NEWS about Botanical Art and for Botanical Artists

Call for Entries - Margaret Flockton Award 2019

25/11/2018

The Call for Entries for the 2019 Margaret Flockton Award for Excellence in Scientific Botanical Illustration has been published by The Margaret Flockton Award Committee

The deadline for digital online entry is 29 January 2019.

Images from Margaret Flockton Award prizewinners and highly commended 2016-2018 - on Flickr

The Margaret Flockton Award

The Margaret Flockton Award is a prestigious international award for contemporary scientific botanical illustration which

celebrates the best scientific botanical illustration completed by botanical illustrators from around the world today
commemorates the contribution Margaret Flockton (1861-1953) made to Australian scientific botanical illustration.

In particular , the Award focuses on:

both traditional and digital techniques that best illustrate the botanical world
a range of plants from new or renamed species, to rare, vulnerable or endangered plants, as well as common native or exotic subjects.

The Award is run by Catherine Wardrop and Lesley Elkan, the botanical illustrators at the Royal Botanic Garden in Sydney, Australia where Margaret Flockton worked in the Herbarium - on behalf of the Margaret Flockton Award Committee.

The Prizes are as follows

First prize: AU$5000;
second prize: AU$2000;
3 x Highly Commended.

However the best prize is probably the career development benefit of being identified as one of the best scientific botanical illustrators in the world.

This is an OPEN COMPETITION and the Award always welcomes new and talented illustrators. Those interested should first review the entries in the exhibition in 2018 - as exhibited on Flickr

How to enter

You can read about how to enter on:

The RBGS website - see The Margaret Flockton Award Register for updates with the enquiries email on this page.
This website - see The Margaret Flockton Award for Excellence in Scientific Botanical Illustration

You can send in an entry between Mon 14 January and Tues 29 January 2019. Note this is earlier than last year when the submission was in February.

Key points to note are:

All entries must be submitted digitally.

All original illustrations must be scanned or photographed at high resolution and then submitted via approved large-file transfer sites.
No original artworks will require sending or receiving.
Digital submission - forms
Digital submission - artwork
Permissions

Fully digitally rendered, printable illustrations are now eligible for entry.

but NOT animated or 3D works

Entries must comply with a range of technical requirements

these are explained in full on the website in addition to A Guide to Scientific Illustration

No artworks will be offered for sale by RBGS

BUT direct email or website details will be made available, with the consent of the artist for sales to be arranged direct with the relevant artist.

Assessment

Judging: Entries will be assessed in accordance with the following criteria:

accurate interpretation and portrayal of plant characters and diagnostic features;
technical merit;
reproducibility;
composition;
artistic merit.

See A Guide to Scientific Illustration on the RBGS page for more information on judging criteria.

Further Information

Exhibition

The botanical illustrations in the Exhibition can be seen at three different locations.

Works for sale - selected works will be available for sale direct from the artist
The exhibition details for the three locations are as follows:

VENUE 1:

Venue: Joseph Maiden Theatre, Royal Botanic Garden Sydney - enter via Woolloomooloo Gate on Mrs Macquaries Road
Dates: Sat 30 March – Sun 14 April 2019 daily 10 am - 4 pm.
Cost: Entry to the exhibition is free

VENUE 2:

Venue: The Australian PlantBank at The Australian Botanic Garden Mount Annan
Dates: Saturday 8 June – Sunday 28 July 2019, Mon – Fri 10 am – 4 pm and selected weekends

VENUE 3:

Venue: Visitor Centre at The Blue Mountains Botanic Garden Mount Tomah
Dates: Friday 9 August – Sunday 15 September 2019, daily 9.30 am – 4.30 pm

More Information:

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List of artists exhibited in "Down Under II: Works from the Shirley Sherwood Collection"

27/8/2018

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View of Down Under II in the Shirley Sherwood Gallery

This post puts on record all those artists who have artwork in Down Under II: Works from the Shirley Sherwood Collection at the The Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art in Kew Gardens.

It also provides views of artwork in the exhibition for those who have been unable to attend - or need an incentive to visit before it ends on Sunday 16th September 2018!

