NEWS about Botanical Art and for Botanical Artists

Review: Plantae 2020

28/6/2020

I confess! First - after the mammoth effort of compiling my last post Plantae 2020: Selected Artists about the ONLINE Plantae 2020 Exhibition by the Society of Botanical Artists, I wasn't rushing back to do my review post! Next - in general I find it a lot easier to do a review of the entire exhibition when I can view it in its entirety on a wall in an art gallery. Themes for discussion then pop out at me very quickly when looking at art in person rather than on a screen! Which goes some way to explain the delay.

Nevertheless, when I was reviewing all the selected artists and their artwork, I did pick out

some themes I thought worth highlighting
some artworks to discuss

This is a very long post - I'd go and get a nice drink and a comfy seat before you start reading!

All the links in the images go to the original web page (now removed as the exhibition has closed online).

For more about the exhibition see my previous posts

What follows covers

an overview of the exhibition
highlights artwork I liked,
some scope for improvement and
issues which I think prompt serious questions - in my opinion.

Overview

Perhaps the most important point is I really miss seeing proper botanical artwork in a proper gallery! Even if it is lovely to have a record to look back at online. I'm already looking forward to post pandemic exhibitions.

I do wish I'd been able to see this exhibition properly. However I also think the SBA did a very good job of providing us ALL with something to view.

VIEWED BY THE MOST PEOPLE EVER!

One of the MAJOR bonuses of Plantae 2020 the Society of Botanical Artists Annual Exhibition Plantae going online is that this year's annual exhibition has been seen by the most people EVER!

Certainly it's been seen by very many more people who have never ever seen any of the SBA's annual exhibitions before - although some may have seen my blog posts!

I can only think this will stimulate more interest in the SBA - and more interest in exhibiting with the SBA in future years - particularly if the online virtual exhibition continues.

some of the artwork in Plantae 2020

LOTS MORE INTERNATIONAL ARTISTS
SBA is to be congratulated on developing a very international exhibition of contemporary botanical art. There are many more international artists exhibiting in this year's show than ever before - totalling some 20% of the exhibiting artists.

What is also interesting is that MANY exhibits are by artists (of any nationality) who are NEW to exhibiting with SBA - which was also pleasing to see. Hopefully this is a trend which will continue.

I didn't manage to identify everybody's nationality - but was helped by people who came forward after my last post. While there are some very strong contingents from some countries, what is more remarkable is the range of countries with artists who submitted artwork and got selected.

The numbers from different countries are as follows:

Australia - 1
Austria - 2
Brazil - 3
Czech Republic - 1
France - 6
Germany - 3
Ireland - 4
Italy - 4
Korea - 9 (with thanks to Michelle Eunyoung Song for helping me identify the Korean artists)
Portugal - 1
Romania - 1
Russia - 2
Slovenia - 2
Spain - 1
Sweden - 2
Switzerland - 1
Ukraine - 2
UK - 157
USA - 4
Undisclosed - 15

INNOVATION AND RANGE IN MEDIA & TECHNIQUES

I particularly enjoyed seeing a much wider range of media and techniques used for creating botanical artwork. This to my mind is one of the particularly noteworthy aspects of Plantae 2020.

The liberal criteria and interpretation of botanical art used for entry to this exhibition is to my mind best used when applied very much to the nature of the media which can be used to create original botanical art. This then allows us to see the scope for innovative and contemporary botanical art.

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ABBA: Call for Entries for 'Purely Botanical'

23/6/2020

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The Association of British Botanical Artists (ABBA) have announced their Call for Entries for their next botanical art exhibition called "Purely Botanical" - and it opens for submissions today. (I was alerted to this by ABBA after publishing my last post - and they very kindly sent me the details this morning!)

As an Association of Botanical Artists our focus is on reflecting accurately the natural beauty of plants that surround us, particularly native plants.

Purely Botanical - Call for Entries

This call for entries is a bit different

This is NOT an Open Exhibition. The exhibition is only open to those who are members of the Association of British Botanical Artists. However see my note about membership below.
This is a virtual exhibition - NOT an exhibition "in a place".
This is NOT a juried exhibition - except insofar as making sure all entries relate to "botanical art"

That said, the Gallery software and presentation of their last exhibition "Winter Warmer (2019)" is excellent. I really like the way that it:

provides permanent online exhibition space on the website - with hanging space for any size of picture
each image is listed WITH an artwork title, the name of the artist and a description
it's really easy to move from one artwork to the next - in the "slideshow" format
right click is disabled - meaning images cannot be downloaded
the preamble lists all the artists and where they come from PLUS a map showing where artists live. The last exhibition included artists living across the world.
the images are excellent - and upsize to a reasonable if clicked - at which point you also access a more detailed description of the artwork
it remains online until the next online exhibition.

