NEWS about Botanical Art and for Botanical Artists

The 16th Biennial Art of Botanical Illustration Exhibition at RBG Victoria

18/9/2022

Yesterday the 16th Biennial Exhibition of The Art of Botanical Illustration (TABI 2022) opened in Melbourne, Australia.

Venue: Domain House galleries, Dallas Brooks Drive, Melbourne
Dates: Saturday 17th September and Sunday 2nd October 2022
Hours: 10am - 4pm daily
The exhibition is organised and presented by the Friends of the Royal Botanic Garden Victoria.

Below you can find out more about:

the exhibition
how to view the artwork and videos online
history of the exhibition
the awards for artwork
an associated exhibition - in a blog post later this week.

The hero image for the 16th Biennial (in the publicity images) is a beautiful and delicate painting of Grevillea rosmarinifolia, painted by Lioudmila Volodina. (At TABI 2020, her artwork Vaccinium corymbosum was purchased for The State Botanical Collection, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne.)

The Art of Botanical Illustration (16th Biennial)

The Art of Botanical Illustration exhibition is one of Australia’s leading and most prestigious botanical illustration exhibitions - and is held on a biennial basis.

It's been four years since the last exhibition - due to its biennial nature combined with the pandemic. The last exhibition - as highlighted in The 15th Biennial Art of Botanical Illustration Exhibition at RBG Melbourne was Online Only .)

All artworks are for sale and funds raised are used to support the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria.

TABI this year is being held for the first time as a hybrid exhibition with

a physical exhibition at the Domain Galleries. This prestigious exhibition of native and exotic species is open daily (including public holidays). (see above for details)
You can also view the artwork ONLINE via https://tabi.rbgfriendsmelbourne.org/ - specifically:
- Gallery of Artwork in the TABI Exhibition - in alphabetical order of the artists' surnames
- Names of the participating artists and links to their artwork and profiles
- Vimeo Videos of artists and others talking about TABI stories the exhibition.

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Plantae 2022: Exhibiting Excellence Awards

22/6/2022

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The Exhibiting Excellence Awards were introduced by SBA to highlight

excellent artworks in different media or
excellent artwork in relation to colour or composition.

The recipient receives a rather amazing Certificate of Exhibiting Excellence for their work

Exhibiting Excellence: Colour & Composition

Inspiring Use of Colour
Brassica (145) by Edwina Keene

I was pleased to see this award for inspiring use of colour. For me, one of the signs of whether a botanical artist is excellent or not is the effort employed in painting leaves and the quality of the result. Invariably only the best pay the same attention to leaves as they do to blooms. This painting is an excellent example of meticulous attention to the transitions of both colour and tone in the leaves of a brassica.

Edwina Keene has worked as a freelance illustrator for over 40 years. Her career has involved moves to the Middle East and Australia and her studio is now in the heart of the Blue Mountains near Sydney - next to a plot of land where she cultivates her plants. Her botanical/horticultural artwork has featured in various publications including ones by Harper Collins and Readers Digest. In March 2022 she was awarded the Best In Show at BASA's exhibition in Melbourne.

Inspiring Use of Colour
Cerinthe major ‘Purpurascens’ (34) by Youngran Choi

Youngran Choi (Korea?) also won the William Cowley Parchment and Vellum Makers Award for the best use of vellum with this painting. She's recently started teaching classes in botanical art. She's also focusing on an exhibit for a future RHS Botanical Art Show.

Most innovative composition
Acanthus spinosus (248) by Julia Patience

Julia lives in Tunbridge Wells. She graduated with a BA (Hons) degree in Visual Communication from Brighton Polytechnic in 1977 and subsequently worked as a magazine designer and illustrator in London. She moved to Hong Kong with her husband in 2007 and returned to the UK in 2012 and was awarded full membership of SBA in 2016 and is now a member of the SBA Council.

