NEWS about Botanical Art and for Botanical Artists

RHS London Botanical Art Show 2019 - Awards and Medal Winners

24/7/2019

This post is about who won which award and which colour of medal at the RHS London Botanical Art Show 2019.

Below you can read about

which artists won Awards for outstanding botanical artwork
the names of artists and exhibits which won different colour medals - and some images of the Gold Medal winners

There are:

10 Gold Medals ( UK x 5; Japan x 4; Russia x 1;)
8 Silver Gilt Medals
10 Silver Medals
2 Bronze Medals

Links in the names of artists are generally to their websites where you can see more about their botanical artwork.

If you'd like to read more bout the individual artists, please refer to Exhibiting artists at the RHS Botanical Art Show 2019

Awards for outstanding botanical artwork

There are three Awards this year - which were awarded as follows:

Best Botanical Painting 2019: Mariko Ikeda GM (2017-2019): P.Tectorius ‘En Khelen’ - Mariko is developing an excellent track record. She won Best Exhibit in her first exhibit and Best Painting this time.
Best Botanical Art Exhibit 2019: Naomi Gumma GM (2019): The Lifecycle of the Shimonita Welsh Onion Naomi's art extends well beyond her botanical painting - see the video below (in the Gold Medal section) of her dance associated with her exhibit.
Judges’ Special Award 2019: Betsy Rogers-Knox: Exploring the Seasons at Beckley Bog - This was awarded because of the significant educational value about plants growing in a specific environment of Betsy's images.

Best Botanical Painting 2019: Mariko Ikeda GM (2017-2019)

Best Botanical Art Exhibit 2019: Naomi Gumma GM (2019): The Lifecycle of the Shimonita Welsh Onion

Judges’ Special Award 2019: Betsy Rogers-Knox

RHS Gold Medals 2019

There are ten Gold Medals. It's important to also note that

Four previous GM winners repeated their GM from their last exhibition and
Four previous GM winners did not win a GM this time.

Just because you have won a GM before there is no guarantee you can repeat this. The medal is awarded for a specific exhibit not the botanical Artist per se.

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How RHS medals for Botanical Art are assessed

23/7/2019

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For those coming to the RHS London Botanical Art Show this week - and those watching social media and reading online - you may be interested in how a botanical art exhibit at an RHS Botanical Art Show is assessed for

whether it should receive a medal and
what sort of medal it should get.

Gold Medals are only given for exhibits of outstanding quality, whatever their diversity of approach, or visual impact
Gillian Barlow, Chair of the RHS Picture Panel (in RHS Botanical Illustration - the Gold Medal Winners)

Candidates who have been approved to exhibit must submit at least six works - preferably on a theme.

You can earn extra marks if you illustrate a plant family.

ASSESSMENT: KEY POINTS are:

very high standards are essential
the emphasis should be on botanical accuracy with aesthetic appeal

The Picture Panel Judges always:

assess as botanical illustration
review botanical content and accuracy
review artistic and aesthetic effect
assess overall impression and how this has been achieved
assess the whole exhibit; marks are awarded for presentation of the exhibit as well as accuracy and quality of the artwork

The best botanical illustration successfully combines scientific accuracy with visual appeal. It must portray a plant with the precision and level of detail for it to be recognised and distinguished from another species.

Two of the botanical illustrations by Hye Woo Shin (RHS Botanical Art Show 2018) - which resulted in a Judges’ Special Award 2018 for ‘ Plants in Dokdo Island’

As a technical discipline, botanical illustration emphasizes the depiction of accurate information, documenting the anatomical and functional aspect of a plant throughout its life cycle.

Judges want to see.....

My suggestions of things you need to do to deliver on what judges are looking for are indicated in bullet points below.

This summary is based on discussions over time with both Judges and artists who have had feedback from Judges - and highlights some of the frequent problem areas which I hear about again and again. (I'll be updating and amending after this week's show!)

All quotes in green (except for the first above) are drawn from the Exhibitor Fact Sheet

Artwork should be life size and if not, a scale must be evident.

