British Artists in the Shirley Sherwood Collection - a review and a timeline

The "British Artists in the Shirley Sherwood Collection" exhibition at The Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art at Kew Gardens finishes on 17th September 2017. If you haven't been to see it yet I strongly recommend you do so as it includes some iconic work by British Botanical Artists.

[NOTE: Since writing this post I've had the opportunity to review it with Shirley Sherwood personally and it has now been

• UPDATED for her comments
• PLUS the number of artworks by each artist in the collection is now indicated after their name (the first time they are mentioned) if there is more than one]

L to R: 3 paintings by Rory McEwen; 6 paintings by Coral Guest and 3 paintings by Pandora Sellars

I've now seen the exhibition four times and it might seem a bit odd to be doing a review so late in the day, except I've already written about it in:

• British Artists in the Shirley Sherwood Collection - an exhibition at Kew
• British Botanical Artists - photographed with their paintings - from the evening of the Private View back in March; and 
• List of artists exhibited in 'British Artists in Shirley Sherwood Collection' - this includes all the artists plus links to their websites and a note of their artwork in the exhibition

Since I wrote these, the Gallery has also included British Artists in the Shirley Sherwood Collection.pdf (PDF)on the website -  which I urge everybody to download as this is the ONLY formal record of this exhibition (there is no catalogue). It also includes thumbnails of all the paintings in the exhibition.  

It has not been possible to hang more than a small proportion of ‘my’ British artists here as I now have 330 works by 86 painters and so I have had to be fiercely selective. 

​On my last visit I took my time and went round very slowly, looking at the artwork closely. I found that I began to detect themes within the collection which I had missed earlier.

In a way it's a story of a collection, a collector and the development of botanical art in the UK over more than a quarter of a century of collecting. 

​Hence this post is going to be something of a timeline or retrospective of the collection which started in 1990. It's by no means the story of the whole collection of British artists as this now includes 330 works by 86 painters.

There are three botanical artists in the exhibition who have an artwork on display which was acquired or commissioned in every decade to date. They are Brigid Edwards, Coral Guest and Rory McEwen - who are all members of the small group of what Dr Sherwood refers to as her 'core artists'.

This post is interspersed with comments from Dr Sherwood and listings of the artists whose work is featured in each decade.

In relation to dates:

• the date before the name is the date it was acquired by Dr Sherwood.
• The date after the name is the date it was completed.

In relation to the paintings:

• UPDATE: the number of paintings in bold after the name is the total number held in the collection [Note this is an update since this post was first published]
• The title of a painting in the exhibition is listed in the decade to which it relates (hence an artist may be listed in more than one decade)​
• You can also read more about leading British Botanical Artists in my page dedicated to them on this website.​

​Where an artist is exhibiting elsewhere in the UK currently or in near future and/or teaching I'm also sharing the information in this post.

All quotations are by Shirley Sherwood (from the pdf record of the exhibition) unless otherwise indicated.

WARNING - THIS IS A VERY LONG POST. I suggest you find a comfy place to sit now and if you like finding out about botanical art and artists then you may be some time reading it!

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The First Decade 1990-1999

Five paintings by Pandora Sellars - including the very first painting in the collection on the right

From the start of my collecting in 1990 I have been anxious to acquire the best post possible works from any particular artist, In the beginning I bought from Kew's shows in the gallery at Cambridge Cottage where there were a series of excellent exhibitions by british artists. I never chose the cheapest work because it was least expensive, but tried to acquire the painting the artist liked best - if I liked it too.
Shirley Sherwood | Treasures of Botanical Art (2008) - the book produced for the first exhibition

In the first decade, it's very noticeable that the British artists collected are those who already have a track record of being established artists with good reputations.

For me, there's no question that Shirley Sherwood was taking advice and trying to create a sound base to her collection by buying from some of the best botanical artists in the world at that time. At the same time she wasn't sticking to just the "strictly botanical" or those who got lots of scientific illustration work from Kew.

This first decade showcases all of her early 'core artists' within her collection. These are the artists where she has bought several paintings over time. (I note which these are below).

​In 1995/96, she began showing her collection and some of the criteria she used for buying (see below) began to change as she began to think about what looked good on a wall in an exhibition.

