review: The Highgrove Florilegium at the Garden Museum (14th July 2009)

This time there's much more focus on the paintings and much less on the book - which is nowhere to be seen!

The big bonus of this exhibition is that the space is large and the paintings have been hung according to the different "rooms" of the garden where the subject plants were located. As such, it's a much better representation of the garden at Highgrove - which, of course, is what a florilegium is intended to do.

The paintings also look excellent on the green walls and they benefit from both natural light and additional lighting but both are up high so there's some reflection but not too much.

The Kitchen Garden and The Nursery

The Highgrove Florilegium is the first Royal Florilegium in the UK. It contains botanically accurate watercolour paintings of the plants grown in the garden of Highgrove near Tetbury in Gloucestershire - which has been the country home of the Prince of Wales since 1980.

3 Comments

RHS Botanical Art Awards 2021

19/9/2021

12 Comments

This is all about who won which colour RHS Medal at the RHS Botanical Art Show 2021 at the Saatchi Gallery in Chelsea.

I'm not going to the show until next week. I'm having to limit outings with my very painful ankle and use my rollator so I can always get a seat! Maybe I'll see you there?

If you're thinking of visiting the show see my post from yesterday Botanical Art Exhibitions (Autumn 2021) in London

First, a commentary....

When I looked at the Awards and who had won what, a number of thoughts occurred

Let's not forget that this is the show which was postponed from last year. The exhibitors have had to wait 15 months to see their artwork up for inspection by the Picture Panel who judge the artwork.
the number of artist exhibitors has reduced dramatically - to 15 - and the number of photography exhibits has dramatically increased to 19. I hope this isn't going to be repeated in future years, given the amount of time and effort which goes into artwork exhibits (Not to diss the photographers - but there's few who spend as much time on their exhibits as the artists do!)
the number of countries represented in the show is much reduced - and I think travel restrictions are very likely to be at least partly responsible for this. There are no exhibitors from Australasia, Africa, Asia (outside Honk Kong and Japan - I think), Europe (except one) and South America.
the number of Gold Medals are back to a 'normal' number statistically speaking - as per a normal distribution curve. i.e. I'd commented on the huge numbers of Gold Medals in the past. I thought there were too many and wondered why. I got my answer as to why we were back to normal when I looked at the names of the exhibitors.....
Many of the exhibitors are completely NEW to the RHS Botanical Art Show. So far as I am aware there are only three previous Gold Medal winners exhibiting - and only one of those won their medal in London. There in, I think, lies the answer.
- When you have people who have won a Gold Medal before, they're more likely to win again. When you've got lots of previous Gold Medal winners coming back to exhibit again - as we had in the last show - then the numbers tend to jump. But there must come a point when you need to ensure new artists have the chance to win a Gold Medal....
- That said, two of the Gold Medals were won at Malvern. I have heard people opine in the past that it's easier to win a Gold Medal at Malvern than it is in London. Personally I think it's more likely to be related to the quality of the exhibit - however there is much less competition at Malvern - and an exhibit in London has much more 'context' for deciding the colour of medals. It's entirely possible it makes a difference.
- I'd be interested to see what might happen if those selecting artists for an exhibition introduced a rule that at least 50% in every show must be new exhibitors who meet the 'Silver Medal' standard of those applying to exhibit.
I very much like the fact we can all get to see lots of new botanical art from people who are new to the RHS Botanical Art Show. I'm left wondering how many of them are well known to others - as a number of the names are completely new to me.
Those who are repeat exhibitors are typically those previously winning a Gold or Silver Gilt Medal. It has occurred to me previously that being selected to exhibit again at the RHS Botanical Art Show may come to depend in future on the colour of the medal you win at your first outing. It provides every incentive to people to ensure that their first exhibit is an excellent one!
Finally - and this might seem an odd comment to make, but I'll make it anyway. I'm pleased to see that a normal pattern of medal awards has been reinstated at the other end of the spectrum. I'd commented in the past to Judges that I thought one exhibit didn't deserve any colour of medal - despite the fact it got a bronze. (I think the words I'd used was I doubted if it would pass muster for access to a Diploma Course). To me, the medals MUST always be judged on the actual exhibit as presented - artwork, labelling, narrative etc - and emphatically NOT on the fact that an individual has been deemed worthy of showing at the show. In other words - getting permission to exhibit should never equate to an automatic bronze medal as a minimum. For me, there are ONLY two good reasons for "no award made":
- the exhibit failed to satisfy the technical criteria for the exhibit - through no fault of the artist (this has happened in the past when one artwork was damaged in transit and hence a full set was not exhibited)
- the exhibit failed to satisfy the judges as to merit for a medal of any colour. It happens in the Show Gardens and Plant displays - and it should also happen in the Art and Photography shows.

