NEWS about Botanical Art and for Botanical Artists

J.W. Fike's Photographic Survey of the Wild Edible Botanicals of the North American Continent

22/5/2016

From time to time I like to feature botanical photographers who aim to follow in the tradition of botanical illustration by being both accurate and informative as well as having a visual aesthetic.

Last week I added Anna Atkins (1799-1871) to the list of Past Masters. She was an English botanist who developed photography as a medium for recording images of plants. Her use of cyanotope impressions is noteworthy.

Today I want to highlight J.W. Fike (Jimmy Fike) who I've been aware of for some time.

Fike has embarked on a major and very ambitious project to record the wild edible botanicals found on the North American continent. In doing so he is having annual exhibitions around the USA of place-specific plants related to the area in which the exhibition is held.

Recording wild edible botanicals

J.W. Fike’s Photographic Survey of the Wild Edible Botanicals of the North American Continent - images from his blog highlighting his photographic technique

Fike's approach to recording wild plants is to highlight the parts which are edible in colour while rendering the rest of the plants less emphatically. It very neatly highlights the edible parts without any need for labelling. His resulting images are also reminiscent of the cynatope impressions used by the early photographers such as Anna Atkins.

Within my system the plant is excavated, arranged in the studio, photographed, then illustrated digitally in such a way as to render the edible parts in color while the remaining parts, less emphatically, read as contact prints.

Current Exhibition in California

California Poppy, 50"x28", 2015, Photographed in Miramonte, CA. Copyright J.W. Fike

The current exhibition is of J.W. Fike’s Photographic Survey of the Wild Edible Botanicals of California. It opened last week at the Art Gallery at Soka University in Aliso Viejo, CA. The exhibition focuses on wild edible plants relevant to California.

Date: 19th May 2016 - 26th August 2016 (Monday to Friday 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m - admission free.)
Location: Founders Hall Art Gallery 2nd Floor, Soka University, 1 University Drive, Aliso Viejo, CA 92656 Map and directions

Last week his exhibition earned him coverage by the Los Angeles Times with this article Haunting flowers: The eerily beautiful California botanical art of J.W. Fike

Currently, I’ve photographed over ninety plants in seven different states and plan to continue the survey until I’ve created a collection that spans the continental United States.

You can see what his exhibitions look like in reality in this post about the past exhibition at the The University of Mary Washington Galleries in 2015.

Filaree (also known as Stork's Bill), 34"x30", 2015, Photographed in Miramonte, CA. Copyright J.W. Fike

About J W Fike

Education: BA in Art from Auburn University; MFA in Photography from the Cranbrook Academy of Art under the tutelage of Carl Toth.
Employment: taught art at Wake Forest and Ohio Universities and is currently an Art Faculty Member at Estrella Mountain College in Avondale, Arizona.
Photography: His photographic work endeavors to find creative, contemporary ways to approach landscape by incorporating place, identity, ecology, and mythology.
Exhibitions: Fike's series on wild edible plants has been exhibited in various shows across the county

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VIDEO: Harvard restores its famed Glass Flowers

20/5/2016

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This is the official Harvard video of the process used to provide a complete top-to-bottom facelift to the "Ware Collection of Blaschka Glass Models of Plants" housed in The Harvard Museum of Natural History.

The models are made entirely of glass often reinforced internally with a wire support. They were made by Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka who were nineteenth century glass artists from Bohemia

The Glass Flowers will reopen to the public on Saturday, May 21, 2016.

Photo of the Glass Flowers Collection prior to the Facelift - taken by Scott Edwards

Some rights reserved

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Botanical Art Medals at the RHS Malvern Spring Festival

5/5/2016

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The RHS has announced the medals awarded to the botanical artists and illustrators exhibiting at the RHS Malvern Spring Festival Show (Thursday 5th May until Sunday 8th May 2016). You have three more days to view their work!

I'm not sure how many exhibitors there were in total but do know that this is normally a small show. This year is a bit odd as the RHS appears to be ignoring Botanical Art. It has NOT listed:

botanical art on the show's webpage.
botanical artists in the list of exhibitors
where the botanical art exhibition is within the show [I've currently got a query in to to the Royal Horticultural Society asking them for this information and will update when I've got it]
the medals awarded for botanical art in their press release

Bottom line, it's a major challenge to find out whether or not there is an exhibit at the show! I'm not sure why botanical art is being ignored by the show but it's a very great pity for all those botanical art fans living in the Midlands who might want to travel to the show. Hopefully this blog post might go some way to remedying the omission...

However, after querying the absence of information with the RHS, I was advised that the list of awards can be on the Malvern Spring Festival Awards Page on the RHS website.