I valued good lay-out, superb technique, truthful colour and originality. I discovered that it was useful to visit a gallery before a show, to look at paintings calmly and then perhaps to come back again to revisit works that had stayed in my mind. I became interested in 'wall appeal' when I started showing my collection and would respond to a 'gut reaction ' when I entered a gallery, as I often found the first painting that attracted me would be the one that I would eventually purchase.
​Shirley Sherwood | Treasures of Botanical Art (2008) 

​It's also noticeable that many of these artists are also now older painters who do not have websites and we can only otherwise see their paintings in books - of which those by Shirley are all excellent - see ARCHIVE: Shirley Sherwood Gallery Exhibitions.

​Some have died and we'll never ever see any more new work by them - except to the extent it comes to the market or is exhibited in exhibitions like this.

The artists

• 1990 - Mary Grierson GM (1912 - 2012) 6 Paintings - Mary Grierson applied for the post of Exhibitions Officer at Kew Gardens in 1960 (age 48). While she didn't get the job her portfolio of flower paintings meant she was engaged as an artist by the Herbarium. She went on to become "one of the world's most distinguished botanical artists". Her painting of the Yellow water lily has a style much used by lady botanical  artists in the 19th century.  Dr Sherwood bought her work because of her importance in the past. The two of them judged RHS Botanical Art Shows together and Mary Grierson gave Dr Sherwood her orchid book.

Pontederia cordata by Pandora Sellars. Watercolour on paper 340mm x 205mm Acquired 1999

I started collecting in July 1990, buying a dramatic Pandora Sellars watercolour of Laelia tenebrosa. I never intended to make a collection at that time, I was just trying to help Kew and encourage the artists. But I was so impressed with the standard of work that I became bitten by the collecting bug. 

• ​1990 - Pandora Sellars GM (1936-2017)  12 paintings (including a number of commissions) - Pandora is one of the 'core artists in the collection and there are six paintings by her in the exhibition. Sadly Pandora died in May, not long after the exhibition opened. She had been too ill to attend the private view. Nevertheless, it's imperative that all those who want to paint excellent leaves and produce innovative and superior compositions see her work in person for themselves. The works on display are a revelation. I had my loupe out slowly examining the painting of different parts of each plant and observed how she painted like a miniaturist on a larger scale - building up her colours with tiny dots and tiny dabs. See  also Pandora Sellars - an appreciation of a great botanical artist

Initially, not surprisingly, I concentrated on British Artists and the work I could see at Kew, in London and around Oxford.  

• 1991 - Raymond Booth (1929-2015) 4 paintings (Rosa moyesii - painted 1988) - the link in his name is to an exhibition at Abbot and Holder where you can see his work and more of his paintings in oil in paper. Dr Sherwood talks in 'Contemporary Botanical Artists' about queuing on a foggy pavement at 7.30am to buy a painting from a new exhibition by him - and finding that she was 16th in the queue! When he died he had an obituary in The Times.  See also my new webpage 'About Raymond Booth'

• 1991 / 1995 / 1995 - Jenny Brasier GM (b. 1936) 6 paintings - Jenny has three paintings in the exhibition Crinum x powellii, Plum Prunus sp. and Kumquats Citrus japonica. The latter two are on McEwen's vellum.  I loved the prunus which glowed! The frame makes very effective use of gold for her frames which makes the paintings look like luxury products rather than bling. One of the things to be noted by those who aspire to have work bought for the collection is that although Dr Sherwood change the frames on some - but not all - of the paintings so the frame you choose might be seen in decades to come! Jenny was encouraged to paint plants and flowers in her later years by Wilfrid Blunt! She has numerous RHS Gold Medals,  was a founder member of the SBA and is currently President of the Eden Florilegium Society and also has work in the V&A and natural history illustrations in the Natural History Museum.

I started commissioning studies of favourite plants like Cedar of Lebanon, lapageria, cowslips and fritillaries. 

Branches of Cedar of Lebanon and the swamp cypress were take to London in Annie Farrer's deux-cheveux at various times of year with their pine needles falling off before she got there.
​​Shirley Sherwood | Treasures of Botanical Art (2008) ​

• 1991 - Annie Farrer 15 paintings - Annie is another 'core artist' of the collection and the exhibition includes three works from two decades in the exhibition - a commissioned painting of a Cedar of Lebanon Cedrus libani  works in the first and two more in the second decade. Annie is a botanical painter who now paints moss - which is a long way in size terms from a Cedar of Lebanon!  If you read Shirley Sherwood's essays and books you'll find all sorts of fascinating information and stories behind about how a painting gets painted.
• 1991 / 1992 - Josephine Hague GM 7 paintings . Represented by three paintings in the exhibition - all of which were commissioned by Dr Sherwood and a number of which were painted in her glasshouse. She won four RHS gold medals between 1984 and 1988, went on to exhibit at the Hunt in 1997 and completed two paintings for the Highgrove Florilegium. From my perspective I admired her amazing talent at painting blue and purple flowers which are not the easiest colours to get right.