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SBA Plantae 2022: Award Winners

21/6/2022

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This post is the first of FOUR about the annual exhibition of the Society of Botanical Artists. which took place last week at the Mall Galleries in London

These are

today's post - which is about the botanical artists receiving awards at Plantae 2022 the 2017 Annual Exhibition of It includes images of the artwork receiving awards and more information about the artists (links to their websites are embedded in their names).
tomorrow's post is about those awarded a Certificate of Botanical Merit
Friday's post is about those awarded a Certificate of Exhibiting Excellence
finally, Sunday's post will be a review of the exhibition as a whole and a commentary on its most recent development (I've been reviewing this exhibition since 2006!)
subject to caveat - see below.

For every award I'll be linking to the botanical artist who received the award and including some brief bio details and an image of the artwork which merited the award.

BELOW the various awards are divided into three categories

Society of Botanical Artists Awards
Monetary Awards
Awards sponsored by art materials companies

NOTE: Apologies for the delay in posting about the exhibition but a very close relative has been seriously ill and I've been very much preoccupied with other matters.

Society of Botanical Artists Awards

These are awards which originate within the Society of Botanical Artists and members past and present. Often as a memorial to a particular member.

Five watercolour paintings by Billy Showell in Plantae 2022 (except for the middle on right)

Suzanne Lucas Memorial Award in Recognition of Services to SBA
Billy Showell and Gael Sellwood
Recognition for the person who has given outstanding service to the Society, their name(s) is inscribed in the Memorial Book named after the first President of the SBA.

Billy Showell and Gael Sellwood are the immediate past Co-Presidents of the SBA and have been stalwarts of the team of members who make things happen behind the scenes for a number of years. They were certainly a permanent feature of the exhibition team for as long as I can remember.

For six years they served on SBA Council together and for 3½ of those they were the Co-Presidents. In doing so they both made a serious commitment to supporting both botanical art and artists via the SBA while having active careers as artists and art teachers.

They are both, of course, also well known and prizewinning botanical artists and teacher of botanical art. Both have moved further away from the home counties near to London to more rural areas in recent times. Billy has moved into the deeper depths of Kent and Gael has relocated both home and studio to Somerset.

Hornbeam by Agita Keiri

Joyce Cumming Presentation Award
Hornbeam by Agita Keiri
Silver Plate for botanical work; Certificate for the winner | Chosen by the SBA Council

Agita Keiri was born in Latvia and now lives and works in Edinburgh. Her background is not typical of botanical artists.

She's followed a traditional art school education and subsequently focused on portraiture.
Her art education included the Latvian State Academy of Art, Painting department (enrolled 1997, Bachelor's degree 2001, Master's degree in 2003).
In 2011 she completed Caravaggio master class at Angel Art Academy in Florence, Italy.
In 2018, she completed the Society of Botanical Artists distance-learning course diploma with distinction.
Since 1997 her work has been seen in numerous group exhibitions in Latvia and internationally including Artexpo New York (2010), the Florence Biennale (2011), BP Portrait Award 2011 at the National Portrait Gallery, London. In 2013, she received the second prize in ARC Salon International competition. (See also my blog post Review: BP Portrait Award Exhibition 2011 where Agita gets a mention

As a botanical illustrator, she's now been exhibited by the SSBA - where she won the Sponsor (Cass Arts) Prize in 2019 and the SBA. You can see more of her botanical illustrations on her website

Clearly Agita Keiri is one to watch for the future!
You can follow her on https://www.instagram.com/akeiri_art/ and http://www.keiriart.uk

Banksia grandis by Lynne Uptin

Margaret Granger Memorial Silver Bowl
Banksia grandis by Lynne Uptin
Silver Bowl for the best work or body of work by member elected in the last two years; Certificate for the winner | Chosen by Council

Linda Uptin is a resident of Tasmania in Australia. She trained at the National Art School Sydney and had a career as a leading illustrator in Sydney (13 years) then owned art galleries and art studios. She was also Director of Arts Tasmania, the State’s arts funding body, for 20 years and was awarded an Order of Australia Medal (OAM) in 2010 for services to arts administration.

Linda was awarded a Distinction for her SBA Diploma and also won the Award of Excellence for the highest overall marks on the Course.