The exhibition contains a mix of works by Australian and New Zealand artists based combined with studies of some remarkable Australasian native plants, created by artists from other parts of the world. All were collected since 1990.

All the artwork comes from the Shirley Sherwood Botanical Art Collection.

Some of the artists included in the exhibition Susannah Blaxill, Paul Jones, Celia Rosser and Margaret Stones were well established botanical artists when Dr Sherwood started collecting.

However, her first exhibition of botanical art in Sydney in 1998 triggered an interest in botanical art which led to

the first Down Under II exhibition ten years ago at Kew and
the formation of the Florilegium Group at the Royal Botanic Garden in Sydney and the current major exhibition in the Shirley Sherwood Gallery - see "The Florilegium: The Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney" exhibition at Kew Gardens

The Banksia Corner in the Down Underr II exhibition

The list of artists and the 43 artworks included in the exhibition works as follows:

The list is alphabetical based on (1) the country they come from and (2) the surname of the artist.
A link to their website (if they have one) is embedded in their name. Alternatively another page has been linked to if this tells you about an artist who doesn't have a website.
an asterisk * after their name indicates they are included in my current summary of artists for the country they live in - where you can read more about them. If the artist is deceased they will be listed in 20th century Botanical Artists in the history section. Those without an asterisk will be added soon!
The name is followed by basic bio data which indicates where they were born and live
This is then followed by the title of the work. The common vernacular name is very often followed by the correct latin name in italics, (for more about naming plants see Plant Names and Botanical Latin in the Botany section on this website)
Media: All paintings are watercolour on paper unless otherwise stated.
Artwork which has been published in one of Dr Sherwood's books includes the title of the book and page number (in green) after the title
Those who have more than one artwork in the exhibition have the titles of the works bullet pointed below their names.

Some of the plants have interesting stories or names and these are also highlighted

Paintings by Noboru Isogai. Betty Hinton, Bronwyn Van de Graaff and Gill Condy

Names of the Artists / Titles of the Artwork

Australia

Beverly Allen* GM (RHS 2007, NYBG 2010) - b. 1945 in Sydney, Australia.

Strelitzia nicolai 2003 Watercolour on paper

Laurie Andrews born Melbourne, Australia 1936

Maidenhair Fern: Adiantum aethiopicum (2001) Watercolour on paper - the plant can be found over a wide area including Australia
Strap Water Fern: Blechnum patersonii (2001) Watercolour on paper - an Australian native

Susannah Blaxill * b. 1954 in Armidale, New South Wales.This artist is featured in Contemporary Botanical Artists

Seaweed: Laminaria sp. (2002) Watercolour on paper - Kelp found on a Sydney beach
Agapanthus africanus (2012) Watercolour on vellum - Her first painting on vellum.

I've spend a long time with a magnifier looking at her brushstrokes in the agapanthus. It's almost unbelievable that this is her FIRST painting on vellum. I seem to recall she had the additional stress of painting on a sheet of vellum from the Hunt which had belonged to Rory McEwen

Agapanthus africanus and Laminaria by Susannah Blaxill

Betty Hinton born Gin Gin, Queensland, Australia 1935. This artist is featured in A Passion for Plants

Idiot Fruit: Idiospermum australiense 2000 Watercolour on paper - also known as Also known as the 'Green Dinosaur' A Passion for Plants page 107

This very ancient and primitive plant has huge and heavy seeds. It's endemic in the Daintree National Park, NE Queensland, Australia. It was first discovered in the nineteenth century and then "lost" again as land was cleared. The fruit is classed as very poisonous by the Aborigines. If eaten by cattle they go mad. The tree is 15 metres tall and the flowers can only be retrieved by somebody climbing the tree to the top to cut off flowering branches - which is what happened in relation to this painting.

