NEWS about Botanical Art and for Botanical Artists

Botanical Art Worldwide and in UK (excluding Scotland)

24/9/2023

This post covers:

Basic Principles:
- Botanical Art Worldwide Central Guidelines
- Country Guidelines
Participating countries to date
Botanical Art Worldwide in the UK

Botanical Art Worldwide - Basic Principles

The second Botanical Art Worldwide Project will focus on and celebrate biodiversity in the crops that have been closely associated with the human species over thousands of years. The theme is designed to draw attention to the vast variety of food and useful plants available, in contrast with the relatively few varieties currently used in mass cultivation. Plants eligible for inclusion are those cultivated for food, textiles, building, energy, and medicine

BAW Central Guidelines

The theme of the Exhibition in 2025 is "Crop Diversity".

Eligible subject matter covers:

HERITAGE CROPS: Crops that are not used in modern, large scale monocultural agriculture. Crops chosen should have been in cultivation for a minimum of 50 years (in the country in which they're being portrayed).
CROP WILD RELATIVES: Wild species that can be hybridized with cultivated crops to impart a new characteristic to the cultivated crop, or that are foraged wild plants.
ANCIENT CROPS: Those that have been cultivated for hundreds or thousands of years in the same form.

Every country needs to comply with the central guidelines which will be produced by the Steering Committee for Botanical Art Worldwide.

These central guidelines has not yet been fully finalised - and hence not yet formalised and published . However these are coming soon and will be prominent on the Botanical Art Worldwide website when available.

BAW International Exhibition

The International Exhibition is going to be digital/virtual and will be available online to everybody around the world and remain on view during May 2025.

(To be honest, I've always thought that the point of going digital is you can remain online - as indeed all the historical art does in the various collections / major projects relating to past botanical artwork and illustrations. Maybe it's an issue of expense? There again YouTube is forever if you so choose.)

Overall Goals

Artists around the world are working on this project to:
- build partnerships between artists, institutions, scientists, and the public.
- raise awareness of the worldwide renaissance in botanical art.
- acknowledge and build upon the increasing ease of communication and connection between botanical artists wherever they might live and work.
- increase appreciation and understanding of crop diversity around the world.
- engage in a project to document some of the world’s diverse crop plants.

Components of the BAW Project 2025

BASIC PRINCIPLES of how it will work in every country - as agreed by the Steering Committee.

Exhibitions of original botanical artworks juried from submissions of artists in each participating country.
All will depict crop plants grown in each country to focus on worldwide crop diversity (i.e. not plants you can buy in the country; ONLY crops which grow in the country).
Digital presentations will be shown featuring artworks appearing in all other countries’ exhibitions.
Each country will set its own opening and closing dates for exhibitions and other events
- Lectures, webinars, workshops, demonstrations, and other public programming will be presented by organizers and host venues
- during the exhibitions’ opening times.
Exhibition venues around the world will all hold special events on May 18, 2025 - a Worldwide Day of Botanical Art following the sun from venue to venue.

Participating Countries

If your botanical art organisation / botanical garden / museum wants to participate - and your country is not already participating (see list below) - you should

either go to this page and find out who to contact
or email worldwide@asba-art.org for more information.

The following are all the participating countries - to date. I expect more will join.

Australia
Belgium
Brazil
Canada
Chile
Colombia
France
Germany
Indonesia
Ireland
Italy
Japan
Mexico
Netherlands
New Zealand
Philippines
Republic of Korea
Russia
Scotland
Singapore
South Africa
Taiwan
Thailand
Turkey
Ukraine
United Kingdom
USA

You can see everything that happened around the world on one page on my website - see ARCHIVE: World Wide Exhibition of Botanical Art 2018. It includes a number of images and videos.

I will be setting up a similar page for Botanical Art Worldwide 2025 on this website very soon.

Country Guidelines / Exhibition

Each participating country has a Steering Committee who are organising the country contribution to the International Exhibition.

One member of that Steering Committee is on the International Steering Committee
Every country is going to choose 40 works for their digital contribution to the digital open INTERNATIONAL exhibition.

Within their own country, each country can choose to have as many artworks as they like in a physical exhibition in the country - depending on the space available.

Each country can organise additional lectures, webinars, workshops, demonstrations, and other public programming - during the dates agreed for the opening and closing of the exhibition in that country.