Clematis ‘Elsa Späth’ by Josephone Hague. Watercolour on paper Commissioned 1991 480mm x 380mm

• 1991 - Margaret Mee 15 paintings - She's a 'core artist' with several paintings in the collection but virtually all of these had a recent outing at the 2016 exhibition in the same gallery - Brazil: a powerhouse of plants: Margaret Mee, pioneering artist and her legacy - hence why only one in this exhibition. Mee is represented by the first painting that Shirley Sherwood bought from Greville Mee - the husband of this famous artist.  The painting is of a philodendron in its habitat and it's certainly one of my favourite Mee Paintings. This is the only one displaying a background owned by Dr Sherwood.
• 1992 - Sue Herbert 3 paintings - Her mangled, holey Leaf Arctium minus is very obviously a favourite as I've now seen it on a number of occasions. It exemplifies the fact that not all botanical art needs to be "pretty".  It looks as if Sue likes painting leaves as she has another one on display at present. 
• 1992 - Siriol Sherlock 8 paintings - Her painting of Magnolia campbellii var. mollicomata is an early acquisition. She demonstrates an ability to paint in very fluid watercolour. She is no longer active as a botanical artist (no time to paint she told me!) but has won four RHS Gold Medals in the past and was, for eight years, a member of the Picture Committee who judge botanical art at RHS Shows. She was also President of The Society of Floral Painters for five years. She also teaches - when she has the time!
• 1993 - Dame Elizabeth Blackadder DBE, RA, RSA, RSW, RGI 1 painting - The watercolour painting of Lilies is from a period when Elizabeth Blackadder was exceptionally popular. Collectors had to be well connected or move very fast to buy one of her paintings. I don't think I ever saw an unsold painting in an exhibition of hers at this time. In this particular instance, Dr Sherwood recognised the painting being exhibited in a gallery from inside a taxi - and bought it! I'm a huge fan and was very pleased to see this painting because although not "strictly botanical" she's one of a few contemporary artists who paints the 'being' of a flower. I used to salivate over them every year at the RA Summer Exhibition and loved her approach to composition. (I should perhaps explain I've have prints of her paintings above my bed for years!)​
• 1993 x 3 / 1994 / 1997 Brigid Edwards 15 paintings - the collection includes a number of works by Brigid Edward bought in the first decade as she is yet another 'core artist'. Most are paintings on vellum and you can see these and other plant paintings on her website.  Plus some bought later - see Second and Third Decade.  A lot of these were bought direct from the artist in exhibitions at Kew - before she transferred her work to exhibitions at Thomas Gibson Fine Art. A new painting of a sunflower was bought recently.

Oriental poppy Papaver orientale by Brigid Edwards. Watercolour over pencil on vellum, 530mm x 405mm Acquired 1997

• 1993 - Jessica Tcherepnine 4 paintings The Skunk cabbage Symplocarpus foetidus (dated 1991 in "A New Flowering")  is probably in the collection at an early date because she was and is a very well regarded botanical artist. She was born in Sussex and, although she moved to the USA in 1968 she was also living and exhibiting in London from time to time including, like Pandora Sellars, at the Kew Gardens Gallery.  This is an article about her in the New York Times.
• 1994 - Dr. Andrew Brown 3 paintings - the date relates to the date of the commission of the painting of the Voodoo lily Sauromatum venosum - although I noted a number of other dates on the paper which I had assumed related to the dates different parts were painted to show the complete life cycle but have since gathered that problems arose because the plants kept dying! Andrew is Chairman of the Chelsea Physic Garden Florilegium Society, author of the books associated with their exhibitions. He is also a a freelance botanical illustrator at the Royal Botanic Garden, Kew and was, for many years, the Head of Biology at Westminster School, London
• 1994 - Helga Hislop 3 paintings - an artist who tends to work very small. It's certainly worth getting out your loupe / magnifier for her painting of rose hips. On her website it says she started painting in vellum in 2006, which might make this painting on vellum an early experiment.
• 1994 / 1995 / 1999 - Graham Rust 6 paintings - He is the second man who features strongly in the first decade of collecting with 3 paintings in the exhibition - Daffodils and narcissus: Narcissus spp., Iris ‘Spartan’ and Petal of Tulipa ‘Black Parrot’.
• 1995 - Gillian Barlow GM 7 paintings - this is a very traditional botanical painting of the Kingcup Catha Palustris. I'm guessing more than a few botanical artists who aspire to win a Gold Medal at the RHS or get a work selected for the Chelsea Physic Garden Florilegium have been closely inspecting this painting by the Chair of the RHS Picture Panel!

