NEWS about Botanical Art and for Botanical Artists

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

17/8/2023

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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Nominations for the Jill Smythies Award 2024

16/8/2023

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Yesterday, I received an email from somebody at the Linnean Society asking me for nominations for the Jill Smythies Award. I was very flattered as you can imagine.

However I can also highlight that you too can make a nomination. Find out more below and on:

The Jill Smythies Award | The Linnean Society
The Jill Smythies Award | Botanical Art and Artists

I've just sent off the names of three people and asked whether they might be considered suitable - in which case I'll need to complete a nomination form!

What is The Jill Smythies Award?

A medal and £1,000 to a botanical artist for outstanding, diagnostically relevant, published illustrations
Established in 1986 by the late Mr B E Smythies FLS, in honour of his wife, the late Florence Mary Smythies ("Jill"), whose career as a botanical artist was cut short by an accident to her right hand. Awarded to a botanical artist in recognition of excellence in published illustrations in aid of plant identification, with the emphasis on botanical accuracy and the accurate portrayal of diagnostic characteristics.

These are the names of the Previous Winners - so you can see the calibre of the people involved

2020-2029

2023 - Sue Wickison
2022 - Andrew Brown (UK) - see Andrew Brown awarded Jill Smythies Prize 2022
2021 - no award - see 2020

2010-2019

2020 - Alice Tangerini (presentation of the award has been postponed until 2021 because of the Pandemic)
2019 - Deborah Lambkin (Ireland / UK) - see The Linnean Society presents The Jill Smythies Award 2019 to Deborah Lambkin
2018 - Niki Simpson (UK) and Juliet Williamson - see Niki Simpson and Juliet Williamson win Jill Smythies Award 2018
2017 - Karin Douthit (USA) and David Williamson
2016 - Anita Barley (Australia / UK) - see Anita Barley wins 'Jill Smythies Award'
2015 - Claire Banks (RBG Edinburgh)
2014 - Esmee Somers Winkel (Netherlands - Naturalis Biodiversity Center)
2013 - not awarded
2012 - not awarded
2011 - Margaret Tebbs (RBG Kew)
2010 - Susan Sex (Ireland)

2000-2009

2009 - Halina Bednarek-Ochyra (Poland)
2008 - Patricia Eckel (Missouri Botanical Garden)
2007 - Jan van Os (Netherlands - National Herbarium)
2006 - Bobbi Angell (USA)
2005 - Lesley Elkan (Australia - RBG Sydney
2004 - Lucy Theres Smith (Australia/UK - RBG Kew)
2003 - Maya Koistinen
2002 - Jenny Brasier
2001 - Juan Luis Castillo (Spain - RBG Madrid)
2000 - Bo Mossberg (Sweden) and Jean Annette Paton

1990-99

1999 - Pandora Sellars (RBG Kew)
1998 - Rodella Anne Purves (Scotland)
1997 - Celia Elizabeth Rosser (Australia - Monash University)
1996 - Bent Jonsen
1995 - Rosemary Wise (Oxford BG)
1994 - Joy Claire Allison Dalby (1994) - taught Jill Smythies in 1979
1993 - Caroline Mary Bates (RBG Edinburgh)
1992 - John Mark Fothergill
1991 - Dale Edna Evans
1990 - Gillian Condy (South Africa - SANSI)

1988-89

1989 - Christabel King (RBG Kew)
1988 - Ann Farrer

Nominations

Nominations are now open.
Nominations will close on 30 September 2023
Awardees are invited to the Linnean Society’s Anniversary meeting in May 2024.
NOTE THE EMPHASIS ON PUBLISHED SCIENTIFIC BOTANICAL ILLUSTRATIONS
This page - about The Jill Smythies Award
- highlights what you need to do
- Plus provides the link to the Nominations form
You need to send your completed form to nominations@linnean.org by 30 September 2023.

PLEASE NOTE: SELF-NOMINATIONS ARE NOT ENTERTAINED.

We do not accept self-nominations

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RHS Botanical Art Awards and Medals 2023

18/6/2023

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The RHS Botanical Art and Photography Show opened at the Saatchi Gallery in Chelsea last week. Below is a list of all the 23 botanical artists and illustrators whose exhibits were

assessed by the RHS Picture Panel for Botanical Art and
whose RHS medals and awards which were announced on Thursday 15th June 2023.

