NEWS about Botanical Art and for Botanical Artists

Selected Artists for 'Out of the Woods'

8/10/2017

44 artworks by 39 botanical artists from 8 countries around the world will be exhibited in the Out of the Woods: Celebrating Trees in Public Gardens - The Third New York Botanical Garden Triennial - which opens on 18th November 2017.

The exhibition is organised by the American Society of Botanical Artists in liaison with the New York Botanical Garden.

The artists producing artwork selected for the exhibition are listed below - grouped according to their country. A link to their website or their gallery page on an art society is embedded in their name. (I'd also add that I much enjoyed looking at all the galleries on their websites!)

Subjects for the paintings in this exhibition are all trees in public gardens or arboreta. Each painting records the location of the tree. The artwork is in a variety of media including watercolour, oil, graphite, coloured pencil and ink.

The goal of the exhibition is to

record notable trees in public collections for the historical record and
highlight the role of botanical gardens and arboreta in educating the public about trees and their ecological and utilitarian roles, as well as their research/scholarship in these areas.

©Ingrid Finnan, Snake Branch Spruce, oil on paper, 13-1/2" x 10-1/2", New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, NY

USA

Susan Benjamin (Florida)
Karen Coleman (Virginia)
Monika deVries Gohlke (Brooklyn)
Carrie Di Costanzo (USA)
Jean Emmons (Vashon Island, Washington)
Beverly Fink (New York State)
Ingrid Finnan (USA) - see image
Deborah Friedman (California)
Ann Hoffenberg (New Jersey)
Wendy Hollender (New York State)
Claudia Lane (Chicago)
Stephanie Law (N. California)
Lucy Martin (California) - see image

©Lucy Martin, Big-leaf Maple with Mushrooms, Gouache on paper, 17" x 23", University of California Botanical Garden, Berkeley, CA

Joan McGann (Sonoran Desert, Arizona)
Linda Medved Lufkin (Minneapolis)
Julie Sims Messenger (Cape Cod)
Robin Moore
Alexandra Negoita (New York State)
Keiko Nibu-Tarver (Philadelphia)
Derek Norman (Chicago)
Betsy Rogers-Knox (Litchfield County, Connecticutt)
Sarah Roche (Cohasset, Massachusetts)
Olga Ryabtsova (California)
Mitsuko Schultz (California)
Heidi Snyder (Colorado)
Jeannetta vanRaalte (New York State)
Carol Woodin (USA)

"The Amazing World of Trees" exhibition in Bath

6/10/2017

0 Comments

Tulip Tree by Maureen Seed

Trees are the largest plants on earth and some of the oldest. Bath Society of Botanical Painters (BSBP) took on the daunting challenge of capturing their strong forms and delicate beauty for their NEW exhibition The Amazing World of Trees.

It opened yesterday in Bath - details below.

Venue: The Bath Royal Literary & Scientific Institution, Queen Square, Bath BA1 2HN
Dates: 5 - 23 October 2017 (Closed Sundays) 10am - 4pm daily

This exhibition builds on themes we have explored over recent years, and combines our passion for botanical art with an equal passion for exploring and conserving the environment. Trees play a vital role in helping to balance the world’s ecosystems: did you know that trees can communicate with other trees, ward off predators and protect their seedling offspring?

Preparing for an exhibition

In preparation for the exhibition, BSBP ran a number of workshops in different aspects of drawing and painting trees with different tutors ahead of the exhibition in order to get members attuned to the particular demands of representing a tree - given they are a subject not always pursued by all botanical artists. Sounds to me like a great way of developing skills in member artists and a great exhibition at the same time!

Exhibition event

Alan Power, Garden and Estate Manager for Stourhead and BBC Presenter, will be giving a talk entitled My Life with Trees and Theirs with Me on 13th October at 7.30. Details of how to book this event on the exhibition page of the website

Bath Society of Botanical Artists

This is a small local botanical art society based around Bath in the west of England.
Key features of this society are as follows:

all members share a passion for painting plants
many started with little or no knowledge of botanical art
members meet and paint weekly in Winsley, a small village near Bath
some members have studied for and gained a qualification in botanical art
a number of members now exhibit at the RHS in London and have been awarded been awarded Gold, Silver Gilt or Silver Medals.
You can see the names of members and view their work on the Gallery Page of their website

0 Comments

'Cannabis - A Visual Perspective' - botanical art exhibition by RMSBA at Boulder Museum

3/10/2017

0 Comments

The new exhibition "Cannabis - a Visual Perspective" exhibition by the Rocky Mountain Society of Botanical Artists (motto - "botanical art with attitude') is getting some great publicity. I think it might be breaking records!