Lilium longiflorum ‘Ice Queen’ by Coral Guest. Watercolour on paper Commissioned 1995 760mm x 570mm

I continued acquiring the work of some artists until the present day where like Coral Guest, I have remained an admirer and in contact and now have 19 of her works. 

• 1995 / 1996 / 1996 - Coral Guest 19 paintings - Her paintings feature in a very significant way in the exhibition - which is unsurprising given that she is a 'core artist' and Shirley Sherwood now has 19 of her paintings in her collection - including a number of studies of the process used to develop 'proper' paintings for the collection including those that had been commissioned. Three of her six pantings in the exhibition were acquired in the first decade - Lilium longiflorum ‘Ice Queen’, (note the delivery note below!) Lapageria rosea and L. rosea var. albiflora, and Monstera deliciosa. Three paintings in the exhibition are from the second and third decades. ​​​

Please note that however deceptive it might appear, there is most certainly no white paint on this work. All is achieved with skilled washes of varying greys and remains true to the purest traditions of watercolour.
Coral Guest - delivery note accompanying the commissioned painting of Lilium longiflora 'Ice Queen' - cited in 'Contemporary Botanical Artists'

• ​​1995 - Rory McEwen (1932-1982) 9 paintings - Rory is another 'core artist'. The amazing Crown Imperial 1965 Fritillaria imperialis painted in Watercolour on vellum.  It has amazing wall appeal as well as being the most superb painting.  It's also much larger than most of his subsequent series of paintings of fritillaria.
• 1996 - Elisabeth Dowle 7 paintings - her painting of Pear ‘Conference’ in the exhibition also features on the cover of Joan Morgan's The Book of Pears - the Definitive History and Guide to over 500 varieties which is illustrated with 40 botanical watercolour paintings by Elisabeth Dowle.
• 1996 - Celia Hegedüs 5 paintings - a very graceful painting of Siberian flag Iris sibirica ​​is one of two paintings in the show. It was used as a frontispiece for the book A Passion for Plants. Celia won RHS Gold Medals in 1995, 1996, 1998, 200 and 2001 - and the RHS Botanical Arts Shows might be characterised as 'happy hunting grounds' - for both artwork and artists - for Dr Sherwood!

I bought my first works by Celia Hegedüs in 1996, when she came to my home and showed me a series of plant portraits. I particularly liked her studies of iris and eventually bought three, each of a different species, all on vellum. They have either been hung on my walls or on exhibition loan with my collection ever since. Each time I look at them I appreciate once again the quality of her work.
Shirley Sherwood - foreword to a catalogue for a 2001 exhibition with Offer Waterman by Celia Hegedüs

• 1996 / 1998 - Susan Ogilvy 8 paintings - The first two of three works by this artist were purchased in the first decade. I much prefer her very green painting of various different leaves to her dancing cherries.
• 1997 - Raymond Booth 4 paintings - He painted Veltheimia bracteata in Oil on paper in 1979. One doesn't often get to see oil paintings on paper. Apparently he used to size the paper before he started to paint - and I remain curious as to what he used for size.
• 1998 - Vicky Cox (1943-1999) - an early acquisition of a coloured pencil drawing of a Spanish onion Allium cepa (see the first image in the second decade)
• 1998 - Christobel King 4 paintings - has recently retired from a very long career (40+ years) of botanical illustration for the Kew Scientists and professional journals and teaching botanical art to the Margaret Mee Scholars. Her 'theme' is cacti and this painting in watercolour and gouache is of Echinocereus triglochidiatus var. paucispinus .  
• 1999 - Rebecca John 1 Painting - The granddaughter of painter Augustus John has a painting included which reflects one of the mini themes of the collection - the stark reality of winter twigs. This one is of Grasses caught in blackthorn 

Savoy cabbage Brassica oleracea by Katherine Manisco. Watercolour on paper, 445mm x 445mm. Acquired 1999

• 1999 - Katherine Manisco 7 paintings - Her first painting in the collection is of Savoy cabbage Brassica oleracea. Although I've seen cabbage done since, I have a sense that not many people were painting the humble vegetable at this time. She works in works in Italy and USA. In 1993, she was awarded the Grenfell Medal by the Royal Horticultural Society and has work in the V&A permanent collection.
• 1999 - Rodella Purves 1 painting - This is an amazing painting of some very blue Meconopsis

​Looking back at the first decade, it's striking how many of the works are painted on vellum. I imagine the intensity of the colours on vellum may have well have contributed to this pattern of collecting.

