The Jill Smythies Award 2026 Winne : Diana Carneiro - pictured with samples of her artwork and her book about botanical illustration (Photo credit: Laurence Hill)

The Jill Smythies Award 2026

Diana Carneiro is a Brazilian artist and botanical illustrator based in Curitiba. Initially training in the biological sciences in 1968, she spent 25 years teaching science and biology before turning to botanical art full time. Later studying painting, she graduated from the School of Music and Fine Arts of Paraná in 1992. A 1997 Margaret Mee Foundation fellowship took her to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, where study with artist Christabel King deepened her commitment to botanical illustration. Working in watercolour and pen and ink, Diana has produced approximately 400 descriptive botanical illustrations, including newly discovered species. Her work appears in journals worldwide, and she trains illustrators through the Centro de Ilustração Botânica do Paranáthe (Center for Botanical Illustration of Paraná or CIBP), of which she is a founding member.

Diana Carneiro pictured with the Linneaus painting at the Linnean Society in London (Photo credit: Laurence Hill)

About Diana Carneiro

'From observing plants, I have come to understand that every being on Earth carries the secret of life within. As a botanical illustrator, I aim to raise awareness—especially among children and young people—about the need to preserve and restore the environments on which our existence depends. To the scientists and artists of nature who shape the history of this honourable institution, my sincere thanks.'

Herbarium Specimen Painting page 2 (56cm x 77cm) by Rachel Pedder-Smith

The Herbarium Specimen Painting (2006-2009)
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The painting as a whole displays one or more specimens representing each flowering plant family, in DNA classification order.

Rachel Pedder-Smith’s 18ft Herbarium Specimen Painting, which is on display at Kew Gardens, is not only scientifically accurate, it’s an exquisite and groundbreaking work of art.
Herbarium Specimen Painting at Kew Gardens | The Telegraph

Gillian Barlow at the presentation of the new Royal Signature Painting to King Charless III by the RHS

What is a "Royal Signature" painting?
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I feel privileged that Susannah agreed to collaborate on a talk about her work, in August last year.​ To honour her contribution to botanical art, I have made the full length version of this talk available on YouTube.

​Julia Trickey

Thank you Katherine for a lovely tribute. Susannah was farewelled last week at St Judes in Bowral. Her great capacity for friendship, kindness and compassion throughout her life was celebrated as generously as she had taught, and lived. She will be missed, but remembered with love by so many.

"As a painter, Blaxill takes ordinary produce and elevates it, with extraordinary skill, to the extraordinary. In effect, art overtakes science, for as concerned as Blaxill is with getting her botanical subjects correct, she is fascinated as an artist by the colours and forms of plant growth and decay. She is inspired by the perfection of imperfection and in Blaxill's work I notice for the first time the beauty to be found in the decaying process."

"There is an extraordinary complexity within the simplicity of the subject matter and that is the gift which commands the viewer to look again."

"What makes Blaxill an outstanding artist... is that she compels the viewer to see the everyday in a new way... The good and the great have always had this capacity to take the obvious and infuse it with all the wonder of creative discovery. "
Michael Reid, Lecturer at The College of Fine Art, University of NSW, Australia & Art Critic, The Weekend Australian.

Susannah Blaxill 2018

I believe she is one of today's best botanical artists and an example of Australia's depth of quality in this field.
Dr Shirley Sherwood - about Susannah Blaxill - in Contemporary Botanical Artists