NEWS about Botanical Art and for Botanical Artists

Julia Trickey Talks: "Best Bits" in 2021 + Talks 2022

16/1/2022

If you've not yet booked one of the talks organised by Julia Trickey, you can now get a sample of various people who provided talks in 2021 via a Zoom link

This is the link to the Best Bits of the talks in 2021

access is FREE
the link will expire on 19th February.

Talks in 2022

Julia Trickey Talks were set up at the beginning of 2021 after a chance conversation between Julia and a fellow botanical art tutor, who had been hit financially by the Pandemic. The aim was to

support fellow professional artists,
whilst bringing their work and passion for botanical art to a wider audience.

BELOW are links to information about the talks and speakers confirmed to date for 2022.

I highly recommend them - and that's not just because I did a talk last year and am doing another one this year.

https://www.juliatrickey.co.uk/talks

The talks are diverse and more numerous in 2022 and include:

6 January: 2021 Talks: Best Bits (FREE) - Julia Trickey FREE
20 January: The Heart of Botanical Art - Mary Dillon
10 February - An Iris Field - Işik Guner
24 February: Painting for the Grootbos Florilegium, South Africa - Laura Silburn
10 March - Wild Plants on Glass - Yanny Petters
24 March: Sketchbook Studies - Lizzie Harper
21 April: Rebel Flower Painter - Jess Shepherd
5 May: Botanical Painting using Gouache - Simon Williams
19 May: Art in the time of Covid - Elaine Searle
23 June: The Herbarium Specimen Painting - Rachel Pedder-Smith
21 July: From Zero to Hero - Jarnie Godwin
15 September: Deborah Lambkin
13 October: Lucy Smith
17 November: Katherine Tyrrell
15 December: Artists Together

The way the talks work is as follows - you get

Live presentations from experienced botanical artists.
Unique insights into working practices, recent projects or favourite techniques.
Tips and techniques for your own botanical art projects.
Meet artists from the UK and beyond, from the comfort of your own home.
Interactive Q&A opportunity.
Access to the recorded talk 24 hours after the live meeting for a further 48 hours, making it accessible across all time zones.
A 25% discount, if you book more than a month in advance.

1 Comment

Oak Spring Garden Foundation: 2022 Botanical Art Residencies

9/1/2022

0 Comments

The Oak Spring Garden Foundation has announced that the two botanical artists selected for the 2022 Botanical Artists in Residence program are:

Elaine Searle (North Norfolk, UK) and
Irina Neacsu (Brasov, Transylvania, Romania)

Below you can find out more about

the Oak Spring Garden Foundation
the botanical artists in residence in 2022
the Botanical Artists in Residence Program

The Oak Spring Garden Foundation

OSGF is an operating foundation dedicated to sharing the gifts and ideas of Rachel "Bunny" Mellon. Its mission is to support and inspire fresh thinking and bold action on the history and future of plants, including the art and culture of plants, gardens and landscapes.

The Foundation was created by Bunny Mellon who was one of the richest women in the world and who died in 2014 age 103. (Learn more about Bunny Mellon)

The Foundation's collection comprises a collection of over 16,000 objects, including rare books, manuscripts, and works of art dating back to the 14th century
these mainly relate to horticulture, landscape design, botany, natural history and voyages of exploration
It's been described as one of the most compelling horticultural repositories in the nation
The foundation is open to researchers by appointment only.

Oak Spring Farm was the former home of the Mellons and comprised a 4,000-acre estate, in Upperville, Virginia. The farm has now been sold along with other items from her estate

However, her prized collection of books, manuscripts and art on plants, gardens, and landscapes is now housed in The Oak Spring Garden Library within a 263-acre estate which helps to perpetuate her memory.

About the 2022 Botanical Artists in Residence

0 Comments

Festive Greetings

25/12/2021

1 Comment

Greetings to all regular readers of Botanical Art and Artists
With my very best wishes for a Happy and Peaceful Festive Season

My neighbours have a very creative and artistic approach to Christmas. Where I live in Bow in East London, there are some absolutely fabulous Christmas wreaths made using plants, fruit (fresh and dried), seeds and cones and leaves (plus some ribbon and Christmas decorations!) - on the front doors of the houses in the Georgian and Early Victorian Terraces. Every one is different and I photograph them every festive season.