Number of Medals

You can download the Botanical Art Awards 2021 list (138kb pdf). There are 15 artists/exhibits and 14 medals in total:

5 Gold Medals ( UK x 2; Japan x 2; Portugal x 1)
7 Silver Gilt Medals
2 Silver Medals
0 Bronze Medals
1 No Award

For the record, I'm only covering the names of those who received a medal below.

Below are the names of the medal winners - plus a short profile where I can find a website!
I'll add images in when I get back from the show. (I've got a different strategy this year due to limited time on my feet and walking!)
At present, I'm linking to pics of exhibits where I can find them online

Major Botanical Art Awards

12 Comments

Botanical Art Exhibitions (Autumn 2021) in London

16/9/2021

0 Comments

RHS | London Botanical Art and Photography Show

The RHS's London Botanical Art and Photography Show opens at the Saatchi Gallery in Chelsea on Saturday 18th September 2021.

This is the link to the exhibition page on the Saatchi Gallery website.

Features of this exhibition are that it

runs for two weeks for the first time
AND is on at the same time as the Chelsea Flower Show (21-26th September 2021)

I now understand why it was decided to try and hold it at the Saatchi Gallery. This is a hop skip and longish jump from the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea where the Chelsea Show is always held.

Participants in the 2021 show include portfolios exhibits by:

15 botanical artists and illustrators
19 botanical photographers portfolio collections

RHS Medals
The RHS medals awarded to each exhibitor - Gold, Silver Gilt, Silver or Bronze - have been announced today (Friday 17 September) and the award winners will be listed in a future blog post.

The Saatchi Gallery

Tickets

Details of booking and prices are on the Saatchi Gallery website
Admission to this ticketed show is free for Saatchi Gallery Members and RHS Members.
RHS Members only:
- Note that the code required which enables RHS members to enter for free is included in the notice about the exhibition in "Your Gardening" update from the RHS date 2nd September 2021.
- Note also that getting the code and including it your booking is NOT enough. You will also need to present your RHS membership card to gain entry.
- I found booking the ticket using the code to be confusing. You need to enter the code BEFORE you start to select date and time because the free RHS option is only generated when the code has been inserted. Be careful you select the right one!
- My recommendation - take it slow and if you need to try more than once I won't be surprised!

Sloane Square station top centre; Saatchi Gallery top left; RHS Chelsea Flower Show in the grounds of the Royal Hospital / Ranelagh Gardens bottom centre/right

The Highgrove Florilegium at The Guards Chapel, Chelsea

“The Highgrove Florilegium: Watercolours Depicting Plants Grown in The Garden at Highgrove” will also be on view to those attending the Chelsea Flower Show.

This is not an opportunity which comes along very often - so definitely one not to miss. It features:

original watercolours by Florilegium artists painted for The Highgrove Florilegium, a two-volume set of botanical prints depicting the plants, vegetables, fruit and trees grown in the garden at Highgrove.
work by 72 artists from around the world

Venue: The Garrison (Guards) Chapel, Chelsea Barracks (link to location on Google Maps)
Dates: 21st - 26th September 2021
Hours 11am - 4pm daily
Booking not required
Organisers: The Prince's Foundation
Below is a video of the gardens and the range of plants which can be found there.

Exhibitions at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery, Kew Gardens

0 Comments

Deadline for ABBA Online Exhibition is 1st September

27/8/2021

2 Comments

The deadline for entries for ‘ReflectionS’, no plants-no planet’ - the Online Exhibition by the Association of British Botanical Artists is Wednesday 1st September

BELOW is a summary of the key "need to know" points

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

The aim of the exhibition is to stimulate discussion about biodiversity and the impact of climate change using the medium of botanical art to tell a story through imagery which is visually appealing and immediately accessible to a wide audience.