The exhibition is in the BioLounge of the Colorado University's Boulder Museum of Natural History. It opened last month and continues until 26 January 2018 and the admission is FREE.

The aim of the exhibition is for botanical illustration to help those who see the exhibition to appreciate the diversity of the Cannabis genus. Although there's no virtual version of the exhibition by either the museum or the art society, I did come across a virtual exhibition on OnlineJuriedShows website of all the work entered for the show.

The subject for the exhibition will be the entire Cannabis genus, including all three species and seven subspecies.
Prospectus-Cannabis, a Visual Perspective

What's unique about the exhibition?

“Our vision in highlighting the cannabis plant was for this to be educational. “We just wanted to take it back to [the fact] that this is a plant – just like any of the others out in your garden. It’s nature. Let’s let the dialogue go from there.”
RMSBA president Vanessa Martin

The exhibition deserves mention and promotion for several reasons:

It's the first ever exhibition of images of the cannabis plant in the USA
It's strictly non-political and is not 'making a statement' about the plant
It's happening in a state which has legalised the use of cannabis for recreational use
It's highlighting the variation in the visual image of a cannabis plant
It helps highlight the ground-breaking research being undertaken by Colorado University to expand our knowledge of this group of flowering plants. Last year, the university received more than $830,000 to study the effects of high-potency cannabis on the brain and human behaviour. The grant was one of multiple state-funded grants to study the effects of marijuana on public health — research funded by sales of legal pot in the state.

It's great to see an exhibition which links back to the reason why people started drawing and painting plants in the first place - because of their medicinal and other useful properties (see the Herbals section of my website)

“This is the first exhibit of its kind that we know of in the United States. We really want to focus on the artistic process as well as use this as a launching point to talk about the science that’s happening on campus on this flowering species of plant.”
Suzanne Balog, Event and communications specialist at the Boulder Museum

In terms of the art in the exhibition, images have rendered in rendered in watercolour, coloured pencil, print and mixed media. Below you can see a wonderful public post on Facebook by Dorothy DePaulo. Her artwork is in coloured pencils on drafting film and measures 11 x 14 inches.

Other artwork that stood out for me (on the virtual exhibition) includes:

a solar plate etching (11x14") of Charlotte's Web Cannabis by Susan T Fisher
a watercolour and Coloured Pencil painting (18x24") of 'Cannabis indica ssp. indica Peyote Purple' by Pam Miller
a wonderful Pen and Ink drawing (11x14") of Cannabis sativa / Rio Negro, Colombia / A. Male, B. Female by Shiere Melin who did her Certificate and Diploma, Botanical Illustration at the Denver Botanic Gardens / School of Botanical Art and Illustration
an attractive watercolour painting (9x12") titled Harlequin Seduction by Terri Knok
what appears to be a pencil drawing (9x12") of Cannabis sativa Cherry by Patti Hearn
and findally, a fine watercolour painting on hemp paper (12x16") of Wild Marijuana,Cannabis sativa by Linda Powers

Cannabis isn’t a single species: It’s a genus of flowering plants with up to three species: sativa, ruderalis and indica. (Debates about how to classify the species have raged since the plant was first classified in 1753.)
Washington Post

Illustrating the challenge!

0 Comments

Kew Commemoration of Pandora Sellars at Herbarium

1/10/2017

1 Comment

On a recent visit to the The Library Reading Room in the Library, Art and Archives at Kew I came across a commemoration of the work of Pandora Sellars who died on 9th May 2017, age 80 - see below. If you get a chance to visit and look at one of her paintings I very much recommend you do.

Tribute to Pandora Sellars (1936-2017) in the Library Reading Room in the Kew Herbarium Building

This is what the Kew Tribute to Pandora Sellars says

Importantly, the commemoration recognises her role as a very important mentor to many botanical illustrators all over the world.

Pandora Sellars was renowned as one of the best painters of leaves ever - her complex compositions and values/colours are unique in the world of botanical art. She also contributed a significant number of paintings of orchids (and other plants) to Botanical Magazine publications.

REFERENCE:
You can:

read my earlier tribute to Pandora in Pandora Sellars - an appreciation of a great botanical artist (16th May 2017).
find The Kew Library Reading Room in the Herbarium building, off Kew Green, to the right of Elizabeth Gate.

1 Comment

Forward>>