She is particularly interested in the distinctive Gondwanan plants that were isolated as Tasmania broke away from Antarctica 40 million years ago and uses her Gondwana mobile studio to travel to research and paint plants in Tasmania.

Presidents Award
Phoenix dactylifera #1 by Suha Kim.
Certificate for the winner | Chosen by the current President(s)

Suha Kim is a botanical artist from Korea who is currently based in the UAE. She is an SBA Fellow. She works in watercolour who is from Korea and has previously participated in the International Botanical art Korea Competition and was also selected for the online SBA Exhibition in 2020.

Joanne Craig-McFeeley Rose Bowl
Carroway (73) by Guy William Eves
Silver Rose Bowl for a true botanical piece of work; ; Certificate for the winner | Judged by an external Judge

Guy has been an exhibiting member of the Society of Botanical Artists since 2011 and has received numerous awards and recognition for his meticulous botanical illustrations in graphite. He also exhibits with Florilegium Groups, notably the Chelsea Physic Garden Florilegium Society and the group which illustrated the garden at the Royal College of Physicians. Royal College of Physicians

Monetary Awards (sponsored)

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Plantae 2022 - and a new Award

9/6/2022

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After two years, Plantae - the Annual International Exhibition of the Society of Botanical Artists (SBA) is back on the walls of the Mall Galleries next week.

The Preview - which I'll be attending - takes place on Tuesday 14th June
The exhibition is open to the public from Wednesday 15th to Saturday 18th June 2022 (10am - 5pm). Admission is £5.

For those attending the preview, I'm the woman pushing a rollator around! This is my first open exhibition since surgery in January!

The botanical art and illustrations on display will be by Fellows of the SBA and also artwork which was submitted via the open entry. (See my blog post Plantae 2022: Call for Entries for the SBA's Annual Open Exhibition).

The number of international artists exhibiting with the SBA has been growing exponentially over the last decade and I'm expecting to see artwork from artists in a number of different countries.

The Making a Mark Award:
a new perspective on Botanical Art

There are two things I've always enjoyed doing over the last 15 years of looking at art - and in particular botanical art:

finding and highlighting artwork (and/or an artist) that I believe merits extra attention.
supporting emerging artists who demonstrate they're serious about progressing their art practice and career.

As a result I've decided to add to the awards and prizes on offer at the SBA's Annual Exhibition and have created a new award - using the name of my art blog where I first started writing about this exhibition (see https://makingamark.blogspot.com/p/society-of-botanical-art-exhibitions.html )

The BRAND NEW Making A Mark Award will allow me to make a cash award to any one (or more) of the following:

a first time exhibitor at the exhibition who impresses
people who bring a fresh and different approach to botanical art and illustration
artwork demonstrating a genuine new perspective on how to portray habitat
artwork about plants which don't often get illustrated
drawing excellence - maybe in less used media

In essence, it's about:

a new perspective on botanical art
artists who "make their mark" with the artwork they create which catches my eye - because it's excellent and different.

I'm very much looking forward to seeing whose work catches my eye come next Tuesday!

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Botanical Art Medals at Bloom 2022

5/6/2022

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This is about the medals awarded for botanical art at Bloom 2022 - which for those unfamiliar with it is the Irish equivalent of the RHS Botanical Art Show.

The Bloom Horticultural Show is Ireland's largest horticultural event. It has returned to Phoenix Park in Dublin at its normal time of year (June 2nd-6th, from 9am to 6pm) after a two year break for the pandemic.

Within the show, there is an exhibition of botanical and floral art at the Visitor Centre in the centre of the park. This is the Eight Botanical Art Exhibition at Bloom in Phoenix Park since it started.

You can find listings of all the exhibits and the medals awarded on this page. Below I highlights the

Botanical Art Medals and awards and
the top awards for Floral Art.

