NEWS about Botanical Art and for Botanical Artists

An interview with Susannah Blaxill

30/10/2016

I've come across an interview with Susannah Blaxill, the renowned Australian botanical artist who painted that beetroot! (which I wrote about earlier this year - see Susannah Blaxill's beetroot and a magnifying glass)

I found the interview today as a link on her website. I found it an absolutely fascinating and learned a lot - I hope you do too. You can also find Susannah writing about her art on her website

The interview between Susannah Blaxill and Zoneone Arts covers the following topics

composition and cropping - which she spends a lot of time on before she starts

There is nothing worse than discovering that something is not right when 50%, or even worse 90% of the painting is completed. It is actually a waste of time to rush this early stage.

group compositions
creating wonder using the very simple - such as a beetroot!
developing an international audience
the boundaries between art and science for botanical art
the differences between the UK and Australian markets
her relationship with Kew Gardens and Shirley Sherwood
her approach to teaching

I have found over the years that it is more important to give students information and skills that they can build on rather than attempting to encourage them to produce finished paintings.

how important the life cycle is to her work
thoughts on perfection and imperfection
the pleasure of drawing onion skin

I think that drawing and painting onion skin gives me more pleasure than almost anything else.

her use of charcoal for drawing plants
discovering colour combinations
the best places to buy subjects for art rather than meals
her use of white and black backgrounds
why imperfection can be beautiful

To depict in art the richness of an older face with all the signs of age is so much more interesting than the perfection of the skin of a super model. It is the same with plants – the dying leaves of the pear tree gives the artist so much more scope to explore the ravages of time.

how subject matter sometimes happens accidentally
the benefits of working in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales

NOTE: Zoneone Arts aims to is to provide online interviews that showcase the full range of contemporary arts and crafts happening in Australia and across the world.

You can find out more about other contemporary Australian botanical artists on my website.

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Selected Artists for Hunt 15th International Exhibition

27/10/2016

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The 15th International Exhibition of Botanical Art & Illustration at the Hunt Instutute of Botanical Documentation includes 43 artworks by 43 artists who are citizens of 15 countries.

Below you can find the names of the artists organised by country - with links to their websites embedded in their names - plus a brief comment about the artist.

Image: Soft Tree Fern, Dicksonia antarctica [Dicksonia antarctica Labillardière, Dicksoniaceae], watercolor on paper by Laurie Andrews (1936–), 2008, 76.5 x 56.5 cm, HI Art accession no. 8078, reproduced by permission of the artist.

Venue: 5th floor of the Hunt Library building at Carnegie Mellon University
Dates: 15th September - 15th December 2016
Opening Hours: Monday–Friday, 9 a.m.–noon and 1–5 p.m.; Sunday, 1–4 p.m. (except 20 November and 24–27 November). However hours of operation are occasionally subject to change, so you're advise to call or email before your visit to confirm. For further information, contact the Hunt Institute at 412-268-2434.
Admission: Free

Selected Artists

Below are the names of the artists whose work has been selected for this prestigious exhibition PLUS:

Links embedded in their names go their website or another site which tells us something about their work.
I've added a brief commentary where possible

Photograph of some of the artists selected for the 15th International Exhibition of Botanical Art and Illustration at the Hunt Institute's Opening Reception. Photo courtesy of Fiona Strickland.

Back row (left to right): Lugene B. Bruno, Curator of Art at the Hunt, Carrie Roy (Curator Assistant), Heidi Snyder, Dolores Diaz, Hye Woo Shin, Lauren Sahu-Khan (two people with heads turned away), Seung-Hyun Yi.

Front row: (left to right) Mariko Ikeda, Eunike Nugroho, Silvana Volpato, Robert McNeill, Constance (Connie) Scanlon, Carrie Di Costanzo, Jenny Hyde Johnson, Hideo Horikoshi,

(Many thanks to Eunike, Fiona and others who provided help with the names!)