Entry Criteria

Who can enter:

Only Members of ABBA can submit artwork. However despite the name the website makes clear that ABBA is ....

ABBA is for every one - every where - every ability

the membership fee has been reduced significantly in the current context to £25p.a. (for which I applaud ABBA!) See the membership page for more details.

What artwork can be entered:

botanical art (I'd like to see a link to a more precise definition of "botanical art" on the ABBA website)
their preference is for plants native to your location (which makes them a bit different to other art societies who allow international entries but prefer to stipulate that entries should be relevant to the location of the organisation)
Either an existing artwork or a new piece.
The exhibition is not juried other than ensuring the work is "botanical art".
A maximum of two pieces of artwork can be submitted - of which at least one will be exhibited.

Key dates: The key dates are:

Open for Submissions: 23rd June 2020
Closing Date for Submissions: 20th September 2020
Exhibition Opens: 4th October 2020

How to submit: This is the Artwork Submission Page. You need to submit the following details plus a digital image

Title
Description
Scientific name(s) if possible
Size of your image (inside mount measure - width and height in cm)
Scale - if other than life size (i.e. 2x OR you have drawn a scale bar)
Your digital image - of "publishable quality". The technical requirements for the image to display optimally are:
- scanned ( professionally preferred) or a quality photograph
- minimum resolution of 72 dpi
- a minimum of 2500 pixels on the shortest side
- format can be .tiff or .jpg (100% or Max) .png
- a maximum file size of 10MB

An "Original" Concern
I'd recommend that ABBA always stipulate that all artists confirm that...

artwork submitted is wholly ORIGINAL (i.e. not copied in whole or part)
the sole work of the artist (i.e. not created in a class taught by another artist or done as part of an exercise in a book)
any reference photos used by the artist are also their own (i.e. taken by the artist not paid for by the artist)

It helps to avoid the wholly avoidable and potentially expensive complications with third parties - for both ABBA (as publishers) and the artist - if somebody asserts that an artwork displayed in an exhibition has infringed their copyright. It's now very much a standard requirement for most art competition and open exhibitions - precisely because this problem has occurred (again and again) in the past. I've personally known of a number of examples told to me by various art societies and/or the artists who have had their copyright infringed over 15 years of writing online about open exhibitions. I've also reported infringements to art societies! (I see and know a LOT of artwork!)

A stipulation by the organisers that all work MUST be completely original - plus an immediate takedown when notified with adequate proof - almost always performs the "get out of jail free card" function for the organisation concerned. (Not so for the artist though)

However the stipulation very often avoids the really awful experience for an art society of being notified that somebody has been very naughty - and it's there for all to see!

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ABBA: Beginner's Botany for Botanical Art

17/6/2020

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The Association of British Artists is developing a resource about Beginner's Botany for Botanical Art. This post highlights what is available.

It's part of a new series of articles and videos associated with promoting learning amongst those new to botanical art.

A still frame from the ABBA video "Three B's Episode 2 - Complex Flowers"

Elaine Allison, the new President, has produced two excellent videos which started off as a live streaming event - plus two blog posts. The focus of both is on The three B's.... Beginner - Botany-Botanical Art

You can find the videos on the BRAND NEW ABBA Channel called - ABBA for All. It's worth subscribing to this with your Google account if you want to follow what they produce.

I think it's an excellent idea. In my opinion, it's also something that more botanical art societies should do - although in order to emulate what ABBA is doing it does take

knowledge of both botany and botanical art
plus experience and expertise in both teaching and presenting on video.

Let's hope that there are some more botanical art societies out there prepared to develop similar resources.

Episode 1: Simple Flowers

There is something more important than knowing what parts of the plant are called and that is what does it really look like. This requires detailed anatomical observation. Where possible, it is really useful to see the plant growing in the wild. Get to know the habitat, location with respect to other plants and if it is the same species, how the form can change depending on where it grows.

