NEWS about Botanical Art and for Botanical Artists

The Getty and the 'Mira Calligraphiae Monumenta'

22/8/2015

Many contemporary botanical artists draw inspiration from botanical paintings and drawings completed hundreds of years ago.

The Getty Iris, the online magazine of the Getty Museum, has an article titled Botanical Art Inspired by Renaissance Illuminations. The article focuses on the art of Denise Walser-Kolar who paints in watercolour and gouache on vellum and who was inspired by the Mira Calligraphiae Monumenta - a 16th Calligraphic Manuscript inscribed by Georg Bocskay and illuminated by Joris Hoefnagel.

The book was devised by Georg Bocskay to demonstrate his technical mastery of various calligraphic scripts and writing styles. Fifteen years after his death, illuminations were added to the model book by the Flemish miniaturist and imperial court artist Joris Hoefnagel.

There are two copies of the Mira Calligraphiae Monumenta in existence and the one owned by the Getty is illuminated with botanical images.

You can read more about it and see images from the Mira Calligraphiae Monumenta (Model Book of Calligraphy) - the publication which inspired this art - on the the Getty Museum website.

Pages from the 16th century "Mira calligraphiae monumenta" owned by The Getty Museum. Scripts by the calligrapher Georg Bocska and illuminations by Joris Hoefnagel.

You can also download

a copy of a 1992 book about the Mira Calligraphiae Monumenta
images for free under their open access programme.

You can also see more of Hoefnagel's drawings of botanical and nature subjects on the website of the Fine Art Museums of San Francisco - which also has an excellent biography of his life and contribution to art.
Hoefnagel was known as

He was the last important Flemish manuscript illustrator and one of the earliest still-life artists.
Fine Art Museums of San Francisco

I've also added Joris Hoefnagel to the list of Past Masters - Botanical Art and Illustration in the Botanical Art History section of this website - in a new section for Flemish painters (He was born in Antwerp).

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Chelsea Porcelain: botanical art on porcelain

18/8/2015

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Those who love botanical art have been known to acquire the odd piece (or dinner service!) of porcelain which includes botanical art.

I've just discovered that the Royal Collection Trust - that's the shop window for the British Monarchy - has developed a suite of porcelain bearing individual botanical designs.

It's called Chelsea Porcelain

A beautiful design incorporating all manner of colourful and intricate decorations including flowers, vegetables, insects, fruits, and berries. The pieces in this service are closely derived from the large collection of botanical porcelain acquired over a long period, beginning in 1947, by Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother.

Chelsea Porcelain by the Royal Collection Trust

Those who are interested in owning a piece can order it from the Royal Collection Trust Online Shop. It's not cheap but everything I've ever bought from the Royal Collection has been extremely well made and I'm sure this will be too.

The collection also complements the current exhibition in the Queens Gallery - Painted Paradise: the Art of the Garden (until October 11th 2015).

Bringing together paintings, botanical studies, drawings, books, manuscripts and decorative arts, the exhibition explores the changing character of the garden from the 16th to the early 20th century. It includes works by Leonardo da Vinci, Maria Sibylla Merian and Carl Fabergé, and some of the earliest and rarest surviving depictions of gardens and plants.

Links: The British Monarchy - Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother

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Leicestershire Society of Botanical Illustrators

9/8/2015

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Leicestershire Society of Botanical Illustrators - new website

Leicestershire Society of Botanical Illustrators is now online with:

a brand new website http://www.lsbi.org.uk/ - launched in June 2015

a new Facebook Page - launched in July 2015

Leicestershire Society of Botanical Illustrators - Facebook Page launched in July 2015

Plus they have an exhibition coming up - “A Medieval Cornucopia” at Leicester's Guildhall - of which more when I have the details. The Society has previously exhibited at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery, Kew Gardens, London in 2011

As yet they don't have a list of their members online on heir website but I'm sure this will come in time

Membership
The conditions of membership are as follows - and other local botanical art societies might want to make a note of the conditions with respect to continued membership and members allowed to exhibit.

Selection: Membership is by invitation only. The assessment process occurs twice a year and artists are invited to become members only after they have submitted six artworks for assessment which meet the required standard.