Botanical artists and illustrators by country

Australia

Laurie Andrews - her painting of a Dicksonia Tree Fern is the image being used for this exhibition's marketing.
Helen Burrows - A professional graphic designer and educator. Her botanical watercolours are represented in important and/or prestigious public collections around the world. She is also a a member of the Florilegium Society of the Sydney Botanic Gardens
Jean Dennis - Her current passion is the documentation of the entire Brachychiton genus of trees and large shrubs (including includes Bottle and Flame trees) native to Australia, and New Guinea. She travels widely in Australia’s remote areas to paint and catalogue the rare plants.
Pauline Dewar - Winner of the $5,000 Margaret Flockton Award in 2016 (see Pauline Dewar wins Margaret Flockton Award 2016)
Anne Hayes - Became interested in botanical art after after attending the annual show of the Society for Growing Australian Plants in 2010. She is a Artist, Painter, Illustrator and Designer specialising in botanical subjects.
Angela Lober - Has exhibited widely and has work in the Shirley Sherwood Collection and Isaac M Sutton collection
Lauren Sahu-Khan - She has a first class degree in Natural History Illustration and excels at graphite drawing as well as painting botanical subjects
Sandra Sanger GM (2010, 2013, 2016) - exhibits widely in Australia - including 'Botanica' and the Margaret Flockton Award. She has won three RHS Gold Medals

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Society of Botanical Artists' 4th exhibition at Palmengarten opens today

21/10/2016

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The Society of Botanical Artists is again exhibiting at the Palmengarten in Frankfurt as it has in the past - on a biennial basis. Their fourth exhibition opens today (21st of October 2016) and continues until the 20th November, from 11am to 5pm.

If you are unable to visit, you can see what it looks like online in a slideshow presentation on the SBA's Facebook Page.
If you can visit I have a detailed listing on the European Exhibitions page on this website.

The theme for this year's exhibition is based on plants found by plant hunters and collectors, past and present. This year the exhibition will contain contemporary artwork by members of the SBA and a selection of historical artwork and plant illustrations on loan - mainly from the late 18th and early 19th century.

It goes without saying - but I will(!) - that the Society of Botanical Artists have a fabulous team of volunteers (both members and significant others) and a well oiled process for delivering the artwork and getting it all set up and looking great in time for the preview!

It's an essential component of any botanical art exhibition which aims to operate at a professional level and this one looks great! I only wish I were able to see it in person.

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Fiona Strickland exhibition at Park Walk Gallery

20/10/2016

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View of "The Vital Moment" Exhibition

Fiona Strickland's first solo show The Vital Moment at Jonathan Cooper's Park Walk Gallery in Chelsea opens to the public today (20th October) and continues until 12 November 2016.

I visited yesterday afternoon and had a close look at the paintings on display. You can see images and details of the paintings by clicking The Vital Moment link above.

Fiona's very fine botanical paintings in watercolour are painted on either Fabriano Artistico or Kelmscott Vellum. I've only seen her large works before and it was interesting to see her new range of smaller works done on vellum - two of which I particularly liked. So much so I kept going back for another look at Almost Over and Open Absalom.

The majority of paintings feature tulips at different stages. However the exhibition also includes an Iris, a Hippeastrum, autumn leaves and notably the amazing painting of a Rhododendron which won the top prize at last year's 18th International Exhibition by the American Society of Botanical Artists in New York. (see Fiona Strickland wins The Hort's "Best in Show" Award at 18th Annual International)

Below is a slideshow of images in the exhibition which give you a sense of the relative size of some of the paintings. (Click the 'play' button).

I was very impressed by the presentation of the paintings and their walnut frames.

The vellum has been gallery wrapped which gives it the appearance of a an oil painting. The watercolour paper is not matted and rather than being float mounted it is very flat and I suspect is dry mounted. It certainly looks very contemporary and unlike the traditional presentation of watercolours.

Both paintings and their presentation are obviously appealing to the collectors as five have sold before the exhibition had formally opened!

About Fiona Strickland

I've been following Fiona Strickland's amazing artwork since I saw her very first exhibition at the Society of Botanical Artists. You can read my interview with back in 2012 - see A 'Making A Mark' Profile of Fiona Strickland. This includes an explanation of her working practices.

Below you can read what the Gallery has as her bio and the background to this exhibition.

Strickland trained at the Edinburgh College of Art under Dame Elizabeth Blackadder, who instilled in her a dedication to composition and mastery of negative space that continues to inform her practise. Of equal influence in Strickland’s work is her passion for and fascination with the Golden Age of Dutch art, and a major inspiration for this exhibition is the seventeenth-century Tulip Book of Jacob Marrel, which she recently studied at the Rijksmuseum. Indeed, the tulip in its myriad of forms will be a key focus of the show, which will include many varieties grown by Strickland in her garden in Scotland, such as the English Florists’ Tulips beloved of fellow artist Rory McEwen, whose paintings Strickland first encountered while a student in Edinburgh.

