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This post is about who won which medal at the RHS London Botanical Art Show 2017. I've previously covered the Best Exhibit and Best Painting in RHS Botanical Art 2017 in my last post.  View over the RHS Botanical Art Show in the Lindley Hall in Westminster I'll also be writing posts in the coming days for:
How medals are assessedThe RHS included a useful exhibit of how the artwork for the exhibition is assessed. You can find a more detailed explanation in the Guidelines for the exhibition. Candidates who have been approved to exhibit must submit at least six works - preferably on a theme. You get extra marks if you illustrate a plant family. Key points are:
 RHS Gold MedalThis is probably the biggest challenge and the most difficult award to win for any botanical painter. There were nine Gold Medals in total. There may well have been more but unfortunately two previous Gold Medal winners had to pull out very late due to the serious ill-health of close family members. I'm sure that both Sansanee and Sue will be back next year and I send my very best wishes to both them and their families. Below are the botanical artists who won Gold Medals for their botanical art exhibits. It's worth remembering that assessment is based on the weakest painting on show so the entire exhibit of a minimum of six drawings or paintings has to be top-notch to get a Gold Medal. Some however have a talent for winning Gold Medals - and watch out for my comments below.  A fourth Gold Medal for Annie Hughes for 'Eucalyptus of Western Australia'
 Clematis by Kathy Pickles - her 7th gold medal Get every blog post emailed to you when you Subscribe to Botanical Art & Artists - News by Email RHS Silver Gilt MedalThese are people who have missed out on a Gold Medal for a particular reason. This can be to do with presentation - including labelling (eg one year it was getting the latin name wrong), botany, accuracy, content of exhibit, colours and the general avoidance of any areas of confusion. The artists - and exhibits - are:
 Two silver gilt exhibits seen from above - 'Metamorphosis - Lifecycle of Papaver orientale' by Vivienne Rew and 'White Flowers' by Kazumi Yoshikawa RHS Silver Medal
RHS Bronze Medal
All exhibits were awarded a medal. Previous PostsPosts about the RHS Botanical Art Show 2017 to date are as follows:
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I went to the Preview of the RHS Botanical Art Show last night. Mostly to be able to have a chat with friends because they'll be very busy for the next two days. I also wanted to be able to have a quick look around the artwork before I get seriously stuck in to my review of the show and interviews with RHS Gold Medal-winning artists. However I didn't get all the way round after I found the Best Exhibit and Best Painting - which happen to be opposite one another! (Expect big crowds in this area tomorrow and Saturday) Best Exhibit in Show 2017Some of you may recall that I said on Wednesday in Artists' Exhibits in the RHS Botanical Art Show 2017 that.... I'm always more interested in what's novel or unusual. The first one which jumped out at me was the Pandanus (Mariko Ikeda) - which I know can make for a very striking painting.  Best Exhibit in Show and a Gold Medal for Mariko Ikeda. I also said I was looking forward to seeing this exhibit. Naturally I had a big smile on my face when I saw that Mariko Ikeda had not only won a Gold Medal for her exhibit of Pandanus - she had also won the Best Exhibit in Show. Her display of Pandanus is quite simply stunning in design, technical quality - both botanical and artistic - impact and presentation. Everybody was talking about it! More of this when I do my interview with Mariko. However one thing I'd like to say now. I was very touched when talking with Mariko, when she explained how much she had found my previous reviews and posts about the RHS Botanical Show to be very helpful in her preparation for this show. This is why I do what I do...... Best Painting in ShowRight opposite Mariko is Bridget Gillespie with her exhibit of Root Vegetables: Lifecycle. It's another really splendid exhibit. I saw the first painting as I came round the corner and told myself I'd found one of the Gold Medal exhibits - and so I had. However in the middle of the exhibit is a really wonderful painting of beetroot - complete with seeds! Bridget has won two previous Gold Medals for Plums and Pears - the last one being eight years ago. We discussed how much the show has changed in the last eight years!  Bridget Gillespie - Gold Medal for 'Root Vegetables: Lifecycle' and Best Painting in Show for Beetroot Beta vulgaris Coming up in the next few days on this blog will be:
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Subscribe to Botanical Art & Artists - News by Email I now have the list of the exhibits for the RHS Botanical Art Show 2017 - to be held at the end of this week in the RHS Lindley Hall in Vincent Square London. You can find the list below my commentary on the exhibits being displayed this year. You can find our more information about the artists in RHS Botanical Art 2017 - Selected Artists. The show is open to the public 24–25th February 10am–5pm. Free Entry - no ticket required Casting my eye over the list of exhibits I see we will be viewing the usual orchids, roses and camellias as we do most years. However I'm always more interested in what's novel or unusual. The first one which jumped out at me was the Pandanus (Mariko Ikeda) - which I know can make for a very striking painting. I've got a feeling either Kew or Shirley Sherwood have one in their collections. Here's an example of what I mean.  a 19th century image of Pandanus furcatus Roxburgh by Christiaan Frederik Baede Jr (watercolour and pen and ink wash) Source: Naturalis Biodiversity Center/Wikimedia Common Another one which was going to be really interesting is Plants of the Holy Qur'an (Sue Wickison GM) - however Sue has had to pull out at the last minute mainly because I haven't got a clue what these might be but am interested to find out. I couldn't wait so started looking this up on Google and it seems they're a popular topic for academic papers! However one source says there are 22 identifiable plants belonging to seventeen plant families while another says there there are 54 ! I shall wait for Sue to pronounce on the topic however I think I might arrive armed with a list of what I think she might have painted (e.g. Olive, Fig, Pomegranate, Date Palm, Zinger and Allium). I note that we also have two lots of bamboo and I can't remember a single bamboo submission in the last 10 years! I looked up Claudine Paquin's Plants of ‘Margredi’, dry grasslands of Friuli as it sounded like a bigger project - and I was right. There's a major restoration project going on so I'm assuming the two might be connected. Shirley Slocock's Wayside Tracks and Verges appeals to me as it's not going to be cultivated flowers so much as "found" flowers. I assume these will be wild plants - but who knows? Australia
Plus a further display which will not be judged
In terms of different ways of categorising exhibits I make that:
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when you Subscribe to Botanical Art & Artists - News by Email First I have to apologise to five RHS Botanical Art Gold Medal Winners from last year:
Mea culpa. My only excuse is that I've never before had to do 13 interviews one after the other and then write them all up - besides extracting all their top tips! Then do the blog posts and the website updates. I guess I'm not surprised I forgot something but I am very sorry it was this blog post. The good news is that it is now published. My red exhibition/interview book gave up all that was required of it and my braincells remembered more bits as I finished it off! (If you see a woman clutching a red Moleskine at the RHS Botanical Art Show this week it's probably me!) See Interviews with RHS Botanical Art Gold Medallists - from the UK and Europe  Roger Reynolds with his gold-medal winning exhibit "The Tip of the Branch" There is more good news (for me). Yesterday this website exceeded 4,000 pageviews on one day for the first time. Google seems to a big fan of this website and traffic in 2016 has been very good (see chart). After nearly two years, Botanical Art and Artists is now approaching two-thirds of what Making A Mark gets after 11 years of blogging! Given that this website is now well and truly established - and doing rather well in the comparative rankings of botanical art websites - in future I will be moving virtually all botanical art blog posts to the news blog on this site.  Traffic (pageviews) since April 2015 - an upward trajectory 
Jessica Shepherd at the Private View for Leafscape at Abbott and Holder
Last night I left Leafscape, the first solo exhibition of watercolour paintings of leaves by Jess Shepherd (aka JR Shepherd), at the Abbott & Holder Gallery in London with the knowledge that she had sold 19 of the 31 watercolour paintings of leaves in the exhibition.
You can see photos of some of the paintings in this review and you can see them all on the Leafscape page on Abbott and Holder's website. For the record:
The exhibition is on at Abbott & Holder, 30 Museum Street, London WC1A 1LH until 6pm Saturday 25th February 2017. 
The preparation
The story started when Jess was an Assistant Curator at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery at Kew and spent an entire summer in 2013 with The Colours Of Reality exhibition by Rory McEwen. Rory of course painted leaves towards the end of his life.
