NEWS about Botanical Art and for Botanical Artists

Call for Entries - Margaret Flockton Award 2020

19/2/2020

Entries are now being accepted for the Margaret Flockton Award for Excellence in Scientific Botanical Illustration 2020.

Illustrators from around the world are asked to submit:

original scientifically accurate taxonomic illustrations completed since March 2018
These are highly detailed monochrome (black and white) drawings primarily undertaken in pen and ink, pencil or rendered using digital software.
They must clearly highlight all of the distinctive features of the species - as highlighted in the published taxonomic description of the plant .

All submissions must be in a digital format.
The deadline for digital online entry is Monday 2nd March 2020 (EST)

You can read more about it on:

the Margaret Flockton Award page on the RBGS website
the page about The Margaret Flockton Award for Excellence in Scientific Botanical Illustration on this website - where I break out and summarise all the important things you need to know if you want to enter - on one page

Crop of one small part (less than 25%) of the scientific botanical illustration which won first prize in 2019

The Margaret Flockton Award is unique amongst international art awards. This is because it

focuses exclusively on contemporary scientific botanical illustration (as distinct from botanical art) - which must be monochrome and 2D
commemorates the contribution Margaret Flockton made to Australian scientific botanical illustration.

The award is sponsored by The Maple Brown Family and the Foundation & Friends of the Botanic Gardens.
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Margaret Flockton Award Prizes 2020
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Most taxonomic botanical illustrators enter this award competition because of the credibility "awarded" to those selected for the exhibition. This is, of course, enhanced for all those who win the award or come second or get a "highly commended"

However the cash award for this international botanical illustration competition are significant.

First prize: AU$5,000;
Second prize: AU$2,000;
3 x Highly Commended.

In addition this Award brings additional benefits. First it is low cost

entry is free and
there are no costs involved in submitting your illustrations because it is all digital!

Plus you can also sell a print of your illustration direct to interested parties with no commission deducted. Those selected for the exhibition can sell prints of their work direct from their websites or email addresses to the public and collectors (meaning no commission is deducted by RBGS).

Overall it's a "win win" award for all concerned!

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Margaret Flockton Award 2020 - Exhibitions
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The exhibition will be held in the three different gardens which make up the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney.

Royal Botanic Garden Sydney - Joseph Maiden Theatre (Saturday 9 May - Sunday 24 May 2020, daily 10am - 4pm) enter via Woolloomooloo Gate on Mrs Macquaries Road
The Australian Botanic Garden Mount Annan - The Australian PlantBank (Tuesday 2 June - Friday 31 July 2020, weekdays 10am - 4pm)
The Blue Mountains Botanic Garden Mount Tomah - Visitor Centre (Tuesday 3 November - Sunday 13 December 2020, daily 10am - 4pm)

I'll be doing further blog posts about the artists selected for the exhibition and the prizewinners.

You can follow the two botanical illustrators who administer this Award on their Instagram Page https://www.instagram.com/rbg_illustration/

View this post on Instagram

Last stop for the 2019 Margaret Flockton Award Exhibition @bluemountainsbotanicgarden, Mount Tomah. 9 August to 15 September. Enjoying the view whilst bumping in, but not the tangled nylon cords!! #scientificillustration #bluemountainsbotanicgarden #margaretflocktonaward #botanicalillustrationpenandink #botanicalillustration

A post shared by Catherine W & Lesley E (@rbg_illustration) on Aug 7, 2019 at 9:03pm PDT

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Australasian Exhibit in 'Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art' at Kew

10/12/2019

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The Australasian exhibit within Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art is the first one you come to as you go through the double doors from the reception area of the Shirley Sherwood Gallery. into Gallery 1.

It covers contemporary botanical art by both Australian and New Zealand artists past and present. You can read more about the artists in my earlier blog post Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art #6: Australasian Artists

Below you can see photos of the paintings in the exhibition - with names of the plants, credits for the artists and explanations of and/or any stories I know about the plants and/or artists!

Australia and New Zealand have strong artists traditions with flourishing art and conservation societies. We had a botanical exhibition here... of a Florilegium of contemporary plant portraits demo Sydney's three botanical gardens, as well as two smaller 'Down Under' shows with paintings by Australian and New Zealand.
Introduction to the Australasian Gallery

Paintings by Paul Jones, Susannah Blaxill, Annie Hughes and Julie Nettleton

The first paintings you see on your left as you walk through the door contain some stunners.

The small gem-like painting of Agapanthus is by Susannah Blaxill. It's painted in watercolour and gouache on (if I recall correctly) some Rory McEwen vellum which she painted for the Rory McEwen exhibition in the gallery in 2013. I seem to recall there's a story that she had never painted on vellum before and was petrified of making a mistake. As you can clearly see she didn't - and if you take a very big magnifier and look very carefully you can see the tiny hatching strokes she used. It's an absolutely beautiful painting - a real gem!
Above it is a small painting of Violas, painted in acrylic by Paul Jones. It's been in quite a few exhibitions including "A new Flowering" exhibition at the Ashmolean in 2005
The large painting of an enlarged white Camellia japonica 'Elegans champagne' on white paper (800mm x 760mm) is by Annie Hughes GM (RHS: 2011, 2012, 2013, 2017). Annie won her first RHS Gold Medal for a suite of eight paintings of Camellias in 2011 and the painting was acquired from the exhibition at the Royal Botanical Garden in Sydney in March 2012.
The painting on the right is of Styphelia triflora by Julie Nettleton who won an RHS Gold Medal and 'Best Painting in Show' for an exhibit of Grass Trees in 2016. It has an amazing full page image in the book which allows you to see properly all the paintings of parts.

