NEWS about Botanical Art and for Botanical Artists

Talk about Marianne North at Kew Gardens

18/6/2019

There is a talk - an Introduction to Marianne North - in the Marianne North Gallery in Kew Gardens this coming Saturday 22nd June - starting at 1pm.

Learn more about the the nineteenth century traveller and painter of plants Marianne North - her background, explorations and her paintings of plants which she created on her travels around the world - from Philip Kerrigan from the University of York.

Philip Kerrigan has a PhD from the Research Centre for Social Sciences at the University of York, and has undertaken research into how Marianne North’s paintings reflect the ideas of Charles Darwin and other scientific views of the late 19th century. He researched and wrote the article Marianne North: Painting a Darwinian Vision

View of the interior of the Marianne North Gallery where the talk will take place

If anyone wants to book a place please

EITHER email shirleysherwoodgallery@kew.org
OR ring 0208 332 3622.

A ticket for the event is included with the price of admission to Kew Gardens..

If you can't make it to the incredible Marianne North Gallery (once seen, never ever forgotten!), and want to know more about her, why not take a look at my web page about her About Marianne North (1830-1890).

However I shall be trying to get to the talk this Saturday!

The exterior of the Marianne North Gallery - next to the Shirley Sherwood Gallery

0 Comments

NEW Books about Botanical Art and Illustration in 2019

16/6/2019

0 Comments

Halfway through 2019, it's time for a round-up of the Best Botanical Art and Illustrations books to be published in 2019.

I've created a new web page for NEW Books about Botanical Art & Illustration in 2019 which features the books seen below and more - with mini reviews (of the ones I've seen so far) and details about the books. I'm guessing there may be more before the end of the year and I'll update as and when formally notified about publication (i.e. publisher; date and ISBN numbers)

BELOW you can find out about:

a summary of the new books in 2019
how to find the best books about botanical art and illustration on this website
how to tell me about an upcoming publication about botanical art and illustration

New Books in 2019

Below is a summary list of the books on my page - just titles, authors and their publication date. READ MORE about them by visiting this page

January 2019

Botanical Artistry by Julia Trickey - a small book about projects and processes.by a professional botanical artist and tutor and winner of four RHS GMs.
Treasures of Botanical Art by Shirley Sherwood and Martyn Rix - the second edition of the book first published in association with the inaugural exhibition at the new Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art

June 2019 (July in USA)

Botanical Illustration from the Royal Horticultural Society: The Gold Medal Winners by Charlotte Brooks - the Curator of the RHS Lindley Library.

August 2019

Rosie Sanders' Roses: A celebration in botanical art by Rosie Sanders a professional artist, author and tutor. She won her first RHS GM in 1981!
RHS John Reeves: Pioneering Collector of Chinese Plants and Botanical Art by Kate Bailey - a scholar re Chinese art and John Reeves

September 2019 (November in USA)

Botanical Illustration from Life: A Visual Guide to Observing, Drawing and Painting Plants by Işık Güner - an RHS Gold Medal winner and professional botanical illustrator and tutor.

October 2019

The Shirley Sherwood Collection by Shirley Sherwood - associated with the major retrospective exhibition about the Collection opening at the end of 2019. I predict this is going to be a very popular wish for a Christmas present!

The Best Books about Botanical Art & Illustration

You can find out more about the best books about botanical art and illustration in

The Best Botanical Art and Illustration Instruction Books
The Best Botany Books for Botanical Artists
The Best Books about Botanical Art History, Artists & Illustrators
NEW Books about Botanical Art & Illustration in 2018
Other books can be found on related and specific topic pages

Please note that I fund this website via the Amazon Associate links for the books you'll find on this site. Each purchase via this site produces a few pennies for the continuing support of this website. Thank you.

Subscribe to this news blog to find out more
about botanical art and illustration and associated exhibitions
Blog posts are emailed to you when you
Subscribe to Botanical Art & Artists - News by Email

More NEW books in 2019 or 2020?

You're invited to tell me about a new botanical art or illustration book in 2019 or 2020. It can be about

instruction in botanical art instruction or illustration
a portfolio/florilegium/collection or
a botanical art history topic

You need to tell me:

title
author
publisher
topic summary
format (hardback or soft/paperback)
no. of pages / no of illustrations (colour and B&W)
ISBN numbers
planned publication date
URL for more details

0 Comments

BISCOT 2019 & RBGE Florilegium at Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh

13/6/2019

1 Comment

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.

