After the presentation of Prizes and Certificates.

Young Botanical Artist Competition & Exhibition

We believe there is significant talent among the 16-25 age group with a wealth of exciting work to be uncovered. This is a crucial moment to engage with the ever-growing genre of botanical art – the scientific capacity of botanical paintings and drawings to document plants and fungi is particularly vital in contemporary society as we work to preserve our planet’s biodiversity.
The Shirley Sherwood Collection

Some statistics

“I couldn’t be more thrilled with the standard of the entries we received for our inaugural Young Botanical Artist competition and I’m grateful to my daughter-in-law Rachel Sherwood for bringing the initiative to life. It’s been fascinating to see such a broad range of responses to the competition and to have received so many entries from across the world. To see first-hand the next generation of talented botanical artists coming to the fore is enormously inspiring.”
Dr Shirley Sherwood

Prizewinners

Marianna Zych (Poland) with one of her two works in the exhibition Prunus serrula (watercolour on paper) won First Prize for the 16-18 Age Group

When I saw this Tibetan cherry tree (Prunus serrula) at the Royal Botanic
Garden Edinburgh, it shone like a metal sculpture. Unusual, saturated colours
focused the eyes of passers-by and the wavy bark and protruding elements added an even more unusual appearance. It was a difficult task to convey the brilliance, texture and unique colours of this plant but I knew I had to paint it.
​Marianna Zych

Mat Colishaw - Petrichor

“Bringing Mat Collishaw’s innovative work to the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art is hugely exciting, and this exhibition promises to be an evocative and wonderfully unique experience, unlike anything we’ve ever seen in the gallery before. Drawing inspiration from the natural world and the tradition of botanical art, Mat’s use of cutting-edge technology alongside the innovations of the past makes this exhibition a tantalising prospect for visitors to Kew this autumn.”
​Maria Devaney, Galleries and Exhibition Leader at RBG Kew

Botanical Art Worldwide - Basic Principles

The second Botanical Art Worldwide Project will focus on and celebrate biodiversity in the crops that have been closely associated with the human species over thousands of years. The theme is designed to draw attention to the vast variety of food and useful plants available, in contrast with the relatively few varieties currently used in mass cultivation. Plants eligible for inclusion are those cultivated for food, textiles, building, energy, and medicine

Artists around the world are working on this project to:

• - build partnerships between artists, institutions, scientists, and the public.

• - raise awareness of the worldwide renaissance in botanical art.
• - acknowledge and build upon the increasing ease of communication and connection between botanical artists wherever they might live and work.
• - increase appreciation and understanding of crop diversity around the world.
• - engage in a project to document some of the world’s diverse crop plants.

Botanical Art Worldwide in the UK (England, Wales and Northern Ireland)

Call for Entries: Botanical Art Prize 2024

Botanical Art Worldwide 2025

The second Botanical Art Worldwide Project will focus on and celebrate biodiversity in the crops that have been closely associated with the human species over thousands of years. The theme is designed to draw attention to the vast variety of food and useful plants available, in contrast with the relatively few varieties currently used in mass cultivation. Plants eligible for inclusion are those cultivated for food, textiles, building, energy, and medicine.
Currently, many heritage species and varieties are only cultivated in small quantities by specialist growers on a limited scale. It is vital to promote this genetic diversity in a world challenged by a growing population, changing climate, and habitat losses.
Botanical Art Worldwide Website

Page 21 of the Album of Chinese Watercolours of Asian Fruits

Bill Archer and his wife Mildred, an English art historian who specialized in 18th- and 19th-century art in British India, curator of Prints and Drawings at the India Office Library from 1954 to 1980, viewed this album of watercolors at Dumbarton Oaks around 1958 and determined from their style and coloring that the album was most likely painted by a Chinese artist, probably in Malaysia or Sumatra. Archer dated the manuscript to between 1798 and 1810.

"Drawn by Indian artists under English influence: probably done in India but has no relation to Chinese artists - check where Chinese were working at this time in India or possibly in Indo-China. Indian artists started this vogue of drawing. Writing is perhaps Malaysian."

Asian artists who go large.....