Paintings by Bronwyn van de Graaff , Celia Rosser and Beverly Allen.

The next three paintings speak Australia to me.

The Xanthorrhoea johnsonii Grass Tree is by Bronwyn van de Graaff which has a great composition.
The Banksia serrata Saw Banksia (1995) is by Celia Rosser OAM PhD (Hon.) who one is of the world's finest living botanical artists. She dedicated herself to producing watercolour paintings of every Banksia species every known Banksiaover 25 years. These were published as The Banksias, a three-volume series of monographs (1981, 1988 and 2000). This banksia requires you to take a magnifier with you if you want to see the level of detail she has achieved. It gets a full page in the book - but you need to get up close and personal with this painting! (You can see why in this blog post)
The Strelitzia nicolai by Beverly Allen GM (RHS 2007, NYBG 2010) is amazing and is the feature image of the exhibition. It's also used on the cover of the book produced in association with the exhibition.

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Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art #6: Australasian Artists

18/11/2019

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Find out about the Australasian artists - from Australia and New Zealand - whose artwork is now on display in Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art, the new exhibition at Kew Gardens celebrating 30 years of collecting 1,000+ artworks from all over the world for the Shirley Sherwood Collection of Contemporary Botanical Art.

Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art is now open at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery at Kew Gardens and will be on display until 15th March 2020.

Below is one small gem which you can see in the exhibition.

One of the most beautiful small paintings you will ever see. Agapanthus by Susannah Blaxill painted on McEwen vellum for the McEwen exhibition at SSG in 2013

This post "Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art #6: Australasian Artists" is the sixth in my series of posts about the artists in the exhibition.

Previous posts have travelled around the world

Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art #1: British Artists
Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art #2: North and Latin American Artists (USA, Canada Brazil and Mexico)
Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art #3: European Artists (Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Russia, Spain and Sweden)
Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art #4: Artists from Asia (China, India, Japan, Korea, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand)
Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art #5: South African Artists

Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art
#5(a): Australian Artists

Below you can find:

the names of artists whose work is displayed - with a link to their website embedded in their name (or a link to a dedicated page on my website for some of the deceased artists)
a short profile of each artist - focusing on their achievements. Those who have achieved more get longer profiles!
the names of the plants in their artwork which has been selected for the exhibition. Where plants have been featured in previous books by Dr Sherwood this is noted next to the name.

Also noted is the number of artworks each artist has in the collection.

Strelitzia nicolai by Beverley Allen - photographed during the 'Down Under II' exhibition in 2018 at SSG

Beverly Allen GM (RHS 2007, NYBG 2010)
(6 works in the SS Collection)
b. 1945 in Sydney, Australia. BA in Fine Arts from Sydney University. A graphic designer who began studying botanical art in 1997, became a botanical artist in 1998 and now exhibits and teaches masterclasses internationally. Has exhibited annually at the RBG Sydney ‘Botanica’ Exhibition since 1999, and exhibits internationally. Exhibited at the 11th International exhibition at the Hunt in 2004. Won an RHS Gold in 2007 for eight watercolour paintings of Epiphyllum. In 2010, she was awarded the inaugural Gold Medal for Botanical Art by the New York Botanic Gardens. Her work is in many major collections including Kew, the RHS Lindley Library, the Hunt, Highgrove and Transylvania Florilegiums. and the Shirley Sherwood and Alisa and Isaac Sutton Collections. It can also be seen in a large number of publications. She is the Co-Founder and President of the Florilegium Society at the Royal Botanic Gardens.

Strelitzia 2003 Strelitzia nicolai (on the cover of the book about the exhibition)
Pomegranates and seed pods of Gloriosa 2011

Susannah Blaxill
b. 1954 in Armidale, New South Wales. She has been painting full time since 1985. She's recognised as being one of the world’s leading botanical artists specialising in watercolour (on white and black paper), pencil and recently in charcoal. A lot of people have seen her Beetroot and request to see it. I investigated why in my blog post Susannah Blaxill's beetroot and a magnifying glass (do read it to see why you MUST bring a magnifying glass to this exhibition!). This is an interview with Susannah Blaxill

Beetroot (Contemporary Botanical Artists)
Agapanthus 2012 (Painted especially for McEwen Exhibition SSG 2013) - see image at the top of this post

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Selected Artists: ASBA 22nd Annual International

30/6/2019

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Members of the American Society of Botanical Artists selected for the 22nd Annual International Exhibition later this year are listed below.

The Annual International is open to all ASBA members in good standing, worldwide.