Best in Show - Botanical

'Take a Breath' - Tree Lungwort, Lobaria pulmononaria with Pertusaria multipuncta by Shevaun Doherty. GM (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 + Best in Show, 2018, 2022) )

Shevaun lives in Kildare and works full time as a professional botanical artist and tutor. She graduated with a Distinction in the SBA's Diploma course in 2012 and is now a Co-President of the Society of Botanical Artists in the UK. She has won Gold Medals at this show in previous years and also won Best in Show in 2017.

Take a Breath' - Tree Lungwort, Lobaria pulmononaria with Pertusaria multipuncta by Shevaun Doherty. GM (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 + Best in Show, 2018, 2022)

Gold Medal - Botanical

'Making Hay' - Agrostis stolonifera, Holcus mollis, Holcus lanatus and Agrostis capillaris by Lynn Stringer GM (2015, 2016, 2022) - Lives in Wicklow and is a professional artist. She is a member of The Watercolour Society of Ireland, Irish Society of Botanical Artists, American Society of Botanical Artists and an Associate Member Irish Specialist Nursery Association
Geranium sanguineum var. striatum by Olwyn Burke - GM (2022) Olwyn is a member of the Irish Society of Botanical Artists (ISBA) and has exhibited at the Botanical and Floral Art exhibition in Bloom since 2016. This is her first Gold Medal.

Patrica Butler and Deborah Lambkin

Deborah Lambkin (on the right) an Irish Botanical Illustrator who is the RHS Orchid Artist and was one of the Judges of the Show. She is pictured here with Patricia Butler (on the left) who curated “Drawn from Nature: Irish Botanical Art” at the National Gallery in Dublin celebrating three centuries of Irish botanical art and also wrote Irish Botanical Illustrators and Flower Painters
(See my blog post Drawn from Nature: Irish Botanical Art at the National Gallery of Ireland)

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Mieko Ishikawa to receive inaugural Shirley Sherwood Award for Botanical Art

21/5/2022

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The first recipient of The Shirley Sherwood Award for Botanical Art is Mieko Ishikawa.
This NEW award for botanical art and artists comprises:

a £10,000 cash award to support the botanical artist's practice; and
a dedicated display at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery in @KewGardens.

Mieko Ishikawa GM (2006) with her very famous painting of "Acorns from Brunei" and "Flowering Cherries Prunus Pendula" both now owned by Shirley Sherwood. (Pictured in the Flora Japonica exhibition Sept. 2016)

About Mieko Ishikawa

There are a number of reasons to highlight the work of Mieko Ishikawa.
BOTANICAL ART

She is currently Japan's most prominent botanical artist
Her botanical artwork has three themes:
- “Flowering Cherries of Japan”,
- “Tropical Rainforest Plants of Borneo” and
- “Conifers.”
Her highly esteemed paintings are held in renowned collections worldwide - including the Hunt Institute, the RHS Lindley Library, the Shirley Sherwood Collection, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, the Highgrove Florilegium, and the Flower Museum, Chiba.
she has received numerous marks of recognition for the quality of her work including a Royal Horticultural Society Gold Medal.

EXHIBITIONS

Mieko co-organised (with Mieko Konishi ) the Flora Japonica exhibition at Kew (also shown in Japan) - see above and below.

Mieko Ishikawa with her fellow botanical artists from Japan - in the Flora Japonica preview at the Shirley Sherwood Gardens in September 2016

EDUCATIONAL

She has played a key role in introducing global audiences to both
- Japanese botanical artists and
- the country’s native flora.
She has inspired many Japanese artists to turn to botanical art, producing students of extremely high calibre. Those who heard my Zoom talk on Wednesday evening about 'How to exhibit at the RHS" will remember I specifically highlighted the mentor and support work done with Japanese botanical artists - which results in a lot of Gold Medals for first time exhibitors. The instigator and key proponent of this "training for the RHS" in Japan is Mieko Ishikawa.

BOTANICAL

Mieko is highly knowledgeable about the plants she paints
She is also a leading advocate for the continued biodiversity of rainforests.
She has travelled many times to Borneo where she has painted Rafflesia and Nepenthes but is also noted for her subtle and beautiful studies of conifers and cherry blossom.