Dr Sherwood collected both British artists and overseas artists from a number of different countries during the first decade of her collection.

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The Second Decade 2000-2009

I started commissioning studies of favourite plants like Cedar of Lebanon, lapageria, cowslips and fritillaries. 

The second decade seems to be about

• consolidating her collection with artists she likes in the first half of the decade; and
• exploring what else is out there in the second half when new names start to appear.

Below I only note the number of paintings for artists who didn't appear in the listing for the first decade.

L to R: Vicky Cox's Onion; Margaret Eden's Medinilla magnifica; Susan Ogilvy's leaves and cherries

The artists

• 2000 - Lady Margaret Ann Eden - 2 paintings Medinilla magnifica is a plant which I've repeatedly studied in the Princess of Wales Conservatory trying to work out how to illustrate it! It's always interesting to see how another artist tackles it. This particular painting shows each stage of the opening bud and cascade of flowers.
• 2000 - Brigid Edwards - the work bought in the second decade is very popular and much exhibited Poppy seed head Papaver somniferum on vellum. It's a very interesting painting to study under a magnifier to see the techniques used.
• 2000 - Rory McEwen ​(1932-1982) - This second painting of a Ginkgo leaf East 61 Street New York 1980 is part of a larger collection. Rory is one of three painters to be represented by purchases made in every decade of the collection. Dr Sherwood had no plans to space out her purchases. His paintings are so rare that they're not often offered for sale so she just found it best to buy as and when paintings came on the market!
• 2000 / 2002 / 2008 - Lizzie Sanders GM 6 paintings - featured significantly in terms of purchases during the second decade. She is yet another of the very strong contingent of botanical artists living in Scotland - and living close to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh.  She now usually works on commission.
• 2001 - Rachel Pedder-Smith 3 paintings - I'm a big fan of this artist and naturally her two paintings purchased in 2001 are of seeds and are painted from herbarium specimens. She has an amazing ability to make brown specimens look really interesting!
• 2002 - Gertrude Hamilton 1 painting -  This painting of reminds me some of the paintings from the Dutch Golden Age by people such as Jan van Kessel. She apparently deliberately ‘aged’ her paper to reflect her inspiration from the past. I like artists whose art is clearly stimulated by those that have preceded them in Botanical Art History.  Of course the second botanical exhibition of her collection, A New Flowering: 1000 Years of Botanical Art at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford in 2005 took as its theme the comparison of botanical art by contemporary artists with that produced by past masters.
• 2002 - Gillian Barlow GM - I liked Gillian's painting of the Artichoke Seed Head Cynara cardunculus which somehow felt more contemporary to me. It's also evidence of the growing trend among botanical artists at the time to paint on vellum.
• 2002 I love Annie Farrer's Courgette tendrils II Cucurbita pepo which was reproduced in Plant: Exploring the Botanical World  last year. Her 2008 Magnified cone of Pinus wallichiana is also pretty special. 

Courgette tendrils II Cucurbita pepo by Annie Farrer Watercolour on paper | Reproduced in Plant published by Phaidon, 2016

Sea grapes Coccoloba uvifera (1998) by Katherine Manisco. Watercolour on paper, 475mm x 406mm. Acquired 2003

• 2003 - Katherine Manisco - Her second painting, dated 1998, is of Sea grapes Coccoloba uvifera and is also pretty special.
• 2004 - Stephanie Berni 2 paintings - Every time I see Stephanie's painting of the Australian Tree Fern Dicksonia antartica which adorned the cover of A New Flowering - 1000 Years of Botanical Art  I'm surprised that it's so small. It measures just 290mm x 200mm. It only serves to emphasise the skill of the artist in tackling all those little hairs.
• 2004 - Pauline Dean (1943–2007) 4 paintings - Pauline particularly liked the different shades of blue in her painting of the vine Strongylodon macrobotrys (2001) which is a very difficult subject. Pauline's work continues to be exhibited due to the efforts of her family since her death. Pauline won eight gold medals from the Royal Horticultural Society and sold some 600 works during her 20-year career.