Botanical Art Worldwide in the UK (England, Wales and Northern Ireland)

In the UK the contribution to Botanical Art Worldwide is SPLIT - as it was in 2018 - between:

UK excluding Scotland (i.e. England, Wales and Northern Ireland) These three countries are being organised by a consortium of botanical art societies / groups and "hosted" by the Association of Botanical Artists (more details below)
Scotland - Scotland's exhibition will be run by the Scottish Society of Botanical Artists (SSBA) - but there is nothing up on either the BAW or the SSBA websites as yet. I'm guessing they'll work "Scotia" into the title somehow as they did in 2018

Below you can find out more about

Botanical Art Worldwide Guidelines for UK (England, Wales and Northern Ireland)
How to Register
Support for your entry
The Exhibition
A Webinar Talk about the project

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Finnis Scott Foundation: £10,000 Botanical Art Prize 2024

18/9/2023

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Applications are invited for the £10,000 Botanical Art Prize 2024 awarded by the Finnis Scott Foundation. This is about the Call for Entries, who can apply and how to apply.

In summary, the Botanical Art Prize is dedicated to the practice and promotion of botanical art. It aims

to support and promote collaborative botanical art projects in the UK and Ireland; and
through established botanical art groups which go beyond their day-to-day activities and recognises those which have already helped to raise the profile of botanical art.

Specifically the £10K Award is:

intended to fund discrete and collaborative projects that promote and encourage the practice and appreciation of botanical painting in the UK and/or Ireland
awarded biennially i.e. every two years.
sponsored by The Finnis Scott Foundation - a charity that was established by the will of the late Valerie Finnis to support Horticulture and Art.

Projects might include:

a new education programme,
the development of an existing course,
an exhibition, publication, event or collaborative project.

Previous Winners of this Botanical Art Prize have been:

2018 – Sir Cedric Morris Florilegium
2020 – Gloucestershire Society for Botanical Illustration
2022 – Scottish Society of Botanical Artists.

Links are to information about the projects which won the award.

Call for Entries: Botanical Art Prize 2024

What follows is about:

which organisations are eligible to apply
how to apply
how applications are assessed
the timeline
monitoring processes

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Botanical Art Worldwide 2025 Q&A Webinar TONIGHT!

12/9/2023

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The Association of Botanical Artists are TONIGHT hosting a free online webinar about Botanical Art Worldwide 2025 on Zoom for artists from around the world.

DATE: Tuesday 12th September
TIME: 8pm (British Summer Time)
TOPIC: Q&A session focused on the Botanical Art World Wide 2025 exhibition
SPEAKERS: Carol Woodin in conversation with Martin Allen
This session is designed to help answer any questions you may have about this exhibition.
WHO CAN VIEW: The event is open to ALL botanical artists no matter where you live.
This event is NOT just for ABA Members and you do not have to be a member to watch.
LINK: Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86845923213

The webinar is also being recorded and will be available to watch after the event.

DO YOU HAVE A QUESTION?
You can:

either email your questions in advance to the Association of Botanical Artists via assocbotart @ gmail.com (close the gaps before you send!)
or you can ask a question via the Chat Channel during the webinar.

Botanical Art Worldwide 2025

DATE: 18th May 2025 (i.e. 20 months in the future)
INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION: "Crop Diversity".

The second Botanical Art Worldwide Project will focus on and celebrate biodiversity in the crops that have been closely associated with the human species over thousands of years. The theme is designed to draw attention to the vast variety of food and useful plants available, in contrast with the relatively few varieties currently used in mass cultivation. Plants eligible for inclusion are those cultivated for food, textiles, building, energy, and medicine.
Currently, many heritage species and varieties are only cultivated in small quantities by specialist growers on a limited scale. It is vital to promote this genetic diversity in a world challenged by a growing population, changing climate, and habitat losses.
Botanical Art Worldwide Website

In 2025, Botanical Artists and associated organisations and various institutions from around the world will be collaborating to develop the second Botanical Art Worldwide Exhibition by

creating botanical artworks related to crop diversity
exhibiting these artworks in each of the participating countries - at the same time.

All artwork will focus on plants which are included in one of the following categories

HERITAGE CROPS: Crops that are not used in modern, large scale monocultural agriculture. Crops chosen should have been in cultivation for a minimum of 50 years.
CROP WILD RELATIVES: Wild species that can be hybridized with cultivated crops to impart a new characteristic to the cultivated crop, or that are foraged wild plants.
ANCIENT CROPS: Those that have been cultivated for hundreds or thousands of years in the same form.

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Autumn 2023: Chinese watercolour of Asian Fruits

3/9/2023

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When I change the seasonal banners for my website and Facebook Page, I normally try to pick images for each seasonal banner of flowers or fruits which I'm totally confident are correct for the season. However I've been totally seduced by a wonderful album of Chinese watercolours of Asian fruits - and I have absolutely no idea which ones are correct in which season or even what some of the fruits are - despite three trips to the east (Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia) and visiting local markets! Although I think I recognised some....