Annie Hughes * GM (RHS: 2011, 2012, 2013, 2017) born Australia 1948

Camellia japonica ‘Elegance champagne’ 2011/2012 Watercolour on paper - The camellia flower has been dramatically enlarged

Paul Jones * OBE (1921 - 1997) Australia. This artist is featured in Contemporary Botanical Artists and A Passion for Plants

Camellia ‘Paul Jones Supreme’ 1977 - Acrylic on paper Contemporary Botanical Artists page 105
Sunflower: Helianthus annuus Acrylic on paper A New Flowering page 155
Magnolia grandiflora Acrylic on paper A New Flowering page 101; A Passion for Plants page 131

Sydney became the centre of Australian camellia breeding led by Prof E. G. Waterhouse at Eryldene House in the 1970s. Paul Jones had this camellia named after him in 1958 in recognition of his iconic camellia portraits. There are 5 camellia studies in the 16 paintings in the Shirley Sherwood Collection, mostly acquired from the artist in Sydney before 1997. He used a graded background for some paintings after a visit to Japan

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Diploma and Certificate Courses in Botanical Art and Illustration

1/8/2018

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This morning I updated the page on my website devoted to Diploma and Certificate Courses in Botanical Art and Illustration. This covers:

Guidelines on how to assess and choose a course from available options; and
Listings of Diploma and Certificate courses

This year I've developed the listings and am now including information relating to:

scope of the course - in terms of topics covered - with links to where more information is supplied by the course provider
teaching staff / tutors - with links to the course page about teaching staff and/or their personal websites PLUS mentions for any prestigious awards they have received
method of assessment
course fees - which is, of course, a topic of much interest to prospective students.

BELOW you can find out about:

info. about the course listings - and how to help me update them
what Diploma and Certificate Courses cost in the UK
what sort of guidance is available e.g. what questions you should ask before handing over the money! Ideally - this is available on the website or via downloads provided!

Course Listings

The course listings currently cover the UK and USA - but the listings can easily be extended to other continents and countries if such courses exist elsewhere - and have a website which allows me to check the content and the tutors. (I use Chrome's translate function to check listings in other languages)

There is a form at the bottom of the page to notify me of any Diploma or Certificate Courses (i.e. NOT short courses - which are on other pages)

I also note that more and more education providers are looking to provide tuition suitable for those who would like to pursue a diploma course but do not have the knowledge or basic skills required.

For example, the Society of Botanical Artists will be delivering a Distance Learning Foundation Certificate as from March 2019 - with information available about content, tuition and course fees from this September.

SBA DLDC student work at the Annual Exhibition in 2012

How much do Courses cost - in the UK?

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"The Florilegium: The Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney" exhibition at Kew Gardens

9/7/2018

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The exhibition The Florilegium: The Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney opened at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery at Kew Gardens on 31 March and continues until 16th September 2018.

This is the second exhibition of this very impressive collection of watercolour paintings by members of The Florilegium: The Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney.
Click here for the list of Florilegium paintings and artists

It's a companion exhibition to Down Under II: Works from the Shirley Sherwood Collection which is a smaller exhibition of drawings and paintings of native Australian and New Zealand plants created by local and international artists - also on until 16th September - and also recommended by me.

Both are related to the reopening of The Temperate House in Kew Gardens - and a number of the paintings have an icon to indicate that the plants can be found in the Temperate House.

All the images in this post are of The Florilegium: The Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney exhibition - and contributing artists.

This week, there's an opportunity on Saturday 14 July, 10.30am-12.30pm to meet/greet Angela Lober, whose work is in the Shirley Sherwood Collection and on display as part of The Florilegium: Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney. (Angela is also exhibiting at the RHS Botanical Art Show this week)

Her very impressive Video: Painting a Norfolk Island Pine for the RBG Sydney Florilegium (made for the original exhibition) is also playing in the Gallery as part of the exhibition.

Angela Lober (Araucaria heterophylla) and the video

This post covers:

the exhibition
videos related to the exhibition
the artists
related news posts

The Exhibition

This is a first class exhibition and one very definitely one not to be missed.
It sets a very high international standard for a large exhibition of a Florilegium.

Below are some views of the exhibition and how it was hung - for those Florilegium artists unable to travel to London for the exhibition - and for those of you who have not visited!

I hope they indicate the quality of the exhibition and why it should be viewed as essential viewing for those who are able.

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Botanica 2018 at Royal Botanic Garden Sydney

26/4/2018

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Botanica - Australia’s leading contemporary botanical art exhibition now in its 19th year - is the second of two botanical art exhibitions at the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney until 6th May.