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BISCOT 2019 & RBGE Florilegium at Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh

13/6/2019

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In this post I'm sharing photos of:

BISCOT medal winning artists with their paintings - at the BISCOT Exhibition at Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh (RBGE)
paintings for the NEW RBGE Florilegium

You can see the exhibition of paintings

AT: The John Hope Gateway, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Arboretum Place, EH3 5NZ
UNTIL: 20 June 2019

About Botanical Images Scotia (BISCOT)

BISCOT is an acronym for "Botanical Images Scotia". It's an annual international exhibition in Scotland of contemporary botanical illustration which

promotes excellence in botanical painting and illustration.
gives both national and international artists an opportunity to exhibit in Edinburgh and presents new and original botanical work.

Each exhibitor creates a display of SIX artworks - and the exhibition is open to and attracts international entrants. In this respect BISCOT is the Scottish equivalent of the RHS Botanical Art Show in London - and is regarded as the top show in Scotland in terms of awards and prestige.

Below are photos of artists with their paintings after the exhibition transferred from Gardening Scotland to the RBGE John Hope Gateway last week.

Gold Medals

Fran Thomas (Scotland, UK) - Scottish Native Cladonia Lichens
Sansanee Deekrajang (Thailand) - Tropical Palm Trees
Marianne Hazlewood (Scotland, UK) - Arisaema biseasonal
Simonetta Occhipinti (Italy) - The Golden Fruits

Fran Thomas (Scotland, UK) - Scottish Native Cladonia Lichens (GOLD Medal)

Fran Thomas GM (Biscot) - Fran paints native Scottish plants. In 2017 she also won a Gold Medal at BISCOT 2017 and the Mary Mendum Medal for the Best Exhibit - for her watercolour paintings of "Native plants of the coasts and islands of the Firth of Forth". She also has two RHS Silver Gilt Medals.

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Certificates - Society of Botanical Artists Annual Exhibition 2019

8/6/2019

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This is about all the botanical artwork and botanical artists and illustrators who received on of the two types of Certificates awarded at Plantae, the 2019 Annual Exhibition of the Society of Botanical Artists 2019. These were:

a Certificate of Botanical Merit
a Certificate of Exhibiting Excellence

This is the third of four posts about the Plantae exhibition - see the end for more details of the exhibiting artists and who won the main awards and prizes.

About the Certificates of Botanical Merit

Ficus carica ‘White Marseilles’ – Cardinal Pole’s White Fig by Sandra Doyle (watercolour on vellum £900)

The annual exhibition of the Society of Botanical Artists is not a "strictly botanical" show in the same way that the RHS botanical art shows are.

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.

“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.”

Consequently 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.

The recipients of a Certificate of Botanical Merit are also chosen every year by a wholly independent Judge who is well qualified in terms of their botanical / horticultural knowledge.
were selected by Kew Gardens' botanical illustrator Lucy T Smith - twice winner of the Margaret Flockton Award

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. She won 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 . Her work has been published in numerous scientific publications. She also works as a botanical art tutor at Kew (including the Certificate of Botanical Illustration at Kew) and the Chelsea School of Botanical Art.

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

The CBMs in 2019

The artworks and their artists receiving CBMs in 2017 are listed below - followed by images of their work. The artworks also list the media and the price of the work in the image caption.

The name of the work is listed first followed by an alphabetical listing by surname of the artist - with a link to their website embedded in their name if they have one.

Ficus carica’ White Marseilles by Sandra Doyle - this is Cardinal Pole’s White Fig, which grows in the garden of Lambeth Palace. Originally planted by the last Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury, Cardinal Reginald Pole, in 1556 and still thriving today. (for image see the top of this post)
Aloe arborescent by Angie Gray SBA Fellow
Horned Melon by Agita Keiri
Winter Cardoons by Maryna Kyselyova
Iris pseudacorus by Nina Mayes
Monkey Puzzle by Michelle Eun Young Song SBA Fellow
Calypso bulbosa by Anna Suprunenko
The Hawthorn at Gilfach by Claire Ward SBA Fellow

Now for the images of the artwork which merited a CBM.....