ENJOY! There's a lot of them in this album of my photos on my Making A Mark Facebook Page - which is public and available to all.

1 Comment

VIDEO: About Zeng Xiaolian and the new Art Museum named after him

15/12/2021

2 Comments

This morning I got a message telling me about a new video about Zeng Xiaolian - China's top botanical painter - and a new museum which opened this month in Kumming, which is devoted to his artworks.

It has English subtitles and commentary so is both very accessible as well as a very interesting profile of this leading botanical painter.
I recommend you watch full screen as it presents better
I'd like to draw particular attention to the pen and ink drawings in the video which are masterful in the use of lines which never overlap. It should also be noted that he paints in various media.
(Thanks to Carolyn Lim for sending me the link)

Below you can find out more about him.

Timeline for Professor Zeng Xiaolian

Professor Zeng Xiaolian has created more than 2,000 illustrations and has been published in over 50 scientific publications - including 'Flora of China'.

Professor Zeng Xiaolian - sitting in the new museum devoted to his artwork in Kumming

1939 - born in Kunming, China

1958 - he joined the Kunming Institute of Botany in Yunnan Province, under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

1958-1997 he worked as

a senior engineer of Kunming Botanical Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and as
Illustrator, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming,

He is also Former Chairman of the Botanical Scientific Illustration Society of China.

Flora of China
The enormous project, consisting of 126 volumes, records some 31,000 types of plants. It took 45 years to complete and involved the efforts of more than 300 botanists and 160 painters. Zeng said he is proud to be part of the team

Over the two decades since his retirement, he created numerous wonderful drawings of flowers and birds, which are both accurate depictions of the nature and tributes to beauty and life.

2016 - Exhibited at the 15th International at the Hunt. He has also been selected for numerous national exhibitions in China, the United States, Canada and Australia.

With his masterpiece "Journey of Chinese plants," on exhibition in the China Pavilion at the Beijing International Horticultural Expo in 2019 | Courtesy of Zeng Xiaolian

2019 - he exhibited his enormous masterpiece painting "Journey of Chinese plants," in the China Pavilion at the Beijing International Horticultural Expo. It features 37 plants which originally grew in China and then spread around the world.

September 2021 - The exhibition "One Flower, One Bird, One World" opens at Kunming Contemporary Art Museum, 1903 Triumphal Arch, Qianwei West Road Park, Xishan District, Kunming City, Yunnan Province - and continues until 5 Janury 2022. It includes more than 80 newly created works by Zeng Xiaolian on display.

December 2021 - a museum named after him is opened at the site of the 99th World Expo in Kunming.

He is currently working on a series about the rainforests in Xishuangbanna in southwest China's Yunnan Province

You can find out more about him and see more of his artwork in the following articles.
He is also listed on my page about Botanical Artists in Asia

REFERENCE:

60 Years of Blossoming Botany | Chinese Academy of Sciences
Nature in Art: Man devotes life to painting plants | CGTN
The Chinese plant Raphael, Zeng Xiaolian used the tip of a pen to outline the song of life in nature | Min.News
Visit to Botanical Art Exhibition of Prof. Zeng Xiao Lian | Science and Sustainable Development (April 2019)
Zeng Xiao Lian botanical watercolor | Art Kaleidoscope

2 Comments

NEW: Online Instruction listed by Timeline

13/12/2021

2 Comments

Today I published a NEW page on Botanical Art and Artists - TIMELINE: Online Instruction in Botanical Art & Illustration - for all students of botanical art.

This page provides a month by month TIMELINE of online instruction about botanical art and illustration which has a SPECIFIC DATE for

EITHER the start of a lengthy online course
OR delivery of a course with pre-determined dates
OR delivery of an online course on a periodic bases (eg weekly / monthly)

The page will be updated each month so that the current month is at the top and below will include all information about online courses with dates in the next 12 months.