About Jonathan Cooper's Park Walk Gallery

Jonathan Cooper is renowned for holding exhibitions of botanical art and has a number of leading contemporary botanical artists associated with his Park Walk Gallery in Chelsea. The other leading botanical artists are: Beverley Allen, Kate Nessler and Rosie Sanders.

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The Life and Botanical Art of Rory McEwen

16/10/2016

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Today is the 34th anniversary of the death of Rory McEwen (age 50).

Learn more about the man, his artistic practice, the timeline of his life and the botanical paintings he produced

Catalogue of the Memorial Exhibition in 1988

You are very welcome to delve into my very long webpage about About Rory McEwen

This provides:

a summary of his life and contribution to botanical art - plus a detailed timeline of his biography insofar as this relates to botanical art);
an overview of his botanical painting practices - and the vellum he left behind
the publications in which you can see his botanical paintings - some of which are catalogues for exhibitions of his work. You can buy (as I have) some of the books from dealers in old books which are out of print.
a comprehensive list of his art exhibitions
an overview of the three key exhibitions - True Facts from Nature (1974) - said to be one of the most pivotal exhibitions of botanical art; and the two retrospective exhibitions after his death: Rory McEwen - The Botanical Paintings (1988) and Rory McEwen - The Colours of Reality (2013) - and associated publications
a list of individual paintings - and when they were exhibited
a summary of the series he developed
links to more information about Rory McEwen.

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NEW PAGE: Hunt International Exhibitions of Botanical Art & Illustration

12/10/2016

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I have a NEW WEBSITE PAGE about the Hunt International Exhibitions of Botanical Art & Illustration which I've been working on for some time.

It lists:

all the exhibitions to date (1964-2016) - with the dates, number of artworks, number of participating artists and how many countries were represented
a commentary on the exhibition metrics
note about how to obtain an exhibition catalogue

PLUS

an alphabetical list of ALL the artists who have exhibited in a Hunt International Exhibition in the last 15 years BY COUNTRY (This is what took the time!) That's from the 10th (in 2001) to the 15th (in 2016).

What this means is that rather than listing the artists by exhibition, they are listed by where they live (or lived at the time of the exhibition - a few have since moved).

This means you can see which countries have done well in terms of artists having paintings or illustrations or fine art prints accepted for exhibitions in the Hunt in recent years

The top five countries in the 6 exhibitions held in the last 15 years are:

USA - 100 artists
UK (England) - 85 artists
Japan - 57 artists
Australia - 36 artists
Italy - 14 artists

Now does that list surprise you?. I guessed the first four places correctly and wasn't sure which would come fifth!

I'm going to be using the listing of artists who've exhibited at the Hunt along with the listings of RHS Gold Medal Winners as another key source for developing my lists of important contemporary botanical artists and illustrators by continent.

If you've not explored these as yet, I have pages on my website which list the important contemporary botanical artists and illustrators (with a short bio and a link to their website)

I certainly don't have everybody listed as yet who should be! I'm working my way around the world, adding me people in gradually over time. (I'm about to start a major update of the Japanese section).

This new list of people who have recently exhibited at the Hunt is going to help a lot!

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Basilius Besler and the Hortus Eystettensis

11/10/2016

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I recently transferred to this website a page about Basilius Besler and his development of the iconic Hortus Eystettensis - see About Basilius Besler (1561-1629).

Plate: 79 of the Hortus Eystettensis - Late white tulip, Golden garlic, Mountain garlic

Unlike most people I'm covering in botanical art history, Besler was NOT a botanical artist. Hhe was responsible for the development of a very important book - the Hortus Eystettensis published in 1613 - rather than the artist who created the illustrations for its pages.

The book is a florilegium and records the creation of all the known plants grown in the first botanical garden in Germany - created for the prince bishop of Eichstatt in Bavaria - and the only one at the time outside Italy.

It is one of the most famous books about plants ever recorded on paper and contains more than 1,000 flowers from 667 species. The species covered:

349 species from Germany,
209 South and Southeast European origin,
63 Asian,
9 African and
23 American species

About Basilius Besler covers:

a biography and timeline for Basilius Besler - who was a botanist, apothecary and botanical art book publisher
the structure and development of the Hortus Eystettensis
why the book about the garden is important to botanical art and
why Linnaeus rated it so highly.
where the garden at Eichstatt is and how you can visit that garden today.

plus links to further information and where you can see its botanical illustrations online.

Title Page of the "Hortus Eystettensis"

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