Venue: Lion Gate Lodge, Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney
Dates: 21 May - 6 May 2018
Exhibiting artists: listed below. They include some of the best Australian and international established and emerging botanic and natural history artists

The can be viewed at the same time as the Margaret Flockton Exhibition (see Nataneal Nascimento wins Margaret Flockton Award 2018) which is a short stroll away at the Maiden Theatre)

Theme: 'Symbiosis'. The theme of this year's exhibition explores the complex and remarkable relationship we humans have with plants. Artwork reflects the symbiotic relationships some plants have with other plants and animals.

Artwork is for sale with the proceeds of original artwork and limited-edition prints going to the artists and to Foundation and Friends of the Botanic Gardens. The latter contribution helps this not-for-profit organisation support horticulture, conservation, scientific research and education programs within the Botanic Gardens.

Exhibiting Artists

The exhibiting artists include:

A

Amanda Ahmed,
Beverly Allen,
Tane Andrews,

Janette Barlow,
Samantha Bayly,
Shannon Bellamy,
Sylvia Beresford,
Samantha Blanks,
Esther Bolz,

Linda Catchlove,
Stephanie Chambers,
Yvonne Chan,
Glenys Clarey,

Barbara Davison,
Pauline Dewar,
Rosemary Donnelly,

Roslyn Earp,
Judith Edmonds,
Melinda Edstein,
Alison Ellis,

Helen Fitzgerald,
Ros Franklin,

Susan Grace-MacDonald,

Anne Hayes,
Cheryl Hodges,
Tanya Hoolihan,
Annie Hughes,

Kerriann Indorato,

Jillian Lloyd,
Angela Lober,
Marina Lommerse,
Anna Lu,

Janet Matthews,
Lynda McPherson,
Mary Ann Mein,
Peter Mesenberg,
Mali Moir,
Elaine Musgrave,

Julie Nettleton,
Kate Nolan,
Leonie Norton,

Rita Parkinson,
John Pastoriza-Piñol,
Joy Pearson,
Vivien Pinder,
Patricia Prince,

Lauren Sahu-Khan,
Sandra Sanger,
Anne Saville,
Peter Schouten,
Shipra Shah,
Claire Stack,
Sue Stuart,

Heather Trott,

Olivia Unicomb,

Bronwyn Van de Graaff,
Anna Voytsekhovich,

Christine Weldon,
Colleen Werner,
Sue Wickison and
Sue Wilcockson.

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Nataneal Nascimento wins Margaret Flockton Award 2018

24/4/2018

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Brazilian scientific illustrator Natanael Nascimento has won the Margaret Flockton Award 2018.

This Award and Exhibition at the Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney is very prestigious and attracts submissions from scientific botanical illustrators from all over the world - as demonstrated by the prizewinners below.

Margaret Flockton Award 2018
for Scientific Botanical Illustration

This is very much an award for the professional botanical illustrator since it is very much focused on the plates produced for the record and for scientific botanical publications.

What happens is that illustrators from around the world

digitally submit scientifically accurate taxonomic illustrations
i.e. highly detailed black and white drawings primarily undertaken in pen and ink, pencil or digitally rendered.
that accompany a published taxonomic description of the plant,
with the drawing clearly highlighting all of the distinctive features of the species.

The Criteria used to judge the Award are listed below:

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

See A Guide to Scientific Illustration for more information on judging criteria.

First Prize $5,000 (AUS)

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List of artists exhibited in "Abundance, seed pods and autumn fruit" at Kew

9/3/2018

This post puts on record all those artists who contributed to Abundance, seed pods and autumn fruit at the The Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art in Kew Gardens before it ends on Sunday March 11th 2018.

The exhibition is open this weekend 10am to 5pm (last admission 4.45pm). It includes artwork by botanical artists and illustrators from Australia, Brazil, France, Italy, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, Thailand, UK and USA.

Left: Custard Apple by Álvaro Xavier Núñez; next Pomegranates by Ann Schweizer; Right: two paintings of the Ivy Gourd and Bitter Gourd by Phansakdi Chakkaphak

Like many of the smaller exhibitions in the side corridors of the gallery Abundance, seed pods and autumn fruit does not have a catalogue and there is also no list of artists and artworks available at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery.