Continued Membership: It's very nice to see an art society making sure that its membership only comprises active members and not those who apply purely to get the signature status! Annual membership is dependent on attendance at a minimum of 10 weekly meetings during the year

Exhibiting members: Members are not allowed to exhibit with the Society until they have attended at least 20 meetings during the previous year. I think this is very sensible as , for a local botanical art society, this effectively limits the exhibiting members to those who can get to the venues used easily and means there's no scope for opting out on helping when it comes to providing help with the organisation of the exhibitions and/or stewarding!

If you are interested in joining please complete the contact form on the website.

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London's Secret Garden - a review

7/8/2015

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London's Secret Garden - the exhibition banner on the wall of the Chelsea Physic Garden in Royal Hospital Road, Chelsea

The exhibition to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Chelsea Physic Garden Florilegium Society opened to the public on Tuesday.

London's Secret Garden continues until 26th August at the Chelsea Physic Garden at 66 Royal Hospital Road, Chelsea. Admission is free with admission to the garden.

You can read my Review: 'London's Secret Garden' Exhibition at the Chelsea Physic Garden (on my main blog). It includes photographs of some of the 75 artworks by past and present members of the Florilegium Society.

Below is the panel explaining about the history of the Society - and what it has achieved in its first 20 years. May it go from strength to strength!

You can read more about Florilegia in the Art History Section and find out about the current Florilegium Societies around the World in the section about botanical art organisations.

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Exhibitions at The Shirley Sherwood Gallery - closing and opening

2/8/2015

This is about the three exhibitions about to close at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art at Kew Gardens - and the NEW exhibition which opens on 29th August 2015.

Current Exhibitions - finish 9th August

On my main blog you can find three reviews of the exhibitions which are currently on at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery at Kew Gardens - but are due to close on 9th August.

These are:

"Flowering Bulbs and Tubers" - Exhibition by the Dutch Society of Botanical Artists

You won't be able to visit the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art between 10th August 28th August inclusive as it will be closed while these exhibitions are removed and the new one is installed.

Nature's Bounty: paintings from the Shirley Sherwood Collection

The new exhibition Nature's Bounty: paintings from the Shirley Sherwood Collection will open on 29 August 2015 and continue until 31 January 2016. The Gallery is open every day 10am to 5.30pm except Mondays. From 25 October the exhibition will close at 3.45pm. The price of entry is included with the admission price to the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew.

Subject: Fruit and plants from around the world - including paintings of the development of fruit in stages which requires months of periodic observation, waiting for fruit to develop so that every stage can be illustrated.

Scope: Paintings from the Shirley Sherwood Collection plus items illustrating fruit, from Kew’s Library, Art and Archives collections.

Featuring botanical artwork by....

Susannah Blaxill (b. 1954 Australia) - who paints watercolour on both white and black backgrounds (and paper and vellum)
Brigid Edwards (b. 1940 UK) - I always think of her as the mistress of the small and perfectly formed structure
Coral Guest (b. 1955 - UK) - renowned for painting large flowers life size - however this exhibition will focus on small fruits such as the pomegranate. Coral shares her studies for paintings on her website. This is her blog.
Kate Nessler (b.1950 - USA) - Kate is renowned for painting on vellum.
Rosie Sanders (b. 1944 - UK) - who creates large and bold paintings and the images of heritage apples which filled a book. Below you can see a video about the approach Rosie used when painting her apples and creating her book.
Georg Dionysius Ehret (1708-1770) - who worked with Carl Linnaeus in 1735-6 and is famous for developing a Linnaean style of botanical illustration and producing botanical paintings for Kew.
Indian artists from the Company School (note the link is to an auction page which provides examples of the plants painted rather than examples of what will be in the exhibition)

PLUS

a selection of plates of fruit from Berthe Hoola van Nooten’s Fleurs, Fruits et Feuillages Chosis de la flore et de la pomone de l’Ile de Java. (1863 First Edition). Berthe Hoola Van Nooten was a Dutch botanical artist, born in 1817, working in Java and Southeast Asia as a plant collector and artist. NOTE: You can view a copy of the book on Botanicus
Pierre-Joseph Redouté’s Choix des Plus Belles Fleurs (You can view a copy of this book on rarebookroom.com)
Maria Sibylla Merian‘s Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium. (View images from the book on the Smithsonian website)
a small display of fruit models from Kew’s Economic Botany Collection.

This time I'll be doing the review of the exhibition soon after it opens!