The FIRST module focuses on simple flowers and provides a short introduction to basic descriptive botany

this is the blog post
this is the video - The 3 B's Episode 1- Simple Flowers (24 minutes) - which you also watch below. However you'll enjoy the big screen version on YouTube more.

Using a common native plant, the Geranium, the module considers

The botanical knowledge needed to produce an accurate botanical illustration
What you need to know about your plant specimen before you start drawing
Equipment that might be useful when studying the morphology of your plant
Examination of a single plant in terms of:
- scientific name
- environment in which it is found
- the genus of Geranium
- a diagram of the important parts of the plant
- an exploded diagram of the Inflorescence - with an analysis of what is shown

Episode 2: Complex Flowers

Understanding how the flower is put together is the first step in producing a great piece of artwork that is botanically accurate.

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Wuhan International Botanical Art Exhibition: Invited Artists

16/6/2020

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The Wuhan International Botanical Art Exhibition

at the Wuhan Botanic Garden in Wuhan in June 2020
exhibits 82 artworks (reproductions)
from 48 artists from China and international artists from UK, Australia, Japan, Turkey, Germany and Nepal.

It's the first International exhibition of Botanical Art and Illustration in China since the COVID 19 Pandemic started. The exhibition is organised by the Wuhan Botanical Garden, and The Chinese Academy of Science working with the Lian Centre in Beijing - which is hosting the virtual exhibition of artwork online.

The aim of the exhibition is

to recall the people's best memories about this city by inviting national and international botanical artists to paint lovely endemic plants in Wuhan

Participating Artists

CHINA

Chen Dongzhu (1) - Wisteria sinensis
Chen Menglan (1) - Rhododendron Kanehirai Wilson and Lady of Shalott
Chen Mo - (1) Phalaenopsis aphrodite Rchb.f.
Chen Xiaoyun (1) - Rose chinensis and Paris polyphylla
Chen Yujie (4) -
- Rosa 'Lv yun'
- Davidia involucrata
- Metasequoia glyptostroboides Hu et Cheng
- Rosa 'Cherry Parfait'
Du Yiping - Medinilla magnifica Lindl.
He Ruihua - Victoria regia
He Yijun (6)
- Parthenocissus tricuspidata
- Ginkgo biloba L.
- Hosta plantaginea (Lam.) Aschers
- Malus micromalus
- Chimonanthus praecox (Linn.) Link
- Camellia impressinervis Chang et S.Y. Liang

"Chimonanthus praecox (Linn.) Link" by He Yijun

Hu Dongmei (1) - Dendrboium hybrid
Jia Zhanhui (1) - Lycoris radiata
Jiang Zhengqiang (1) - Rosa Laevigata MichX.
Li Xiaodong (1) Blossom Garden with Butterfly
Liang Huiran (1) - Cerasus yedoensis and Fragaria x ananassa
â€‹Liu Bing (1) - Subsp. ovalifolia
Liu Cuiyun (1) - Rosa chinensis Jacq
Liu Linhan (3) - Actinidia chinensis Planch and Davidia involucrata Baill and Dendrobium densiflorum Lindl. ex Wall.
Liu Suxuan (1) - Cerasus serrulata
Liu Yihan (2) - Rhododendron lapponicum (L.) Wahlenb and Iris germanica
Liu Yu (1) - Rhododendron simsii Planch.
Lu Tieying - Magnolia grandiflora L
Qian Bin (2) - Viburnum propinquum Hemsl. var.mairei W. W and Viburnum sympodiale
Qing Chuanâ€‹ (1) - Papilio maackii & Lycoris radiata
Qiu Mengyun (1) - Pteris multifida
Shi Luo (1) - Cherishables
Wang Qin (2) - Metasequoia glyptostroboides Hu et Cheng and Punica granatum L.
Wang Yichen (1) - Manglietia patungensis and Actinidia chinensis
Wang Zizhong (1) - Osmanthus fragrans
Wu Qinchang (1) - Armeniaca mume Sieb.var.tortuosa T.Y.Chen et H.H.Lu
Wu Xiuzhen (5)
- Pseudolarix amabilis
- Cercidiphyllum japonicum Sieb. Et Zucc.
- Metasequoia glyptostroboides Hu et Cheng
- Torreya grandis 'Merrillii'
- Rhododendron simsii & Papilio polytes
Wu Yifan - Taxus chinensis
Xun Yiqiao - Abrus precatorius
Yan Lan (2) - Viburnum opulus var calvescens (Rehd.) Hara and Viburnum opulus Linn.
Yang Yifei (1) - Cypripedium franchetii
Ye Caihua (3)
- Daphne genkwa Sieb. et Zucc.
- Rosa laevigata MichX.
- Diospyros kaki Thunb.
Zeng Xiaolian (3)
- Chaenomeles speciosa
- Camellia azalea
- Liriodendron X sinoamericanum
Zhang Lei (1) - Actinidia
Zhang Lingling (1) - Bark
Zhao Ying (2) Dendrobium nobile and Nelumbo SP.