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Awards - Society of Botanical Artists' Annual Exhibition 2019

6/6/2019

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This post is the second of four about the annual exhibition of the Society of Botanical Artists:

today's post is about the botanical artists receiving awards at "Plantae" the 2019 Annual Exhibition of the Society of Botanical Artists. It includes images of the artwork receiving awards and more information about the artists (links to their websites are embedded in their names).
yesterday's post Plantae: SBA Annual Exhibition 2019 - Selected Artists was about the artists whose work was selected for the exhibition
the next post is about those artists who were awarded a Certificate of Botanical Merit - which was judged by Lucy T Smith, who illustrates plants for Kew Gardens or the NEW Certificate of Exhibiting Excellence
finally, the fourth post will be a review of the exhibition as a whole - with notes of the artwork I liked and a commentary on its move to the Mall Galleries. I've been asking people what they think about the new environment.

The show is on at the Mall Galleries in London until 1pm on 9th June 2019. Admission is free

The awards are split into two categories:

the SBA Awards - awarded by the SBA Council
The Prizes awarded by the Exhibition's Sponsors.

NOTE: The quotations below come from the Society of Botanical Artists Instagram account.

SBA Award Winners

The Joyce Cuming Presentation Award
This is probably one of the most prized awards and is a sterling silver Almoner’s plate which is a legacy from Joyce Cuming. The winner also receives a certificate.

The winner was Lidiya Doukhnevitch who is based in Minsk in Belarus.

For me this was one of the best - if not the best - paintings in the competition. My eye kept being drawn back to it. That's because it has a great subject treated in an unusual way. It kept reminding me of alien monsters in sci-fi movies - and yet's it just what potatoes do if you leave them alone! The tonal range was great (which helped it to bounce off the walls in the gallery and make you want to go and look at it again) and the colour handling is impeccable.

The Secret World of Potatoes by Lidiya Doukhnevitch (watercolour £1,500)

Botanical art is not just about pretty flowers! This painting ‘The Secret World of Potatoes’ by Lidiya Doukhnevitch @lida_duhnevich is a stunning example of how even the simplest of plants can be intriguing and exciting!

I asked Lidiya why she chose a potato and she replied as follows

“It’s not difficult to create something beautiful from something beautiful. And when you start a new picture, you involuntarily set yourself a task higher and more difficult. So I decided to look at something at first glance unattractive in a new way and look at it from the inside. To tell the story of life. I even tried to grow it. But the potato itself found me. I love the sunlight very much, how it creates the world around us for our eyes. Therefore, I always build the lighting in the artwork. " Lidiya Doukhnevitch

The Margaret Granger Memorial Silver Bowl
This award is given in memory of Margaret Granger for the best picture by a member elected in the last two years. As a prize it's an excellent incentive for a new member to create a memorable impression.

The award winner was Jackie Isard SBA Fellow who was a graphic designer prior to becoming a botanical artist. I very much liked all the works she entered this year and recommend you look out for them.

Faded Protea neriifolia ‘Snowcrest’ by Jackie Isard (watercolour, £1,450)

Joanne Craig McFeely Rose Bowl
This is a Silver Rose Bowl awarded (for a year) for a true botanical work - judged by an external Judge (although NOT in this case Lucy Smith who judged the Certificates of Botanical Merit - not quite sure what happened there).

The winner was an American artist Charlotte Ricker who teaches "Botanical Illustration in Pencil II" at the School of Botanical Art & Illustration | Denver Botanic Gardens. Bear in mind this work was completed using watercolour pencils!

I really loved this work. This excellent contemporary interpretation of the sequencing of the bud through to bloom and then seed head reminded me very much of Georg Ehret's own magnificent painting of Magnifolia grandiflora with growth sequence. It's similar enough to tip its head to the master and different enough to be unique. (See my page About Georg Dionysius Ehret for a comparison)

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BISCOT Medal Winners 2019

2/6/2019

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Medals and awards were made on Friday at the BISCOT display at Gardening Scotland in Edinburgh.