The main problem is none of the fruits are identified in English and indeed each is identified only by very faint arabic script. However I did recognise the pink pineapple which I regularly see fruiting in the Princess of Wales Glasshouse at Kew.

[Note: feel free to suggest what the fruits are in this image via the comments]

Page 21 of the Album of Chinese Watercolours of Asian Fruits

I found the album:

in the Biodiversity Heritage Library website
it's also on the Internet Archive and
available to view via the Harvard Library Viewer.

I think the source is the Dunbarton Oaks website where it is identified as a rare heritage folio of Album of Chinese watercolors of Asian fruits]. [between 1798 and 1810]. There's absolutely no indication as to who the painter is. Such labels as do exist are written in Arabic script - which makes one wonder why they were identified as Chinese Watercolours.

The Harvard reference page states...

Bill Archer and his wife Mildred, an English art historian who specialized in 18th- and 19th-century art in British India, curator of Prints and Drawings at the India Office Library from 1954 to 1980, viewed this album of watercolors at Dumbarton Oaks around 1958 and determined from their style and coloring that the album was most likely painted by a Chinese artist, probably in Malaysia or Sumatra. Archer dated the manuscript to between 1798 and 1810.

while the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library shelflist card apparently states

"Drawn by Indian artists under English influence: probably done in India but has no relation to Chinese artists - check where Chinese were working at this time in India or possibly in Indo-China. Indian artists started this vogue of drawing. Writing is perhaps Malaysian."

Whoever painted them, the first 12 paintings are absolutely fascinating as they are very elaborate compositions which fill the page. they comprise:

several fruit on each page
sometimes at different stages of their life cycle
sometimes peeled or segmented to reveal their internal structure
surrounded by relevant flowers and foliage

Each of the 12 images are well worth studying in terms of composition and arrangement.

Asian artists who go large.....

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Selected Artists for ASBA 26th Annual International Exhibition (2023)

30/8/2023

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The 26th Annual International Exhibition of Botanical Art by the American Society of Botanical Artists (ASBA) opens next month. The exhibition comprises two-dimensional, original, botanical art and runs from 17th September to 26th November at Marin Art & Garden Center (MAGC) in California. (More details of this and the opening event at the end)

This post is about the artists whose artwork has been selected for this exhibition.
[UPDATE 31 August 2023: It has now been updated to include

the link to the art on the website
the title of the artwork included on the exhibition
more details about all the events and how to register for them]

Gossypium hirsutum ‘Arkansas Green’ by Susan Tomlinson

Selection process

The selection jury for this show comprised three botanical artists and educators.

Beverly Allen (Australia) - see my profile in Beverley Allen - 2023 Shirley Sherwood Award for Botanical Art
Lee McCaffree (US / North California branch)
Deborah B. Shaw (US) She is an active member of member of the American Society of Botanical Artists (ASBA), the Botanical Artists Guild of Southern California, Northern California Society of Botanical Artists, the Southwest Society of Botanical Artists, and the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators.

The jury met in May 2023 and selected 48 artworks by 47 artists from 150 entries (giving a 32% success rate)

Selected artists 2023

The artists who produced artwork selected by the jurors are listed below.

Artists are listed by country
Links embedded in the artist's name are either to
- their website (where known)
- Instagram account (if no website)
- or their member art gallery page on the ASBA website (if created).

The thing I noticed as I went through the listing below is that a lot of names are new to me and are artists who have not exhibited in the ASBA International before. I understand a total of ten (22%) are new to having their art displayed in the Annual International.

UPDATE: You can now see ALL the artworks in digital form on the ASBA website - in alphabetical order of the surname of the artist. Find out about the artists below....

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Gustavo Surlo wins First Prize in Margaret Flockton Award 2023

20/8/2023

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Gustavo Surlo has won the First in the Margaret Flockton Award 2023. This award is very highly prized within the scientific botanical illustration community.

The Second Prize has been awarded to Juan Luis Castillo.

The Margaret Flockton Award is judged and hosted by the Botanic Gardens of Sydney’s botanical illustrators Catherine Wardrop and Lesley Elkan.

37 artists from 18 countries have been selected for the 2023 exhibition at the Australian Botanic Garden Mount Annan until Friday 20 October 2023. A total of 54 entries have been judged and 29 finalists will be exhibited on-site.