They proved to be a huge inspiration for a botanical artist who was already interested in and painting leaves. - I remember well the Monstera, the Broccoli, the Cos and the absolutely enormous 'Green Giant" coffee arabica plant! Last year, I spent some time with Jess while she told me her plans for this major solo exhibition. I do very much remember trying to talk her out of planning to exhibit at the RHS Botanical Art Exhibition (next week) at the same time as she had this exhibition! 
Over the last year I've watched as the project to develop the paintings for the exhibition gathered apace. Followed by the crowdfunding Kickstarter initiative to develop a properly printed book/catalogue for the exhibition.
In celebration of the Leafscape exhibition, I would really like to produce a limited edition, linen bound, hard-back book that presents all of the paintings and the environmental soundtrack of all the outside sounds from where each leaf was growing at the time it was found.
Her target was £8,500 which would allow the book to be published.
However, the Kickstarter was a roaring success, she got 439 backers who pledged £24,867 to help bring this project to life - and I was one of them! As a result the hard back copies of the book had sold out before the exhibition even opened! She now has another Kickstarter going for a softback follow up of the book and the copies are limited to 500. 71 have already gone so click the pic below to go there if you're interested.
I talked to the Gallery Director last night about Jess and her Leafscape project and exhibition. He told me that they are very happy with the sales on the PV night but that these were not unexpected.
The reasons why they were very happy to back Jess and give her an exhibition were that:
What's next?
Those of us who contributed to the crowdfunding for the book will be getting our books very soon as per our commitment.
I highly recommend that anybody coming to London next week for the RHS Botanical Art Show on Friday and Saturday also make an effort to travel across to Museum Street and see this exhibition. Let it kickstart your efforts towards a solo exhibition! Look out for another blog post from me about Jessica Shepherd and how she got from behind the desk in the gallery at Kew to having a solo exhibition in a gallery in Museum Street opposite the British Museum. This summer, Jess is going to be the artist in residence at River Cottage HQ during June and July. Lots more leaves to paint there! When she finally gets to exhibit at the RHS, I just know it's going to be spectacular! If you'd like to follow Jess in future ventures see:
'Prelude to Spring: Botanical Art in Vermont' opens tomorrow in Brandon, Vermont.  Venue: Compass Music and Arts Foundation, Park Village, 333 Jones Drive (PVT), Brandon, VT 05733 Dates: February 17 - April 1, 2017 Reception: Friday, February 17 from 4-7 This is an exhibition of botanical artwork by three of Vermont's finest botanical artists who produce artwork in response to careful observation of plants and flowers. All three are members of the American Society of Botanical Artists (ASBA) and its New England chapter (NESBA).
 Blue Flag Diptych by Bobbi Angell The NEW Association of `British Botanical Artists (ABBA) today announced its Call for Entries for the UK contribution to the Worldwide Botanical Art Exhibition in 2018.
 In brief:
In Ruskin's footsteps - "Linking people to plants through botanical art" The exhibition is OPEN to:
Eligibility: Artists can enter one country’s exhibition, and that is the country of the artist’s primary residence. If an artist’s country of residence is not holding a worldwide exhibition, and the artist has some connection with the UK, the UK can invite the artist to submit an entry to the British exhibition. The Call for Entries provides all the details that artists need to know at this stage. Here's the basics of what's required
All entries will be juried by a prestigious team of professional artists, scientists and curators (to be announced at a later date). The paintings will be assessed according to:
In terms of dates there is no time to lose! If interested please note the following dates for the two stage application/submission process
For further information you can meet with representatives of ABBA at the RHS London Botanical Art Show on the 24th and 25th February. I'm just really pleased to see this exhibition get off the ground. I was involved in getting it started in the Autumn and wrote a very long brief for what needed to be done - which was an awful lot! Many congratulations are due to all those involved in making the exhibition real and finding a venue (which is really not easy in May!) I know for a fact that there must have been an awful lot of work involved to get this far. |
Botanical Art & Artists
WINTER 2023
AuthorKatherine Tyrrell writes about botanical art and artists and has followers all over the world. You can also find her at linktr.ee BAA Visitors so far....Subscribe to BAA NewsBlog posts are emailed to you when you SUBSCRIBE to "Botanical Art and Artists - News" by Email
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