BISCOT is an acronym for "Botanical Images Scotia". It's annual exhibition of contemporary botanical illustration which

promotes excellence in botanical painting and illustration.
gives both national and international artists an opportunity to exhibit in Edinburgh and presents new and original botanical work.

Gardening Scotland (sponsored by the Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society) (31 May - 2 June)
the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) - John Hope Gateway (5-20 June 2019)

A view of part of BISCOT at Gardening Scotland

The judges look at the individual quality of the paintings/drawings and the way they look together as a complete exhibit; and the following points are considered

The depiction of the plants should be botanically accurate
Show a high level of draughtsmanship and painting skills
Both the composition of each painting and the complete exhibit are noted
All written names, including Latin names, must be accurate and well presented
The mounts are appropriate to the exhibit,
The overall design of the exhibit enhances the paintings
Paintings have a themed subject

Below is a list of the medal and award winners and images of some of the exhibits. Links to the website or Facebook Page are embedded in the name of the artist.

Best in Show

Sansanee Deekrajang and her exhibit of Tropical Palm Trees which won a Gold Medal and the Mary Mendum Award for an exhibit of exceptional merit

Best In Show - Sansanee Deekrajang (Thailand) - Cyrtostachys Renda
The Mary Mendum Medal Mary Mendum Award for an Exhibit of Exceptional Quality - Sansanee Deekrajang - Tropical Palm Trees

Note: the Mary Mendum Award is not awarded every year i.e. it's only awarded when there is an outstanding botanical art exhibit - which excels in terms of both botanical information and artistic quality.

I first met Sansanee at the RHS Botanical Art Show in 2016 when her RHS Gold Medal-winning exhibit of Tropical Fruits astounded very many visitors. Sansanee is renowned for her complex and colourful compositions of the scientific detail of her subject. Once seen never forgotten!

Sansanee comes form Thailand and was born in Bangkok in 1980. She has also spent time living in Lothian in Scotland - hence her awareness of this exhibition. She has a degree of art and has specialised in fine art printmaking in the past. She taught herself how to create botanical art and won an RHS Gold Medal for her watercolour paintings of tropical plants in 2016. She has a particular talent for producing very bright paintings full of content with excellent compositions.

Sansanee is also exhibiting at the 16th International Exhibition of the Hunt Institute in the Autumn 2019 and planning to exhibit at the Korea Botanical Art Award exhibition. She's also planning to be back at RHS in two years time - in 2021.

Gold Medals

Fran Thomas (Scotland, UK) - Scottish Native Cladonia Lichens
Sansanee Deekrajang (Thailand) - Tropical Palm Trees
Marianne Hazlewood (Scotland, UK) - Arisaema biseasonal
Simonetta Occhipinti (Italy) - The Golden Fruits

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Bloom 2019 - Botanical Art Medal Winners

1/6/2019

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The medals have been awarded by the Judges for both the Botanical and Floral categories at Bloom 2019 in Dublin.

The 7th Annual Exhibition of Botanical and Floral Art in Bloom is Ireland's premier botanical art exhibition and is at the Phoenix Park Visitor Centre in Phoenix Park, Dublin until the end of June 2019.

Below you can find the list of medal winners in the Botanical Art Category.
At the bottom of the post is the pdf file of the complete listing of all medal winners at Bloom (including the floral category).

The Judges included Deborah Lambkin who is an Irish born artist who trained in Dublin but now lives in London and is the RHS Orchid Artist. She is also a member of the Panel that judges the RHS Botanical Art Show and has just been awarded the Jill Smythson Award by the Linnean Society.

Bloom 2019 Medal Winners - Botanical Art

You can

READ MORE about the individual botanical artists in my blog post about Bloom 2019: Selected Botanical Artists and exhibit titles
view the artists website by clicking the link embedded in their name

“Iris “Red Rum”” by Siobhan Larkin - Gold Medal and BEST IN SHOW (BOTANICAL)

Best in Category – Best in Show Winner

“Iris “Red Rum”” by Siobhan Larkin, Dublin 3

Gold Medal Winner

“Iris “Red Rum”” by Siobhan Larkin, Dublin 3 (Botanical)

Silver Gilt Medal Winners

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