Jade vine Strongylodon macrobotrys by Pauline Dean (1943–2007) Watercolour on paper, 680mm x 465mm. Acquired 2004

• 2005 - a second work by Jessica Tcherepnine - of a Coconut Cocos nucifera  - is included in the show, bought in the second decade. Tcherepnine is a founding member of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden Florilegium. Although she doesn't have a website you can see more of her artwork on the Bridgman Images website
• ​2005/2007 - Coral Guest - This is the era of the life-size Iris ‘Superstition’ and Lilium regale - both commissioned by Shirley Sherwood. It's very interesting to be given the opportunity to compare the study to the finished painting which is close by. I very much associate the iris (studies and painting below) with both the Collection and the Gallery as it was the painting you saw on opening the door into the Gallery back on the first day it was open to the public on Saturday 19th April 2008. In the exhibition, there's a short quote from Coral printed on the wall explaining how she dealt technically with painting life-size on very large rough sheets of TH Saunders Traditional White 640 gsm watercolour paper (1524mm x 106mm). She used to burnish the very heavy paper with an etching tool to smooth those areas where she wanted to be able to paint some detail. It reminds me that botanical artists should always be experimenting with what is possible..... (Note: Her website is offline at the moment while she reconstructs it). ​

I chose this iris at Chelsea and (Coral) grew it and painted it life-sized. I wanted to "shock" at the 2008 opening of the Shirley Sherwood Gallery!
Shirley Sherwood

Studies by Coral Guest for later works - with colour notes and notations

Iris ‘Superstition’ by Coral Guest, Watercolour on paper | Commissioned 2005 1525mm x 1025mm

Coral Guest with her life size lily, monstera and iris - all commissioned by Shirley Sherwood

• 2006 - Celia Hegedüs - her second painting is Tulipa ‘Wakefield Flame’ which I'm guessing came from an exhibition of florist tulips. 
• 2006 - Rosie Sanders 12 paintings - Dr Sherwood's first purchases of botanical paintings by Rosie Sanders were apples in 1992 and garlic in 1999. The enormous painting of Arisaema ciliatum/costatum/consanguineum is painted using watercolour on Arches 640 gsm paper - which measures 1020mm x 1540mm and can cope with "going large"!  (A good tip for those wanting to do something similar!). Rosie has had lots of solo exhibitions and sales since becoming a gallery artist at Jonathan Cooper Park Walk Gallery in Chelsea.

Martin Allen with Horse chestnut Aesculus hippocastanum Watercolour on paper 495mm x 720mm (Acquired 2007)

• ​2007 - Martin J Allen 1 painting - Martin's painting of the buds of a horse chestnut Aesculus hippocastanum is a stunner. I was going to say simple but while it looks it on first view the painting is very far from simple!  I also noted that it was painted on a sheet of Schoellershammer - and I'm left wondering what type...
• 2007 - Susan Christopher-Coulson 2 paintings - Most of the Sherwood Collection comprises watercolour paintings - but artworks are also purchased and commissioned in other media. This includes this 2006 drawing of a scattering of sweet violets in coloured pencils. Susan was inspired by illuminations from the past (I think by work in the show at the Ashmolean)

Susan Christopher Coulson with 'Sweet violet scattering' Coloured pencil on paper 380mm x 470mm (Acquired 2007)

• 2007 - Helga Hislop 2 paintings - her second work is a very attractive medley of items found in December 2004. Note her website has limited edition prints of her compendium paintings.
• 2007 - Susan Ogilvy GM - I very much like her painting of habitat in a churchyard - Snowdrops, churchyard Galanthus nivalis - described as 'This bird’s-eye view of snowdrops in the hedgerow'.
• 2008 - Sarah Graham 2 paintings - Her pastel painting of ‘Big Fir’: magnified cone of Leucadendron strobilinum is HUGE! (see below) . Shirley took a photograph of it and showed it to the people in the Herbarium at Kirstenbosch who were able to identify it. It's also worth noting that it is pastel on watercolour paper. Do take a look at her approach to creating large paintings on her website. 

Sarah Graham collected this small cone (about 3cm long) on the top of Table Mountain. The enlarged drawing was sufficiently well observed to be identified from herbarium specimens in Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, South Africa. 
Shirley Sherwood - who spent a happy morning in the herbarium!