Camellia azalea Liriodendron X sinoamericanum by Zeng Xiaolian

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AUSTRALIA

Ro Bancroft - Fatsia japonica

GERMANY

Sylvia Peter (2) - Malus pumila Mill. and Cornus alba | Sylvia runs the Studio/Gallery Forum Botanische Kunst in Germany. She is also a member of the SociÃ©tÃ© FranÃ§aise dâ€™Illustration Botanique (SFIB) and the American Society of Botanical Artists (ASBA)

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Plantae 2020: Selected Artists

9/6/2020

These are the 221 botanical artists - mainly from the UK but also from countries all over the world - whose work has been selected for the Plantae 2020 annual exhibition of the Society of Botanical Artists - which this year is being held as a VIRTUAL exhibition online.

Names are ordered by
- country and
- then alphabetically by the surname
If you click their name you can see their artwork. (link now removed as the exhibition closed at the end of June 2020)
â€‹â€‹The number after their name is the number of artworks they have in the exhibition.
Also listed are websites and social media sites where you can see other artwork by the artist. I do this because in these challenging times, artists need support to get their artwork seen. (If I've missed any and you'd like yours added in please leave a comment or contact me)
I'm also embedding images from Instagram where available.

As you can probably guess from my website I like to know something about the artist and what they are interested in - the stories behind the art. Hence, where I can, I've also provided a brief profile although this is often inadequate.
[TIP FOR ARTISTS: Review your online sites and check whether it's possible for you to be be summed up easily in two sentences!]

A very international exhibition!

I'll be commenting on numbers in my review in the near future - but as you can see from the listing below around 20% of the artists came from countries outside the UK - with a number of countries being represented for the first time - which is good news.

I'm sure very many artists would be very pleased if you visited their websites or social media accounts as well as looking at the art in the exhibition.

PS Sorry this has taken so very long to do - I've been working on it every day since Thursday - but there's only so much I can do while searching for profile info and associated sites before I go cross-eyed!!â€‹

United Kingdom
â€‹

Jacqueline Allwood (1) - a glass artist who produces engraved glass Website: www.jacqueline-allwood.com
Charlotte Ambler (1) - a self-taught floral artist from Derbyshire Website: www.charlotteamblerart.co.uk | Instagram: @charlotteamblerart | Facebook: @charlotteamblerartâ€‹

Karen Bailey (2) SBA Fellow who at the RHS Botanical Art Show 2019 was awarded a Silver-Gilt for her Gentian paintings. She's displaying a Gentian on vellum and an Acanthus
â€‹â€‹Sonja Beer (1) - Has lived and worked in Wales for the last 20 years. She works from life in natural light only using in watercolour and graphite | website https://www.sonjabeer.com/ | Facebook https://www.facebook.com/sonjabeer.art
Sophie Bigmore (2) Based in London and currently studying at Central St Martin's. Produces complex hand-cut linocuts with botanical subjects using oil based ink. I'm definitely interested! Where's the prices? - Instagram @sophiebprints/

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Sophie Bigmore (@sophiebprints) on Nov 4, 2019 at 5:10am PST

View this post on Instagram

These two paintings were selected for this yearâ€™s upcoming Society of Botanical Artists exhibition, which will happily now be going ahead online from Wednesday (3rd June). Always an honour to have work in this renowned show. www.soc-botanical-artists.org

A post shared by Victoria Braithwaite (@victotororex) on Jun 1, 2020 at 9:57am PDT

