NEWS about Botanical Art and for Botanical Artists

Botanical Painting Courses at The Prince's School of Traditional Arts

11/12/2018

The Prince's School of Traditional Arts provides a range of workshops and short, practical courses in traditional arts and crafts as part of its Open Programme. Between March and May 2019 these will include some rather unusual courses in different kinds of botanical painting.

The art courses listed below are a variation of those normally provided to students of botanical painting. They offer an opportunity to explore how to paint plants and flowers using different media and approaches to botanical painting

All the courses are held at The Prince's School of Traditional Arts, 19-22 Charlotte Road, London EC2A 3SG (Nearest tube stations are Old Street or Liverpool Street; absolutely no parking!)

This five-day practical course will introduce you to the basics of botanical morphology so students will know what to look for when drawing and painting flowers. It will also reveal the development of botanical art through time.https://t.co/BXkMORxl3e pic.twitter.com/bYrcMlFarb
— School of Traditional Arts (@princesschool) November 19, 2018

Botanical Painting and Taxonomy
Dates: 11 March 2019 - 15 March 2019
Time: 10:30 - 17:30
Tutor Jessica Shepherd
Course Fee: £385

This five day course will

introduce the basics of botanical morphology
reveal the development of botanical art through time
demonstrate how drama can be created through thoughtful lighting,
examine the importance of composition
explore the colours and techniques needed when painting flowers and leaves.
develop a painting including the techniques learned on the course.

Jessica Shepherd trained in botany at the University of Plymouth and University of Edinburgh before she became a botanical painter

Persian Miniature Painting: Flowers and Trees
Dates: 11 March 2019 - 15 March 2019
Time: 10:30 - 17:30
Tutor: Farkhondeh Ahmadzadeh
Course fee: £385 (concessions)

This course focuses on the details of nature in Persian miniature paintings.

covers trees, rocks, and different types of flowers,
practice how to draw and paint them using Persian miniature techniques.
Through a series of practical demonstrations, including traditional paper treatments, pigment preparation, and brush techniques, students will prepare their own papers and paints to be used for their paintings.

Farkhondeh Ahmadzadeh is an Iranian artist based in London. She graduated with distinction from The Prince's School's MA programme in 2011 and was awarded the Jerwood prize for Islamic traditional art.

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Botanical Indian Miniature Painting
Dates: 6 April 2019 - 11 May 2019
Time: 10:00 - 16:30
Tutor: Samantha Buckley | £350

This course is inspired by examples of Mughal botanical paintings and focuses on

the process of creating an Indian miniature painting,
the traditional method of transferring the image to burnished wasli paper using ink and squirrel hair brushes.
the use of handmade pigments from India and how to prepare, apply and then burnish these colours in preparation for the detailed work of miniature painting.
the special technique of prataj to create the detail associated with these beautiful paintings.

Botanical Indian Miniature Painting - At The Prince's School Of Traditional Arts (Day 1) is an excellent blog post by somebody who took the miniature painting course with Sam Buckley in 2016.

Samantha Buckley completed her MA at The School in 2006, receiving a distinction for her studies in miniature painting. In 2011 she was invited to undertake a one-year apprenticeship in India to extend her knowledge and technique of miniature painting,

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NEW Guide to Online Botanical Art Courses & Tuition

27/11/2018

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A NEW GUIDE to Online Botanical Art Courses

Today I'm announcing the launch of my BRAND NEW WEB PAGE Guide to Online Botanical Art Courses and Tuition

Before today, there was nowhere on the internet that offered a comparative analysis and evaluation of the available online tuition and tutorials for those wanting to learn more about botanical art and illustration - in different art media - but now there is!

Online tuition for botanical art is a growing marketplace because

people are becoming more used to using technology routinely in their daily lives
it's possible for a tutor anywhere in the world to deliver tuition to a student living the other side of the world.
it's very often cheaper than some of the alternative courses available - which is really good news for students!
some online courses also allow people to have more control over the pace of a course - and to stop and start when life has a habit of getting in the way

This page covers:

OVERVIEW of Online Botanical Art Courses - indicating different types of tuition and course and providers
CHECKLIST of questions for prospective students - to be used when evaluating alternative options. It's really important to know what you're buying before you hand over the money - and to know whether you can get your money back if it doesn't suit you.
LIST of Online Providers of Botanical Art Tuition - a summary of information about the course tutor, course delivery and pricing. This is based on the information provided on the various websites.

The online providers of botanical art tuition and courses are split into THREE GROUPS:

Recognised Institutions - providing distance learning courses using web-based instruction. They vary enormously in terms of levels and sophistication of teaching delivery.
Online Tuition via Video Tutorials - these are essentially subscription based step by step video based courses with support materials (and a support group). The providers have generated a LOT of videos. Note that access to these videos is almost always for streaming i.e. you do got get to download and keep them. Access lasts for as long as you pay your subscription.
Online Tuition via individual tutors - these are more course based with more emphasis on written guides and/or worksheets/ebooks with videos used as support for learning - and the use of Skype for feedback. Generally it's a more individualised and personal approach

It's important to say that all courses - although similar - are also different.
One of the main purposes of my new page is to try and tease out those differences.