This exhibition was inspired by COP26 - the United Nations Climate Change Conference due to be held in Glasgow in November 2021. COP26 has six major themes and the theme that is relevant to this exhibition is:

“ Nature - to safeguard and restore natural habitats and ecosystems to preserve the planet’s biodiversity “

The exhibition will comprise a juried and digital collection of botanical art by ABBA members that reflects the pivotal role that plants play in preserving the planet's biodiversity.

This digital exhibition will be displayed as follows:

Dates: 16th October 2021 and 27th March 2022
Viewing:
- On a large screen at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery, Kew Gardens, between - for viewing by visitors to the Gallery
- AND simultaneously exhibited in the ABBA Online Gallery on its website - for an international audience.

ABOUT THE CALL TO ENTRIES

Who can enter: Members of the Association of British Botanical Artists.

Despite the name this means entries can come from artists based anywhere in the world.
ABBA have a very reasonable subscription fee.

2 Comments

EXHIBITION: Chelsea Physic Garden - A Year in the Life

26/8/2021

0 Comments

At the start of 2020, Chelsea Physic Garden invited selected artists of the Royal Watercolour Society (RWS) and Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers (RE) to immerse themselves in the garden and then respond to the surroundings by recording a year in the life of this very important garden.

The resulting artworks would then be exhibited at Bankside Gallery - on the South Bank in central London.

Over the course of the last 18 months, the artists have researched, visited (when possible) and recorded the Garden throughout changing seasons and varying restrictions, documenting perhaps one of the most extraordinary years of the Garden’s life. The result is a compelling and vibrant display of creativity and a wonderful example of what can be achieved in the face of adversity. The exhibition is truly refreshing and uplifting; a reminder of the joys and healing powers of both art and nature

I've only just found out about this - and the exhibition is now on and finishes on 30th August - so not long to see it!

You can also see all the artworks online if you're unable to visit the Gallery.

Click an image to see more details and
then click the image again to see a larger version.

These are not botanical artworks (in the conventional sense) - but they are paintings (in various media) and fine art prints which relate to the plants and features of the Chelsea Physic Garden.

Some of those which I think will appeal to botanical artists and fans of the garden include those by:

PLANTS:

Emiko Aida RE - her etchings of white flowers on a very vivid orange background both echo conventional botanic art and provide a counterpoint to ideas of how flowers should be portayed
Mychael Barratt PPRE, RWS - who's produced a wonderful annotated map of the Garden as a hand coloured silkscreen/etching. He's an artist I would collect if I had more wall space!
Meg Dutton RE RBA has drawn several ink and watercolour artworks of the profusion of plants in the glasshouses. Some of you may be familiar with similar drawings she did of the plants in the glasshouses at Kew Gardens.

Part of the Glasshouse (ink and watercolour) by Meg Dutton RE

GARDEN:

Liz Butler RWS - several small paintings in her inimitable style demonstrating an expert watercolourist's grasp of the full tonal range
Claire Denny ARWS - five paintings in watercolour and acrylic ink of various very familiar views of the Chelsea Physic Garden
Wendy Jacob RWS - views of the garden and accurate but stylised portrayals of plants, bushes and trees
Annie Williams RWS - Annie normally paints very carefully constructed and beautiful still lifes so it's fascinating to see how she approaches painting a garden.

Watercolour paintings of Chelsea Physic Garden by Liz Butler

REFERENCE:

Bankside Gallery: 48 Hopton Street, London SE1 9JH (next to Tate Modern)
Exhibition Dates: 12-30th August 2021
Hours: 11am - 6pm
Admission: Free
Enquiries about acquiring an artwork can be made online.

Having now inspected the websites of the RWS, RE and the Chelsea Physic Garden I'm not surprised I didn't see it as it only gets a page on the Bankside Gallery website!

NOTE: If you have any queries about subscriptions to this blog please see my dedicated page about NEWS blog subscription

0 Comments

<<Previous