So here is who won what! Links in the names are to the artists website

Silver-Gilt Medals

Jacqui Gilleland (Australia) - Western Australian Flowering Eucalypts
Jane Goodson (Dorset) - Primula auricula - a selection of hybrids
Nina Krauzewicz (Powys)- Soothing, Purgative, Poisonous - Plants from the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians

Silver Medals

Hazel Rush (Norfolk) - The Opium Poppy. Hazel was th winner of the Margaret Granger Memorial Silver Bowl at the SBA Show in 2012
Helen Ayers (Kent)- Geraniaceae: Geranium, Pelargonium, Erodium (She also won a Silver Medal at the same show in 2014)
Independent Botanical Illustration Society (South Yorkshire) - Native Trees
Sarah Jane Humphrey (Cornwall) - Cornish Coastal Plants (This is a link to her RHS Botanical Collection on her website

Cornish Coastal Plants by Sarah Jane Humphrey - awarded a Silver Medal by the RHS

I've not attended the show. The above photograph is by Sarah Jane Humphrey. She has a gallery of images of her exhibit in the exhibition on her Facebook Page (Sarah Jane Illustration). She also has some nice videos of her work.

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Flora Botanica in Dublin

3/5/2016

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Flora Botanica

This exhibition of botanical art by Irish artists will be held at the Ranelagh Arts Centre at 26 Ranelagh, Dublin 6 between 5th and 19th May 2016. (click the link to see location on a map of Dublin)

The participating botanical artists are:

Shevaun Doherty - A founder member of the ‘The Irish Society of Botanical Artists’. She won two golds and a silver medal for her work on vellum at Bloom Botanical Art in Dublin (2014, 2015). Teaches painting on vellum for the Society of Botanical Artists Diploma Course.
Patricia Jorgensen - one of Ireland’s most respected botanical artists with commissions from corporate and domestic clients in the UK, Ireland, France, Spain, Italy and the USA.
Siobhan Larkin - who won "Best in Show, Botanical Category" at Bloom 2015
Nicola Lynch Morrin - a committee member of The Water Colour Society of Ireland, a member of the Irish Society of Botanical Artists. Has exhibited widely in many group exhibitions including the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA), the Royal Ulster Academy (RUA)
Yanny Petters - She has work in a number of important collections and has been working in watercolours for at least 25 years & is a member of The Watercolour Society of Ireland and the Irish Society of Botanical Artists
Elizabeth Prendergast - a full time botanical artist for almost a decade with a clientele all over the world. She is also a founder member of ‘The Irish Society of Botanical Artists’.
Lynn Stringer - a founding member of the Irish Society of Botanical Artists who has specialised in botanical art for the last 10 years. She .lives and works in County Wicklow. Recently elected a member of the Watercolour Society

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SSBA Exhibition: "A Botanical Spring Fling"

1/5/2016

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Flyer for "A Botanical Art Spring Fling" being held by the Scottish Society of Botanical Artists at Cass Art

"A Botanical Spring Fling"

The Scottish Society of Botanical Artists ( thessba.org) has announced the venue and dates for "A Botanical Spring Fling"
its first exhibition in 2016.

Venue: Cass Art, 63-67 Queen Street Glasgow G1 3BZ
Dates: until Friday May 6th. The exhibition will be open during normal stop hours:

Today: 11am - 6pm
Monday - Wednesday and Friday: from 9am till 6pm daily
Thursday: 9am - 7pm

The exhibition will feature 30 to 40 original paintings by members of the society, all of which will be for sale.

Artists will also be present at the venue every day - demonstrating their techniques and answering any questions from visitors.

The participating artists are as follows. (Links in their names are to their websites or other online profiles)

Victoria Braithwaite
Lyn Campbell
Anne Carlaw
Anne Dana
Brenda Davies
Aileen Friis-Jorgensen
Kathleen Munro
Margaret Nicolson
Hazel Morris
Mary O'Neill
Coral Prosser
Anne Rabbitts
Elisabeth Scott
Jill Sievewright
Catherine Waterman.

The Scottish Society of Botanical Artists

The SSBA, as a Registered Charity (SC045778), is dedicated to nurturing and promoting botanical art, while respecting its traditions.

The Scottish Society of Botanical Artists (the SSBA) was formed on the 18th June 2014. The founder members are a group of enthusiastic botanical artists from a variety of backgrounds who wanted to create a botanical art Society in Scotland that would be open to all.

They achieved charitable status in the summer of 2015
They have two exhibitions prior to this one: The Inaugural exhibition – New Beginnings at Doors Open and Nature’s Bounty exhibition

They held their first AGM at the Scottish Arts Club on 19th March 2016
You can find them online as follows: Website www.thessba.org | Facebook | Twitter @thessbaorg"

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