There is a Stage Two Development planned for this page where I assess each website and public information provided and cost against a standard set of questions - but that's for 2019. There's a lot of new websites for online tuition planned for a launch in 2019 so better to do it after these have bedded down!

At the present time, I'm still tweaking the context so if you spot any typos and mistakes please give me a shout-out!

Your Feedback

Your feedback is very important to me. Many of you helped me build this page - by telling me what you wanted to know about the courses and how they are provided. I've tried to develop the page based on that feedback.

I'd now very much appreciate if it you can help me develop it further by telling me how it can be improved. Let me know what you think.

Does it satisfy your needs?
Do you need to know more?

Anything you like - just leave a comment or contact me

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Botanical Art Diploma Course Announcements

9/11/2018

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Below are a couple of announcements about the Botanical Art Diploma Courses run by the Society of Botanical Artists and the Chelsea School of Botanical Art.

SBA Distance Learning Diploma Course

Simon Williams, Director of the Distance Learning Diploma Course run by the Society of Botanical Artists has asked me to remind those interested in the course that the application deadline for the SBA/DLDC Course 16 is 30 November 2018

Work by the Final Year Diploma students is exhibited every year at the Annual Exhibition of the Society of Botanical Artists

The application date for the Distance Learning Diploma Course is fast approaching.

If you are inspired by botanical painting and would like the opportunity to learn the disciplines of botanical art through a wide range of course assignments, download and send in your application now.

The Course covers many exciting aspects of botanical painting from initial graphite drawing, line and wash (new to Course 16), botany, plant portraits and fruit studies. It also includes assignments on working from photographs and mixed studies to open up a learner’s skill set into the commercial avenue of botanical art.

Please make your application to the Course Director - details on the application form

Course 16 commences on 1 January 2019

The Course is open to students anywhere in the world and there are currently students from Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore, the Republic of Korea, South Africa, Brazil, Canada and the USA as well as Europe and the UK. The Course lasts for 27 months and the fee includes a student subscription to the Society for the duration of the Course.

CSBA: Botanical Illustration and Painting Diploma 2019

The Botanical Illustration and Painting Diploma run by The Chelsea School of Botanical Art is currently being overhauled (the page is currently offline) and rescheduled.

It will restart in September 2019 (in line with the academic year) and is based at the Chelsea Physic Garden

More about Diploma & Certificate Courses in Botanical Art & Illustration

The Diploma & Certificate Page on this website contains:

Guidelines on how to assess and choose a course from available options; and
Listings of Diploma and Certificate courses in Botanical Art - in the UK and USA.

The best course for YOU is the one that best meets your interests and needs. I recommend you use the Guideline checklists of questions to work out which one you want to pursue.

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More from Brazil and New Zealand re. the Worldwide Exhibition of Botanical Art

8/11/2018

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Catalogue cover: Expomundial Brasil

Today I added two more items to my page about the Worldwide Exhibition of Botanical Art 2018. Each was added to their country's section of the webpage (which is organised alphabetically in continents and then countries)

an onscreen link to the Issuu version of the Catalogue for the Brazil exhibition - Expomundial Brasil - which was published today. You can view it full screen by clicking the full screen icon bottom right.
a video of 'Ngai Tipu Taketake - Indigenous Flora' - the New Zealand exhibition - which has now been uploaded to YouTube (see below)

This was the message from the Brazilian team

Here's our e-book finally completed.
We could not allow such an important event to be just a good memory. So we decided to take another step and face another challenge. It seemed simple, but it was months of work and patience of luiz berri, adjustments, wait, doubts and a lot of message exchange, e-mail, watsapp and everything else that could help get the material and information we needed.
But now we have here an important record not only of a remarkable and special moment that was the Brazil, but an overview of the current wealth of botanical illustration in Brazil. Thank you all for participation and trust.
Enjoy to inspire even more

and the message from New Zealand is

This video of New Zealand's 'Ngai Tipu Taketake - Indigenous Flora' exhibition showcases our diverse and unique flora as seen by the best of New Zealand's botanical artists.

If any other country has information or catalogues or videos that need to be added please let me know using the FORM at the bottom of the Worldwide Exhibition of Botanical Art 2018 page

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Trees, Tropical Plants & Theatre in the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art (October 2018 - March 2019)

12/10/2018

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On Monday I went to see the four new botanical art exhibitions at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery at Kew Gardens. I'll be reviewing them all individually on this blog in future but today I thought I'd give you a taster of what can be seen - so you start planning a visit!

The four new exhibitions run from 6 October 2018 – 17 March 2019 and have a couple of over-arching themes

Orchids and tropical plants

Orchids and tropical plants are featured in the first two exhibitions

Rankafu: Masterpieces of Japanese Woodblock Prints of Orchids (Galleries 1 and 2) - this is the first exhibition as you walk in through the main entrance
Botanical Theatre: The Art of Pandora Sellars (1936-2017) (Galleries 3 and 4) - This is very likely to be extremely popular with all experienced botanical artists and aspiring students. Her works features a lot of tropical plants and orchids (and cyclamens, lilies and arum) and a lot of foliage.