RHS Best Botanical Artwork 2023: Hoya Latifolia G.Don. / Bold under (Sun) Stress by Eunike Nugroho (Indonesia)

My posts later this week will look in more detail at the different categories of awards and medal winners - and the artists winning them.

My post about the RHS Gold Medals will review:

the artists
images of the exhibits and how they came about
AND how you can get in touch with the artists and/or see more of their artwork.

Plus the same aspects for (1) Silver Gilt; and (2) the Silver and Bronze Medals - but in less detail.

The RHS Botanical Art & Photography Show 2023

Entrance to the Saatchi Gallery - just off the Kings Road in Chelsea

Venue: Saatchi Gallery Duke of York's HQ, King's Road, London, SW3 4RY
Dates: Friday 16th June - 9th July 2023
Hours: open from 10am to 6pm each day (last entry 5.30pm)
Admission: Tickets from £5. Terms and conditions apply

Saatchi Gallery & RHS members go free (Booking required with the code provided by the RHS.)
Standard Tickets £7;
Concessions £5;
Children Under 6, Free;
Children Aged 6-16 years, £6;
Family ticket £17.

RHS Botanical Art Awards 2023

The Director of the Saatchi Gallery welcomes people to the third RHS Botanical Art and Photography Show at the Saatchi Gallery.

Best Botanical Art Exhibit:
Nina Mayes for Macrophytes in the Emergent Zone of Britain's Fresh Waters

Nina Mayes receiving the RHS Best Botanical Art Exhibit Award 2023

Best Botanical Artwork:
Eunike Nugroho for Hoya Latifolia G.Don. / Bold under (Sun) Stress

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SBA Plantae 2023: Award Winners

22/5/2023

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Today's post is about the botanical artists receiving awards from the Society of Botanical Artists and Sponsors at Plantae 2023. The annual exhibition of the Society of Botanical Artists took place last week at the Mall Galleries in London.

It includes images of the artwork receiving awards and more information about the artists (links to their websites are embedded in their names).

It follows on from

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
Sponsor Awards (Monetary)
Sponsor Awards: sponsored by art materials companies

NOTE: The Plantae 2023 Catalogue sold out and is being reprinted. It should be available from the shop on the SBA website in about two weeks.

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

Joyce Cumming Presentation Award
Legacy from Joyce Cuming (a sterling silver Almoner’s plate) - for a beautiful botanical piece; Certificate for the winner | Chosen by the SBA Council
(7) Prunus by Hee-Soon Baik SBAF

Hee-Soon Baik SBAF lives in Korea. Hee-Soon previously exhibited in Plantae 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022. She also won the Koran National Arboretum Director General's Award at the Botanical Art Worldwide Exhibition in Korea (at the Korea National Arboretum) in 2018.

She has also told her story of her studies and how her career as a botanical artist has developed when elected to as a Fellow of SBA.

"I am not an art major, but I have always been interested in plants. I observe plants, compare how they differ from other plants, look for data, and start drawing when I have some confirmation.

It was 13 years ago when I started to care about Botanic art. It was a time when interest in the importance and preservation of nature spread in Korea.
My interest in plants led to drawing plants, I had to study plants, and I had to learn drawing techniques and skills. I was always worried about how to zoom in and about accurate observation and sketches. There was no place to teach professional Botanic art, so I took a few lectures on drawing plants, painting and exhibiting.

Then I got to know the Learning Course of SBA in the UK, applied for DLDC Course 15, and took a 30-month course.

Luckily, I received the Society of Botanical Artists "PLANTAE 2020" Certificate of Botanic Merit among my Portfolio paints.

After that, I found out that my painting skills had improved a lot without realizing it, and I won several awards in Korea and gained self-esteem.

I have been commissioned by the National Arboretum of Korea to draw native plants, and the paintings are circulating at arboretums and botanical gardens nationwide in Korea Also, my personal paintings are sold as goods at shops in the Natural History Museum in Korea."
SBA Facebook Page

Leaves by Izabela Wolska-Kuśmider SBAF

Margaret Granger Memorial Silver Bowl
Certificate for the winner + Name engraved on the Silver Bowl
For the best work or body of work by a member elected in the last two years | Chosen by Council
Four Wet Autumn Leaves by Izabela Wolska-Kuśmider SBAF
(top row Alnus glutinosa; Bottom row: Quercus robur - image is take from the catalogue as the leaves were separated in the exhibition.) You can see how they were exhibited below.