A total of 48 artworks by international artists from 12 countries (the USA, Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Norway, Russia, Slovenia and the UK) were selected from 230 entries from around the world.

The Judges making the selection were:

Frank Almeda, Curator of Botany Emeritus, Institute for Biodiversity Science and Sustainability, California Academy of Sciences
Julie Bly DeVere, Head Curator and Collections Manager, Historic Filoli Estate
Martha Kemp, Botanical Artist (see also the listing on this page)

Exhibition details are as follows:

Venue: The Studio, Marin Art & Garden Center, 30 Sir Frances Drake Blvd, Ross, CA 94957
Dates: September 22 - November 17, 2019

The venue seems to have stimulated rather more entries from California than usual and a lot of artists from California are in the show.

Cynthia Rice 2019. Artichoke ( Cynara scolymus)

The artists are listed below alphabetically by country - with the exception of the USA which comes first.

If I have any details wrong please let me know and I will correct them ASAP. I'm also open to adding in images.... :)

USA

Lots and lots of artists from California!

Claudia Campazzo (California) - Born in Chile to an Italian family, she has lived all of her adult life in the United States. Currently lives in Fairfax, California. Lost her hearing in 2016 and began painting as a creative alternative to her career as a violist.
Carrie Di Costanzo - Took up botanical art in 2008 and is an active ASBA exhibitor; won the Jurors’ Award for Distinction of Botanical Art Presentation at the 14th International show
Catherine Dellor (California) - a commercial artist who became a landscape designer and then started studying botanical art in 2008. Exhibits widely in group exhibitions - but mainly in California. Serves on the board of NCalSBA as well as the national board of ASBA.

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Nikulinsky Naturally

24/5/2019

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Nikulinsky Naturally
Venue: Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery (University of Western Australia)
Dates: 25 May — 17 August 2019
Hours: Tuesday - Saturday 11am - 5pm

Philippa Nikulinsky AM is an internationally recognised botanical and wildlife artist based in Perth in Western Australia

Image: Philippa Nikulinsky, Mistletoe, Mulgul Station 2014 (detail), 2014, pencil & watercolour on Arches hot press paper, 100 x 68cm

Nikulinsky Naturally is a retrospective survey of her work from the 1970s to the present which provides a perspective on the unique qualities of her practice - focusing on the evolution of her working methodology and exploring the ways in which she continues to interrogate the botanical riches of the Western Australian landscape.

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Artists exhibiting at the 16th International Exhibition of Botanical Art at the Hunt Institute

22/5/2019

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The 16th International Exhibition of Botanical Art & Illustration at the Hunt Instutute of Botanical Documentation includes 41 artworks by 41 artists who are citizens of 14 countries.

Below you can find the names of the artists organised by country

links to their websites are embedded in their names
plus a brief comment about the artist.

"Fading Beauty" by Vivienne Rew - Watercolour on Fabriano Artistico Extra White HP 300lb (the old stock) ; 45cm x 45cm

Exhibition

Venue: 5th floor of the Hunt Library building at Carnegie Mellon University
Dates: 17 September–18 December 2019 with a
Reception: 17 October (6–8 pm).
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).
Admission: Free

Artists selected to exhibit at
16th International Exhibition of Botanical Art

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Margaret Flockton Award 2019 - Exhibiting illustrators and list of selected works

1/4/2019

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35 contemporary scientific botanical illustrations by 23 illustrators from 16 countries were selected for the annual exhibition of the Margaret Flockton Award 2019 in Sydney Australia - and are listed below.

These were selected from 44 works submitted by 26 illustrators from a record number of 17 countries. Those selected included illustrations and illustrators from four new countries - Argentina, Canada, Colombia and Singapore. The majority of the works continue to be traditionally rendered in pen and ink but now also include illustrations which are rendered digitally.

BELOW are the

names of the exhibiting scientific botanical illustrators - organised alphabetically by country
a list of the titles of the botanical illustrations submitted and selected.
a summary of what differentiates quality in scientific botanical illustration i.e. the reasons why works won prizes or were not selected for exhibition

Links in the names are to the websites or sites about the illustrator. See my previous post Edmundo Saveedra wins Margaret Flockton Award for the third time for more about the botanical illustrators who received prizes or were highly commended.

Links in the works are to the images of those works which won prizes or were highly commended.

Images of the first and second prizewinners 2019

This year, 26 artists from 17 countries submitted 44 works.
A selection of 35 illustrations are exhibited here.
- 5 works are entirely or partially digitally rendered;
- graphite elements are on 10 of the plates;
- the remaining 29 illustrations are in the traditional form of ink on paper or board.

You can now see ALL of the scientific botanical illustrations SUBMITTED for the Margaret Flockton Award Exhibition 2019 on Flickr.

Note the album contains ALL submissions - not just those selected for the exhibition.
If you review the illustrations before you look at the list below - see if you can detect what media was used for an illustration and which were selected for the exhibition.

I highly recommend that all those thinking about applying next year review the images of scientific botanical illustrations in terms of the standards achieved - and the criteria used to assess each plate (see end for more about those criteria).

List of exhibiting illustrators and selected works

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