The images of illustrations selected for the exhibition can be seen in the Margaret Flockton Award 2023 album on Flickr

The Criteria used to judge the Award are as follows:

Accurate interpretation and portrayal of the plant characters and diagnostic features highlighted in the botanical description
Technical merit
Artistic merit
Composition
Reproducibility

First Prize: Gustavo Surlo - Wedelia sp. nov. (daisy)

Gustavo Surlo has won the AUS$5,000 First Prize in the 20th Margaret Flockton Awards (2023) for his illustration of his drawing of the newly found Wedelia species which is a member of the daisy family. Last year he was one of the artists who was Highly Commended.

Wedelia, a member of the daisy family by Gustavo Surlo

Gustavo's pieces show the Wedelia sp. nov. species with strength while capturing the delicate surface of the plant's textures. He has skilfully composed the illustration. The subtle use of lines and bars gives a sense of scale. We can understand the plant's role in its habitat and see its minute hairs and glands on the leaf surface. Lesley Elkan.

ABOUT GUSTAVO SURLO

graduated in Biological Sciences from the Federal University of Bahia
subsequently became a Margaret Mee Scholar at Kew in 2018.
He is a botanical illustrator and intern at the plant tissue culture laboratory of the UFBA Institute of Biology.

His Instagram post about his illustrationindicates his pleasure with his win. I recommend he now get himself a website!

I am immensely grateful to the organizers of this incredible initiative, which I have followed with delight for several years. I also thank the researchers who very kindly allowed the submission of the illustration and helped to understand the structures. Today an old dream comes true with Margaret Flockton Award

Second Prize: Phoenix canariensis by Juan Luis Castillo, Spain

The second prize is awarded to Phoenix canariensis (Canary Island date palm) by Juan Luis Castillo (Spain)

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Do you want to exhibit at the RHS Botanical Art Show in 2024?

17/8/2023

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To be able to exhibit at the RHS Botanical Art Show you have to follow a lengthier process than for other international art exhibitions.

Understanding how the process works is absolutely critical:

Do your research i.e. read my page dedicated to RHS Botanical Art Shows - How to Exhibit (see more about what it covers below) which I have just given a major overhaul.
Apply to be "approved to exhibit": the deadline for the next set of applications is Tuesday 5th September. You then get five years from the date of approval to display your exhibit of six artworks on a theme
Once the RHS Selection Meeting has been held and you have been "approved to exhibit", you will be sent an invitation to "apply for space to exhibit" at the RHS Botanical Art Show in 2024 - but there is no guarantee you'll get space.

It's entirely possible that if you apply to be "approved to exhibit" and get your submission in by the 5th September, that you might be exhibiting at the Saatchi Gallery next summer. This year priority was given to

those whose five year approval was about to expire (i.e. this was their last possible show prior to expiry); and
those who had been newly approved and not exhibited before

which is how we came to see less people who had exhibited previously.

No other show requires and displays
a minimum of six botanical artworks
from each exhibiting botanical artist/illustrator.
The show always includes a significant number of international exhibitors
- mostly from from Europe, Asia, Australasia and Africa.

I've given my page dedicated to the process of exhibiting your work at the RHS Show a complete overhaul.

See RHS Botanical Art Shows: How to Exhibit / How to Visit. This

emphasises the "need to know" before you start - it's a complex process
the Regulations and Guidance which must be followed
the Judgement Criteria used for Medals and Awards
the whole process broken down into the different stages of getting from studio to the Saatchi Gallery where the exhibition is now held.

Only artists who have been accepted by the Botanical Art Judging Panel are eligible to apply for space
RHS: Selection for Exhibition

You can also read the RHS Exhibition Factsheet (7 pages) which I think might actually be longer than my page!

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More about the RHS Botanical Art Shows

Take a look at my pages on this website dedicated to the RHS Botanical Art Show

VIEW ARCHIVE: RHS Botanical Art Shows 2007-2023 This includes:
- images from the shows
- notes about who won the Best Painting and the Best Exhibit at each show and the Gold Medals
- archive files of all Exhibiting Artists and Awards
- links to reviews of past RHS Shows in London - which include both images and interviews
VIEW Exhibit Titles at RHS Botanical Art Shows - categorises the titles of past gold medal winning exhibits. You may be surprised at the result....
READ Tips from RHS Gold Medal Winners in the Education section. These include:
- an outline of the process from application to exhibit through to the exhibition
- several articles about TIPS FROM RHS Gold Medal-winning artists about how to be successful at an RHS Botanical Art Show. Every year they come up with new tips! (This will be updated in due course for the switch from the Lindley Hall to the Saatchi Gallery)
- Practical matters e.g. how to transport your artwork

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