L to R: Paintings by Elizabeth Blackadder, Raymond Booth, Sarah Graham and Katherine Manisco

• 2008 - Fiona Strickland 2 paintings - The very first botanical painting by Fiona Strickland of Zea mays I - is in the exhibition. I remember it extremely well from the Annual Exhibition of the Society of Botanical Artists in 2008 when Fiona "arrived" with (I think) three paintings, blew everybody away and won the People's Choice Award. She was awarded full professional membership of the Society very soon after. It was very evident to me that a stupendous new talent would be having a significant impact on botanical art in the UK. It was absolutely no surprise to me that Shirley Sherwood bought her first ever botanical painting.  I learned later that Fiona was an art teacher who had only ever painted abstract art prior to trying botanical art!  She's now a retired art teacher with a very healthy career as both a leading botanical artist and a botanical art tutor.

I first saw Fiona's work at the The Botanical Palette Exhibition of the Society of Botanical Artists (SBA) in 2008.   If ever work by a botanical artist deserved a "Wow" this was it!  One of her paintings in that exhibition was immediately bought by Dr Shirley Sherwood (of the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art at Kew Gardens) at the Buyer's Preview and the wheels of Fiona's personal artistic destiny started to turn.......
Katherine Tyrrell - A 'Making A Mark' Profile of Fiona Strickland (2012)

I was going abroad the afternoon of the PV and I literally ran around the show, saw the sweet corm and have enjoyed it ever since
Shirley Sherwood

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The Third Decade to date 2010-2016
​

Some artists have changed their style and approach, switching for example from paper to vellum like Brigid Edwards and from life size to greatly enlarged subjects.  ​

Paintings acquired in the third decade - featuring Fiona Strickland and Rosie Saunders - and a very large Titan arum. Fiona's painting of rhododendron buds was chosen as a very deliberate prompt/lead into the exhibition from the Hooker Exhibition and also featured on publicity material.

For me, one of the themes which came through very strongly when revisiting this exhibition is how much Shirley Sherwood enjoys

• contemporary approaches to botanical art
• artists who find new ways of representing plants which are both truthful to the plant and its habitat and behaviour - but might not be 'strictly botanical'. 

She's also not averse to buying paintings from artists who want to "go large"! 

When I started acquiring Rosie Sander’s work she was painting life sized apples for her classic book but now she is creating vastly bigger studies of woodland plants and voluptuous watercolours of tulips, iris and exotics. She has also been experimenting with fragile white dandelion clocks on black backgrounds. I can only show a few of her paintings here. Prints of her work have also been very successful.

Rosie Sanders with her paintings

​The artists

• 2011 - I must confess I found Liz Fraser 28 paintings - I found Protea cynaroides slightly psychadelic but maybe this has to do with the fact it's painted in acylic rather than watercolour. More of Liz's paintings are included in The Smallest Kingdom - Plants and Plant Collectors at the Cape of Good Hope
• 2012 - Rory McEwen (1932-1982) - the last painting of the three in the exhibition is a painting of a leaf from Upper Club, Eton 1979. It's always worth taking a close look at Rory McEwen's paintings, especially as there's only a limited number available for viewing.
• 2012 - Catherine Nicholson (1950-2011) 5 drawings - This enormous digital print of her drawing was produced in the year after she died of breast cancer. It's called ‘Some get more eaten up than others’ Norway spruce cones magnified x 7 Picea abies.  I find the juxtaposition in this list of her work with that of Rory McEwen who committed suicide due to his unremitting struggles with brain cancer to be very poignant. He also had the habit of using titles to communicate aspects of his life during his ill-health. Two pen and ink drawings by Catherine Nicholson now hang at St Anne's College, Dr Sherwood's old college at Oxford University.

Angeline de Meester with her painting "Botanic symbiosis ‘December’ Clematis vitalba climbing on hawthorn Crataegus monogyna"