1 Comment

Looking forward to the RHS Botanical Art & Photography Show 2019

12/6/2019

2 Comments

Last night at the Private View for the Exotica exhibition at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery I was reminded of the next major botanical art show in London which is, of course the RHS Botanical Art & Photography Show in the Lindley Hall (just behind RHS HQ in Vincent Square in London). Otherwise known for some odd reason as the RHS London Art and Photography Show. (How about taking out 'London' and adding in 'Botanical' so it says what's it about?)

Mariko Ikeda and Elaine Allison

I met up with two ladies who are both approved exhibitors for this year's show:

Mariko Ikeda, winner of a Gold Medal and the Best Exhibit Prize at the Show in 2017 is going to be exhibiting again - with more Pandanus. Who can forget her wonderful exhibit in 2017?
Elaine Allison is bringing an exhibit which has been several years in the making called The Host Plants of Australian Butterflies and we had a discussion about my recent new page about Exhibit Titles at RHS Botanical Art Shows

Charlotte Brooks - the RHS Art Curator and Secretary of the Picture Advisory Panel - was also at the PV last night and tells me that there are 30 Botanical Art Exhibitors this year and that both the Botanical Art and the Botanical Photography Exhibits will be all in the Lindley Hall.

I'm hoping to publish names and exhibit titles for those who don't mind 'revealing all' in advance of the show opening, shortly before the exhibition. (This is the one I did last year Exhibits at the RHS Botanical Art Show 2018)

I highly RECOMMEND that if you want to exhibit with the RHS, that if at all possible that you try and make a point of coming and see a show beforehand. People tell me it makes all the difference to be able to see the different ways people present their work - and the standard of work which brings different colour medals.

Below you can see my video of the show in 2017. (8 minutes) It starts with the entrance to the Lindley Hall and shows you all the exhibits.
Below that are the details about this year's show.

RHS London Art and Photography Show - Dates and Ticket details

Venue: RHS Lindley Hall, Westminster, London LSW1P 2QW
Dates:

Tuesday 23rd July (5-9pm) Members and Public pay £10 online and £12 on the day (except online comes with a transaction fee so it's not £10)
Wednesday 24th and Thursday 25th July 2019 (10am - 5pm) Free to RHS Members. (Yay!) Everybody else £5 in advance (online) and £8 on the day

Everything you need to know to plan your visit

2 Comments

Review: Society of Botanical Artists 2019 - Plantae

9/6/2019

2 Comments

SBA Plantae 2019

The annual exhibition of the SBA - Society of Botanical Artists - has closed at the Mall Galleries in London.

It may seem odd to be doing the review now. However I have already written three blog posts connected with the exhibition! These are:

I'm going to look at:

practical matters first - and the success or otherwise of the exhibition's new venue
other changes to the exhibition
The Catalogue - and the scope for a future virtual exhibition
Private View and Demonstrations

I'll cover art I liked in another blog post.

A new home - at the Mall Galleries

The entrance to the new exhibition venue - at the Mall Galleries on The Mall in London (right next to Admiralty Arch and just up the road from Buckingham Palace)

The end wall in the Main Galleries

This is the first annual exhibition the SBA has had for two years. During which time the President, the membership arrangements and the venue for the annual exhibition have all changed.

In effect it's a reinvention of something we're very familiar with and hence it seems appropriate to focus on what's changed, what worked extremely well - and the areas where there's scope for further development and improvement in future years.

I don't see the Society of Botanical Artists leaving the Mall Galleries anytime soon. I think they've found their new "forever" home!

I asked people visiting the exhibition on my three visits what they thought of the new venue and without exception ALL were very impressed with:

the general feeling of professionalism - its purpose was an art gallery - and it felt like an art gallery
the way the artwork looked on the walls - unsurprisingly given the prior comment
the location - the feeling of being down in the basement ( at Central Hall ) had been completely lost - although interestingly all of the galleries are below ground! The white walls and the higher ceilings all made for a lighter, fresher and less claustrophobic feeling. People also very much liked the better sense of being at the centre of things - being a hop, skip and a jump from Trafalgar Square, other large art galleries, theatres and shops.
the facilities - visitors very much valued the opportunity to sit and have a cup of tea and chat in the Gallery rather than, as we used to do in Central Hall, Westminster, having to leave the exhibition and visit a not very inspiring canteen type cafe for some not very inspiring refreshments!

Bottom line - nobody wanted to go back to Central Hall, Westminster!

2 Comments

Certificates - Society of Botanical Artists Annual Exhibition 2019

8/6/2019

0 Comments

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.....

0 Comments

Awards - Society of Botanical Artists' Annual Exhibition 2019

6/6/2019

2 Comments

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)

2 Comments

<<Previous