Izabela Wolska-Kuśmider is Polish and lives in Warsaw. She studied at the Faculty of Architecture of the Warsaw University of Technology. She graduated from the SBA's Distance Learning Diploma Course with Distinction. Iza is a Fellow of The Society of Botanical Artists (SBA) and a member of the American Society of Botanical Artists (ASBA)

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SBA's Plantae 2023: Certificates of Botanical Merit

20/5/2023

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This is about the Certificates of Botanical Merit awarded to artists exhibiting at the Society of Botanical Artists' Annual Exhibition - Plantae 2023 - at the Mall Galleries this week

Below you can find:

why the Society of Botanical Artists awards Certificates of Botanical Excellence.
how artworks are selected
the list of those receiving a Certificate of Botanical Art in 2023 in alphabetical order of the artists' surnames plus:
- an image of the artwork and
- a brief profile of the artist who produced it
- links to websites or other related sites are embedded in the name

One of two Certificates of Botanical Merit awarded to Eunhee Park SBA Fellow at Plantae 2023 - this one is for her Artichoke

The SBA Certificates of Botanical Merit

Unlike some other botanical art exhibitions such as the RHS botanical art shows, the Society of Botanical Artists' Annual Exhibition has traditionally not been a "strictly botanical" show.

This is because the SBA's founder Suzanne Lucas MBE FLS HPRMS PPRMS FPSBA HonSWA HSF BMS (1915-2008) believed very strongly that the portrayal of plants need not always be highly scientific and illustrative - as many flower painters would agree.

“To incorporate more recent techniques and styles in a broader interpretation; combining the scientific and representational, giving a rich and varied view of the wonderful world of plants.”
Suzanne Lucas, Founder President 1915 – 2008

However, since the SBA was founded, there has been a gradual move towards a much greater emphasis on 'botanical art' and the current exhibition is less about 'flower painting'. This has no doubt been influenced by the development and promotion of the knowledge and skills imparted via the SBA's very popular Distance Learning Diploma Course in Botanical Art which a major innovation in botanical art education when it started.

As a result, the SBA created the award of a "Certificate of Botanical Merit" in order to:

highlight the importance of drawings and paintings which are created in a botanical style - including some which observe the very precise niceties of scientific botanical illustration
for those botanical artworks in the exhibition which are particularly noteworthy in this respect.

Examples of the coursework by recent graduates of the SBA Distance Learning Diploma Course are on display within Plantae 2023

The selection process

Recipients of a Certificate of Botanical Merit are ALWAYS selected every year by a wholly independent Judge who is well qualified in terms of their botanical / horticultural knowledge.

In recent years that person has been Lucy T. Smith GM BVA MVA

Lucy is a very experienced and multi award-winning professional botanical illustrator who produces botanical illustrations for publication by the Royal Botanic Garden at Kew. Her work has been published in numerous scientific publications.
She has won BOTH
- the very prestigious Margaret Flockton Award in 2014 and 2017 (see Second Margaret Flockton Award win for Lucy T. Smith) and
- the Jill Smythies Award for Botanical Illustration, awarded by the Linnean Society of London in 2004 .
She also works as a botanical art tutor at Kew and elsewhere.

When judging the artwork for CBMs, Lucy is not looking for a presentation along the lines of a strict scientific botanical illustration brief. Rather she's looking for whether an image fulfils the brief of describing the plant accurately and well.

Lucy T. Smith with her painting of the Victoria amazonica leaf - photographed at "The Wonderful World of Water Plants" Exhibition at Kew (2023)

The Certificates of Botanical Merit in 2023

Below artists are listed in alphabetical order of their surname - with the image of the artwork getting a Certificate of Botanical Art above and a profile of the artist below. Links in the artist's name go to their website.

Autumn Hedgerow by Christina Hart-Davies GM (1984, 1986, 1988, 1992, 2018) SBAF

Autumn Hedgerow (51) by Christina Hart Davies

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Sue Wickison to receive The Jill Smythies Award 2023

13/4/2023

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The Linnean Society of London has announced that Sue Wickison is the recipient of the Jill Smythies Award 2023. This award - and medal - will be officially presented to Sue at the Society’s AGM/Anniversary Meeting in May 2023.