About The Shirley Sherwood Award for Botanical Art

This is a BRAND NEW Award, created by Dr Shirley Sherwood, which aims to recognise leading botanical artists.

It will be awarded each year to an individual who has made a significant and broad contribution to the field of botanical art. The award includes

a £10,000 cash prize to support the artist’s creative practice and
a dedicated display at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery in @KewGardens.

Dr. Sherwood has dedicated over 30 years to championing the growth of the genre and hopes this award will contribute to sustaining that legacy for years to come.

I'm going to be setting up a new page on this website for this award to recognise what will inevitably be its standing within the international botanical art and illustration community - alongside the Hunt International Exhibition, the Jill Smythies Award and the Gold Medals awarded by the Royal Horticultural Society

Here's the announcement on The Shirley Sherwood Collection Facebook Page

READ MORE NEWS ABOUT BOTANICAL ART AND ARTISTS

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Andrew Brown awarded Jill Smythies Prize 2022

20/4/2022

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The Linnean Society of London has announced that Dr Andrew Brown has won the Jill Smythies Prize 2022 for outstanding diagnostic illustrations in botanical art.

Andrew Brown developed his skill in botanical illustration through his doctoral work on palynological vegetation history and during a career as an educator in the independent school sector. After retirement, he devoted himself to illustration fulltime. His detailed paintings of Alaskan wildflowers based on drawings done from life, have been exhibited at the Society and elsewhere. Other paintings have been selected for inclusion in limited edition botanical works, such as the Highgrove Florilegium. The black and white illustrations accompanying new species descriptions and floristic treatments demonstrate his skill in depicting detail, as well as the overall aspect of a plant, ensuring they are both faithful to the specimen from which they are drawn and aid in identification. He also contributes to the promotion of excellence in botanical illustration through his participation in societies and in botanical illustration workshops.
Citation for 2022 Jill Smythies Award

His award - and medal - will be officially presented at the Society’s AGM/Anniversary Meeting in May 2022.

About Andrew Brown

Dr. Andrew Brown

Dr Andrew P. Brown GM

has been awarded four Gold Medals by the Royal Horticultural Society - in 1992, 1994, 1997, 1999
His watercolour drawings of wildflowers in Alaska were made during the Westminster School 1985 Expedition to the Gates of the Arctic National Park in the Brooks Range of Alaska. These were exhibited at:
- 1987: the Linnean Society of London
- 1995: the Hunt Institute of Botanical Documentation in Botanical Watercolors by British Artists Andrew P. Brown and John Wilkinson
graduated from both Oxford and Cambridge Universities and taught botany and biology as a career. Prior to his retirement, he was Head of Biology at Westminster School, London
In his retirement he has continued to be very active and has been
- Secretary of the Chelsea Physic Garden Florilegium Society
- author and Editor of the books associated with exhibitions by the Chelsea Physic Garden Florilegium Society.
He now works as
- a freelance botanical illustrator for Kew Gardens;
- a member of the Picture Panel Judges for the RHS Botanical Art Show
- an educator

RHS Judge Andrew Brown providing feedback to Jackie Isard on her RHS Gold Medal winning exhibit - at the RHS Botanical Art Show preview day earlier this month.

his scientific illustrations form part of the Kew Collection and he has given talks at Kew about how to prepare a complete scientific illustration through meticulous observation, planning and execution.

Dr Andrew Brown giving a talk - From Plant to Plate - at Kew about producing a scientific illustration on the Worldwide Day of Botanical Art 18th May 2018

his watercolour paintings are in the collection of the Shirley Sherwood Collection, The Transylvania Florilegium, The Chelsea Physic Garden Florilegium Society
his paintings have been exhibited at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art Kew Gardens - including in the "British Artists in the Shirley Sherwood Collection" exhibition in 2016

Andrew Brown with his Voodoo Lily in the 'British Artists in the Shirley Sherwood Collection' exhibition at Kew in 2016

About the Jill Smythies Prize - and the Linnean Society

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