However I've been given a set of the labels used for the exhibition and was able to discus the plants in the exhibition with Shirley Sherwood.

This was supposed to have been written in November last year - and here we are at the last weekend! Which will teach me not to mistake uploading images of the artists with their paintings to Facebook after the Private View with the rather longer(!) task of sorting out this type of blog post.

Explanation of the exhibition - and how dispersal occurs via wind, water, animals and explosive mechanisms

How this list of artists in the exhibition works

I did think of ordering works by methods of dispersion but that would have got very repetitive in terms of artists names!

So the way it works is like this

The list is alphabetical based on (1) the country they come from and (2) the surname of the artist.
A link to their website (if they have one) is embedded in their name. Alternatively another page has been linked to if this tells you about an artist who doesn't have a website.
an asterisk * after their name indicates they are included in my current summary of artists for the country they live in - where you can read more about them. If the artist is deceased they will be listed in 20th century Botanical Artists in the history section. Those without an asterisk will be added soon!
The name is followed by basic bio data which indicates where they were born and live
This is then followed by the title of the work. The common vernacular name is very often followed by the correct latin name in italics, (for more about naming plants see Plant Names and Botanical Latin in the Botany section on this website)
Media: All paintings are watercolour on paper unless otherwise stated.
Artwork which has been published in one of Dr Sherwood's books includes the title of the book and page number (in green) after the title
Those who have more than one artwork in the exhibition have the titles of the works bullet pointed below their names.

Some of the plants have interesting stories or names and these are also highlighted.

Names of the Artists and Titles of the Artworks

Australia

Second from left is the Idiot Fruit Idiospermum australiense painting by Betty Hinton

Betty Hinton b.1935 Gin Gin, Queensland
Betty has painted a group of 'plant dinosaurs' from the tropical forest reserve at Daintree, north of Cairns

Idiot Fruit Idiospermum australiense - gouache and watercolour on paper A Passion for Plants, pg 107 AND The Art of Plant Evolution page 74 and 75

This very ancient plant has huge and heavy seeds. It was first discovered in the nineteenth century and then "lost" again as land was cleared. The fruit is classed as very poisonous by the Aborigines. If eaten by cattle they go mad. The tree is 15 metres tall and the flowers can only be retrieved by somebody climbing the tree to the top to cut off flowering branches - which is what happened in relation to this painting.

Mali Moir GM b.1960

Ovuliferous Scale Bunya Pine Nut Araucaria bidwillii 2014 Watercolour on deer vellum

Jenny Phillips GM b.1949

Corymbia ficifolia 1998 Watercolour on vellum
Sausage Tree Kigelia africana 1999

Brazil

Far Left: Seed Pod, Cardiocrinum giganteum by Robert McNeill. Far right: Two works by by Alvaro E. X. Nunes - Cybistax antisyphilitica and Zeyheria montana

Álvaro Xavier Núñez b.1945 Annapolis, Brazil
One the best known of the contemporary Brazilian botanical artists, Álvaro specialises in painting plants from all the different ecosystems within Brazil - and has seven paintings in the exhibition.

Custard Apple Annona crassiflora 2003 The Art of Plant Evolution page 72 and 73
Cybistax antisyphilitica 2008 Old and New South American Botanical Art page 134 It's a popular Brazilian tonic in the treatment of syphilis and in yaws and its leaves are used to dye cloth blue.
Kapok Tree Ceiba speciosa 2003 Old and New South American Botanical Art page 126
Dioclea violacea 2009 Old and New South American Botanical Art page 135
Fruits of Savannah A Passion for Plants page 156 This might be described as a symphony in browns, the painting displays exquisite tonal control.
"Monkey Pot" Lecythis pisonis This plant is a tropical tree in the Brazil nut family and the fruit has a tight fitting lid which burst open when ready. The common name comes from the fact Monkeys put their hand into to retrieve the nuts. Adults learn that they need to be sparing in how many they take out at one time.
Zeyheria montana 2008 Old and New South American Botanical Art page 132

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