I have updated my The Jill Smythies Award page on this website to reflect this.

Below you can find out more about:

Sue Wickison - a summary of her life and achievements to date
The Jill Smythies Award

Sue Wickison in her studio with recent paintings - you can see the one in front of her framed and hung in an exhibition at Kew in the photo below

About Sue Wickison

Sue Wickison with two of her paintings in the "Plants of the Qur'an" Exhibition at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art at Kew

BIOGRAPHY

Sue Wickison was born in 1958 and brought up in Sierra Leone, West Africa. She now lives on an island off the coast of New Zealand and works as a freelance botanical illustrator - typically in relation to native New Zealand plants (unless working on commission).

Education: She achieved an Honours degree in Scientific Illustration from Middlesex University London - in the days when such degrees were still available!
Career: for nine years she worked as a scientific botanical illustrator with different botanists at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew - and worked on various publications relating to Grasses, Orchids and Legumes.
Travel: Sue has travelled extensively collecting and illustrating botanical specimens.
Publications: Sue worked on worked on many illustrations for various floras and papers published in the Curtis's Botanical Magazine. She has produced very many botanical illustrations in monochrome and colour. The following are the main 'Kew Publishing' publications she produced illustrations for while working at Kew - and subsequently
- Grasses of Bahia, Renvoise, RBG Kew
- Legumes of Bahia, G. Lewis, RBG Kew
- Caesalpinia a revision of the Poincianella- Erythrostemon group, G .Lewis, RBG Kew
- Orchids of Vanuatu, B. Lewis and Cribb, RBG Kew
- Orchids of the Solomon Islands and Bougainville, B. Lewis and Cribb
- Orchids of Samoa, Whistler and Cribb, RBG Kew
- Plants of the Qur'an, Dr Shahina Ghazanfar
- Sue also has work included in “The Shirley Sherwood Collection: Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art" - by Shirley Sherwood'
Commissions: for various clients including New Zealand Plant Conservation Network - for the Individual Conservation Achievement Award given each year to recognise excellence in the field of plant conservation.
Collections: Sue has artwork in the collections of
- the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew,
- Hunt Institute of Botanical Documentation,
- a Royal Collection
- Shirley Sherwood Collection, and
- the Alisa and Isaac M. Sutton Collection
- various private art collections - mostly in the UK and New Zealand
Talks: Sue Wickison is giving an online talk about Plants of the Qur'an organised by Botanical Art Talks with Julia Trickey

One of the particularly noteworthy aspects of Sue's botanical illustrations is she does very much like painting plants with complex and/or unusual structures - often life size, irrespective of whether this means the paintings are also large!

Sue Wickison is an extremely accomplished botanical artist with field experience in many areas, namely the Solomon Islands, where she collected and recorded orchids. She has also worked on endangered species, depicting their life cycles, and has most recently illustrated Kew’s The Plants of the Qur’an: History and Culture by Dr Shahina Ghazanfar, with an accompanying exhibition running until Sunday 17 September at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art.
Narrative re The Jill Smythies Award

Dr Shahina Ghazanfar and Sue Wickison in front of two paintings from 'Plants of Qur'an' related to the Allium family.

AWARDS

Sue has received the following Awards prior to The Jill Smythies Award

Winston Churchill Trust Travelling Fellowship to travel to the Solomon Islands to collect orchids for Kew Gardens (see Artist Residencies, Scholarships and Bursaries on this website for more details). Sue discovered several new species of orchid and was honoured to have one, Coelogyne susanae, named after her.
2008: RHS Gold Medal for her exhibit about Arisaema at the RHS Botanical Art Show London (December 2008). Her exhibit comprised four graphite drawings and five watercolour paintings covering four different species
She has been awarded two Joyce Cumming Awards and two Certificates of Botanical Merit for work exhibited with the Society of Botanical Artists (SBA) in UK.