Victoria Braithwaite (2) - Scottish botanical artist who exhibits with the SBA and the SSBA. Has also been selected to exhibit in the Royal Scottish Academy Open Exhibition, Edinburgh and the Sunday Times Watercolour Competition. Has a painting in the Shirley Sherwood collection. | Website https://victoriabraithwaite.co.uk/ | Facebook originalbotanicals/ | Instagram @victotororex/ (see above)
Sandra Fernandez Boys (1) - A professional natural history illustrator who includes botanical in her portfolio. Attended Royal College of Art, 1983-86 obtaining an MA in Natural History Illustration. Her painting is more of a still life than conventional botanical art but very attractive none the less. Website: http://www.sandrafernandez.co.uk/index.html
Marie Burke (1) - a watercolour artist living and working in Somerset. She licenses her paintings for commercial uses. Her peony painting is large and has some sculptural qualities | website https://www.marieburke-art.com

Botanical Art Education: planning considerations re. coronavirus

4/6/2020

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Botanical art teachers have been asking me for my advice in recent days about things they need to think about when planning for future courses / workshops / tuition for students of botanical art and illustration.

This post follows on from my previous posts about:

BELOW is a summary of the advice I have offered and have to offer about:

what are the best options
what's the best timescale for starting up again.

[Today's planned post about selected artists re Plantae 2020 is taking longer than anticipated - hence this replacement!]

photograph courtesy of Fiona Strickland

RISK FACTORS

The one thing that is certain is that the virus is not going away any time soon.
All that is happening right now is that the reproduction rate is being cut - but a very small percentage of the community has been infected and the virus is still in the community.

Other than that we know that:

the coronavirus is still not fully understood
it's clear that some underlying conditions pose more risk for some people - covering both teachers and students
there is no vaccine
we have not yet reached the stage where we know if some people are immune (or not)
some people are super-spreaders - and this tends to happen in the context of group activities
obviously risk varies depending on where you live.

Bottom line it's still dangerous - particularly for older students of botanical art.

I doubt if any sensible person would book and attend courses unless you can demonstrate in an explicit way what you are doing to keep people safe.

Overall, I think most botanical art teachers need to consider that special arrangements may need to prevail for a year or more. It could be longer - but we just don't know at this stage.

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS

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SBA's VIRTUAL Online Annual Exhibition opens

3/6/2020

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The Society of Botanical Artists's Annual Exhibition - Plantae 2020 - is now ONLINE and open for viewing. I think this virtual exhibition is probably the biggest ever exhibition of botanical artwork ever!

I'll be doing

a post about the selected artists tomorrow and
a review of the exhibition on Friday - by which time I'll have viewed all the images.

Plantae 2020 comprises 426 artworks - paintings, drawings, fine art prints, and 3D work - by 221 artists. Content is very varied as always with previous SBA Exhibitions. (You can find my blog posts about previous SBA exhibitions on this page). I think it's a terrific achievement by both artists and the SBA Officers - everything works really well and I love the alternative ways of viewing the exhibition!

The Online Exhibition comprises the images submitted for the selection process. As such they were never intended for an online exhibition and we need to appreciate that not everybody is the best digital image-maker - but that doesn't mean to say they are not a good botanical artist.

Here's how to view the images ONLINE in one of the three ways you can choose to view.

If you View by Artwork - it starts a slideshow of all the 426 images in the exhibiton (+ music!)

This is Rosa 'Comte de Champagne' by Janie Pirie which was selected as the featured artwork for Plantae 2020.

If you View by Thumbnails - you can choose which artwork you want to look at. There are 11 pages of thumbnails on my screen. This is what one page of thumbnails looks like.

If you View by Artist - you can see all the entries by one artist.
Below is a great set of paintings by Julia Asenbaum from Scotland.

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Art is for sale

You can enquire if artwork is for sale.

If it is then you purchase direct from the artist - and all transactions should comply with all relevant ecommerce / online / distance selling law and regulations in the UK (the link is to my page on this topic)
SBA passes on the enquiry to the artist but is taking no commission on sales - which means this benefits the artist more than usual in these challenging times.

I'd have liked to see an online catalogue or basic price list on the website for the exhibition. The practical reason for this is that, for the most part, I find that no price means people don't ask whereas a price in an exhibition seems to start to stimulate the buying urges and the queries start!

DON'T FORGET - more about the exhibition tomorrow and Friday
- but you can start viewing Plantae 2020 right now
You can subscribe to this blog if you want my blog post delivered to your inbox (see above)

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