The page currently includes information about Online Workshops and Courses delivered by certain instructors. These include:

1-2 day workshops delivered via Zoom (includes listings for Sarah Morrish and Heeyoung Kim)
online courses with periodic (eg weekly / monthly) on specific dates (includes listings for Elaine Searle and Heeyoung Kim)
annual online courses with specific start dates (includes listing for Dianne Sutherland)

INSTRUCTORS OFFERING TIME-SPECIFIC ONLINE INSTRUCTION

Sarah Morrish

Heeyoung Kim

Elaine Searle

Dianne Sutherland

Calling all ONLINE instructors and teachers

If you teach online and offer courses / workshops / mentoring opportunities on specific dates OR lengthy courses (eg annual) which have specific starting dates,

please review the new page and
let me know - using the form at the bottom of the page - if you think your information should also be included.

IMPORTANT NOTE: This page ONLY includes courses and workshops which have:

specific dates or start dates (i.e. NOT those which are available any time all year round)
information on a website which is public (i.e. NOT those which are notified only to people on a mailing list)

2 Comments

The Botanical World of Raymond Booth - exhibition at The Garden Museum

3/12/2021

4 Comments

The Botanical World of Raymond Booth opened at the Garden Museum next to Lambeth Palace in London on 1st December. It continues until 6th February 2022.

I've seen his botanical artwork - in oils - before in an exhibition at the Watts Gallery in Surrey in April 2019. I can highly recommend a visit to see his paintings despite the fact that I didn't get to see this exhibition yesterday before going into isolation today (for ankle surgery on Monday). I've been finding exhibitions in general a stretch too far of late.

You can read About Raymond Booth (1929-2015) in the dedicated page I've created on my website.

Raymond Booth was a botanical, wildlife and natural history artist of international renown who lived a reclusive life in Yorkshire and exhibited with the Fine Art Society.

I have my fingers crossed that there might be a remote chance of me being able to get to see the exhibition before it closes in February - if I'm out of my cast and in a boot by then.

If you too have problems getting to see this exhibition, you can order the very reasonably priced catalogue from the Garden Museum - which I've just done!

Cover ofthe Exhibition Catalogue

This catalogue to accompany the exhibition includes an essay by guest curator Peyton Skipwith, a fine art consultant and former Deputy Managing Director of The Fine Art Society, as well as an introduction by Garden Museum Curator Emma House and is illustrated with the full exhibition selection of Booth’s paintings.

If you want to check out more of his artwork before deciding whether or not to visit the exhibition, I suggest you check the Memorial Catalogue of his work on Issuu - it's very illuminating as to the exceptionally high quality of his paintings.

4 Comments

Winter 2021 Banner: Helleborus niger from the Gottorfer Codex

1/12/2021

2 Comments

Helleborus niger (gouache on vellum) published by Johannes Simon Holtzbecker in the Gottorfer Codex (4 volumes published 1649-1659)

I seem to be having a bit of a Gottofer Codex year when it comes to banner images for on this website's home page and Facebook Page.

The Winter banner of Helleborus niger by Johannes Simon Holtzbecker is from the Gottorfer Codex follows on from both the banners for the Spring (Citrus Lemon) and Autumn (Autumn Crocus) were by him too!

His painting of the Helleborus niger and a couple of other hellebores (hellebori?) represent for me some of the better paintings from the past of this very attractive winter plant.

Winter 2021 Banner: Helleborus niger by Hans Simon Holtzbecker

MORE ABOUT THE GOTTOFER CODEX

I'll refer you to the post I wrote back in the Spring for more about the Gottofer Codex - see Spring 2021 Banner: Citrus limon from the Gottorfer Codex.

In 2009, a digital version of the codex was created by the National Gallery of Denmark and you can VIEW a digitised version of the Gottorfer Codex on Issuu

More (online) information about the Codex and Holtzbecker

Books

Der Gottorfer Codex von Hans Simon Holtzbecker (1989) by Helga de Cuveland
'Das Moller-Florilegium: Hans Simon Holtzbeckers Blumenalbum für den Bürgermeister Barthold Moller' by Dieter Roth (ed) Munich, 2007 - is about another Florilegium produced by Holtzbecker.

2 Comments

<<Previous