• 2013 - Angeline de Meester 2 paintings - Botanic symbiosis ‘December’ Clematis vitalba climbing on hawthorn Crataegus monogyna - I always get a strong sense that Shirley Sherwood is attracted to the unusual - and even better if it's rooted in its completely natural habitat - but nobody has ever painted it before.  The other painting in the collection was acquired in 2007.
• 2014 - Victoria Braithwaite 1 painting - Her large macro painting of a Globe artichoke ‘Lindisfarne Castle’ Cynara cardunculus  is in the main gallery. I first saw it an the Annual Exhibition of the Society of Botanical Artists in London where Victoria won the St Cuthbert's Mill Award for a body of work which included this painting. It was very evident that Victoria was off to a great start as a professional botanical artist and I'm not at all surprised that Dr Sherwood acquired a work. Victoria has studied with both Fiona Strickland and Sarah Simblet. She is a Founding member of the Scottish Society of Botanical Artists. (You can see more of her work at their upcoming exhibition The Colours of Nature at the Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum which includes her artwork on the flyer. She is also very generous in sharing her artwork on Facebook and is also teaching a Masterclass: Painting the Zingiberaceae: A bold approach to Gingers at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh on the 23rd and 24 September.

Victoria Braithwaite with her painting of Globe artichoke ‘Lindisfarne Castle’ Cynara cardunculus (watercolour, 2014)

• 2014 - Coral Guest - the last painting is called The Phenology Cabinet of the Incandescent Petal Magenta Cultivars Series I of Paeonia lactiflora from 19th Century France. I remember exchanging correspondence with her when she was in the middle of this - when we were trying to arrange to meet up - and her saying she couldn't leave her peonies!
• 2014 / 2016 - Rosie Sanders - My particular favourite of Rosie's work is her "sitting in the fields, painting the wild flowers" paintings such as the Dandelions and other flowers, Fern, bluebell, wild garlic, yellow archangel and dandelion painting. I appreciate the technique in the charcoal and watercolour paintings of dandelions but they don't appeal to me in the same way.  However, her work has a habit of being exhibited and selling so she's obviously appealing to a lot of other buyers.

Rhododendron ‘Horizon Monarch’ by Fiona Strickland, Watercolour on paper 476mm x 616mm Acquired 2016 Reproduced in Plant published by Phaidon, 2016

• 2016 - Fiona Strickland - the second of the two works in the collection and the show is Rhododendron ‘Horizon Monarch’ which won The Hort's "Best in Show" Award at 18th Annual International in New York in late 2015 and then was exhibited again at  Fiona's exhibition at Jonathan Cooper in 2016 which is where Shirley Sherwood decided to buy it having seen it for the second time. (Note her comments near the beginning about how she buys artwork). Dr Sherwood particularly liked the daring design and the superb draughtsmanship. Fiona was also chosen to have her work displayed in the exhibition to mark the 25th anniversary of the Shirley Sherwood Collection exhibition at Park Walk Gallery in 2015
• 2016 - Brigid Edwards  had an exhibition in late 2016 (the first one for several years) - and one of the paintings I saw Sunflower Helianthus annuus in that exhibition is now in this exhibition. See Brigid Edwards's exhibition of new botanical paintings on vellum which means Brigid is distinguished as being one of three artists with work purchased in the first, second and third decades of this collection, (the others being Rory McEwen and Coral Guest).

Sunflower (2015) by Brigid Edwards, watercolour over pencil on vellum 53.3 x 40.6 cm

• 2016 - Botanical Art Tutors of the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh 1 painting - Dr Sherwood bought - and then donated to the Kew Collection - the huge life-size watercolour painting of the Amorphophallus titanum (titan arum), which blossomed (briefly!) for the first time in Scotland at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh on 26 June 2015. Interestingly since this exhibition opened the Titan Arum bloomed again and this time three paintings were completed and exhibited in the Plant Scenery of the World exhibition at Inverleith House, Edinburgh in 2017. Below - and in the gallery - you can see a short video of the process of creating the painting in a room adjoining the glasshouse where the plant was blooming and being admired by its very many visitors.  The painters were three tutors from the RBGE Botanical Art School - Isik Güner GM, Jacqueline Pestell OBE and Sharon Tingey GM. The painting measures 2680mm x 1500mm.

Jacqueline Pestell, Course Director of the RBGE Diploma in Botanical Illustration with Sharon Tingey, an RBGE tutor and botanical artist

It's worth noting that many of the artists included in the Collection have usually had some level of recognition for exceptional art - such as an RHS Gold Medal.

That's why I'm following the same principle with this website...

....and yet new and exceptional botanical artists keep emerging and need to be added into the Collection - and this website!

I am still collecting now, almost overwhelmed with the wealth of botanical art available today in Britain and the rest of the world. 

The exhibition continues at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew until 17th September 2017.

​I'll probably sneak back for a last look before it comes down. It really is a quite exceptional exhibition for those who like the history of the development of botanical art as well as the quality of the art itself.

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