NOTABLE EXHIBITIONS

2006: Solo show at New Zealand House London and RHS
2007: Solo show (April / May 2007) at the Savill Gardens Windsor UK
2008: Arisaema at RHS Botanical Art Show, December 2008
2013: "Black and White in Colour" Exhibition (October 2013 - January 2014) - to which she contribute half the artwork for this Joint Exhibition with Sue Williams at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery, Royal Botanic, Gardens Kew (see my post 'Black and White in Colour' at Kew Gardens - a review)
2013: 13th International Exhibition of Botanical Art & Illustration | Hunt Botanical Institute of Botanical Documentation
2016: Nature's Bounty at Kew | Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art
2023: "Plants of the Qur’ān" Exhibition (1 April 01 to September 17 2023) - Gallery 1 and 2 | Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art, Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew

I'll be writing more about the latter exhibition in the near future and also publishing a video of a walk with Sue around the exhibition.

Sue Wickison in 2013 with her painting of Ravenala madagascariensis (Travellers Palm) which was added to the Shirley Sherwood Collection

You can

follow Sue on Instagram
connect with Sue via LinkedIn

About The Jill Smythies Award

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Beverley Allen - 2023 Shirley Sherwood Award for Botanical Art

5/4/2023

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I was extremely pleased to find out last week that Australian artist Beverley Allen is the second recipient and 2023 winner of the Shirley Sherwood Award for Botanical Art. Notably this award is for a contribution to botanical art - and not just for being an excellent botanical artist.

I think she is a Modern Master par excellence and a very quiet force of nature! She's very definitely an excellent choice in terms of what she has done within the wider family of botanical art and illustration at both a national and international level. Very, very few have achieved as much as Beverley.

The Shirley Sherwood Award is an accolade presented once a year in recognition of an artist’s contribution to Botanical Art. The prestigious award includes a prize of £10,000 and a dedicated space in the Shirley Sherwood Gallery at The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew to display a selected artwork for a year.

Beverley Allen with her painting of Strelitizia nicolai - featured in the "Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art Exhibition" at Kew in 2019.

About the Shirley Sherwood Award for Botanical Art

Last year, Dr Shirley Sherwood inaugurated her new Shirley Sherwood Award for Botanical Art for an artist who has greatly contributed to the field of contemporary botanical art. The Award comprises:

a sum of £10,000 and
a dedicated space to exhibit work and highlight the artist's contribution in the Shirley Sherwood Gallery.

Two paintings of Strelitzia nicolai by Beverly Allen GM (RHS 2007, NYBG 2010) - see below - are now hanging in the Gallery. - at the end of Gallery 6. The one on the right was

the feature image of the exhibition The Shirley Sherwood Collection: Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art - see Australasian Exhibit in 'Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art' at Kew
used on the cover of the book produced in association with the exhibition.
featured in my review of the Australaisian artists in the exhibition

Beverly is a spectacular artist with bold and confident compositions. Full of clarity, vivid colour and stunning detail, her paintings beautifully capture the splendour of the natural world and have earned her both the RHS - Royal Horticultural Society Gold Medal and the inaugural Gold Medal for Botanical Art by the New York Botanical Garden.
Shirley Sherwood

Shirley Sherwood pictured last week (30.03.23.) at the Award Exhibition of Beverley's artwork in the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art at Kew.

This post is about Beverley Allen and why she won the award. It's a summarised account of her professional life and development of her contribution to botanical art on an international level. It is also full of photographs of Beverley that I've taken over the years!

Links in this post are to official websites or pages on this website.

Timeline about Beverley Allen and her art

Beverley Allen with her painting "Bambusa Vulgaris 'Striata' (Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney)" 2005 (watercolour on paper; 29" by 66" ) - at the 'Botanicals - Environmental Expressions in Art' Exhibition, at Kew Gardens in 2013. Collection: The Alisa and Isaac M. Sutton Collection

1945: born in 1945 in Sydney, Australia. She was awarded a BA in Fine Arts from Sydney University prior to developing a career as a graphic designer.
1997: She began studying botanical art and became a botanical artist in 1998.

She told me back in 2017 that she had - like very many other botanical artists - been greatly inspired by the cover illustration of Contemporary Botanical Artists which was the first ever book about botanical art by Shirley Sherwood. So below you can see the the inspiration - the painting of the 'Cape Blue Waterlily' by Pandora Sellers on the front cover. (Colleen and Beverley were in the Gallery as they were organising the upcoming exhibition by the Florilegium and I was fortunate that we met on the day her inspiration was on display!
(This painting is also on display at the moment in "The Wonderful World of Water Plants" exhibition at SSG.)

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