The Botanical Theatre of watercolour paintings by Pandora Sellars

Mark Frith: A Legacy of Ancient Oaks (Gallery 5) 7 of the 20 oaks on display

Trees

The tree theme is particularly relevant to the Charter of the Forest in its 800th anniversary year.

Mark Frith: A Legacy of Ancient Oaks (Gallery 5) - in the large square central gallery
Trees: Delight in the Detail (Gallery 6) - the first exhibition you encounter when approaching from the Marianne North Gallery.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: This is one of the best combination of exhibitions that I've seen here. There's a lot of excellent quality art to look at - I found it quite overwhelming - and it's really difficult to take it all in on one visit. So think very seriously about:

planning enough time for your visit
or maybe even planning more than one visit!

I know one artist who has already visited twice on one day and wants to go again!

PS You will need a magnifier or a loupe to properly appreciate some of the paintings in these exhibitions. If you forget yours, you can borrow one from reception.

Rankafu: Masterpieces of Japanese Woodblock Prints of Orchids

View of the exhibition of Rankafu wood block prints of orchids

These impressive and very beautiful woodblock prints of orchids are based on the watercolours of Zuigetsu Ikeda. They were first published in 1946.

Rankafu means as ‘Orchid Flower Album’. These prints are on loan from the Collection of Stephen Kirby and this is first major exhibition of the Rankafu woodblock colour prints outside of Japan.

Woodblock printing of this quality is technically demanding and the exhibition includes a display explaining how they are produced.

Botanical Theatre: The Art of Pandora Sellars

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED - This is an exhibition NOT TO BE MISSED.
It's unlikely you'll ever see its like again.

Many experienced botanical artists will need no introduction to the late Pandora Sellars. She has been described by Shirley Sherwood as “One of the most important botanical artists of all time[1]” and “the best leaf painter ever”. Others would characterise her as being one of the best botanical artists when it comes to tackling a complex composition which shows off the botanical features of a plant to best effect.

However very few will have ever seen more than a few examples of her artwork in person.

This exhibition is unique and a wonderful opportunity to

view a retrospective of c. 50 artworks and items produced from her art - just a small percentage of the artwork she produced over a period of nearly 40 years.
note how her artwork developed over the years - between 1972 and 2007
see the scope of her work - from botanical illustration commissions for Kew and other publishers to botanical artworks produced for her own pleasure.

Those who do not know about Pandora Sellars can read all about her and her botanical artwork in About Pandora Sellars (1936-2017) my dedicated page on this website.

The artwork is on loan from:

Kew Collection (17 works)
Shirley Sherwood Collection (8 works)
RHS Lindley Library (1 work)
Cyclamen Society (7 works)
Postal Museum (5 works)
Private Collections (12 works - plus her painting materials
Plus a selection of books containing botanical illustrations by Pandora Sellars

Mark Frith: A Legacy of Oaks

Six of the Veteran Oaks drawn by Mark Frith - in Gallery 5

This is an exhibition of a series of 20 highly intricate, large-scale graphite drawings of Britain’s most characterful veteran oaks, many of which are more than 1,000 years. The trees are shown in winter - devoid of all leaves and new growth.

They were drawn by Mark Frith who studied Fine Art at Bristol before becoming a BAFTA award-winning filmmaker before starting to draw his first tree in 2011.

The series were commissioned by publisher, poet, and philanthropist, Felix Dennis. After he died, ten trees were gifted to the Kew Collection and ten are now owned by the Heart of England Forest - founded by Felix Dennis.

Trees: Delight in the Detail

View of "Palms" - one small section of "Trees: Delight in Detail"

This exhibition leans very much towards looking at the details of trees rather than the tree as a whole - and different approaches used to paint the details of trees.

The artwork represents trees from all over the world - from temperate areas and the tropics - and the detail of their leaves, cones, flowers, fruits, seeds and nuts.

Sizes vary enormously according to real life but also due to enlargement employed to show the detail of a particular aspect.

The artwork comes from the Shirley Sherwood Collection - collected from artists from all over the world. Artists include:

UK: Jenny Brasier, Brigid Edwards, Annie Farrer (2 works), Flappy Lane Fox, Katherine Manisco, Rory McEwen (2 works), Margaret Mee (2 works), Barbara Oozerally, Jess Shepherd, Julie Small (2 works)
Australia: Jenny Phillips
Austria: Jakob Demus
Brazil: Maria Alice de Rezende, Alvaro Nunes (7 works)
Germany: Regine Hagedorn,
India: Arundhati Vartak
Japan: Mariko Ikeda, Mieko Ishikawa, Kimuyo Maruyama (2 works), Michiko Toyota
Philippines: Emmanuel Cordova
Russia: Olga Makrushenko
South Africa: Gill Condy, Ann Schweizer, Vicki Thomas
Thailand: Phansakdi Chakkaphak
USA: Monika de Vries Gohlke; Anne Ophelia Dowden, Ingrid Finnan, Hillary Parker,

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RHS Botanical Art Show: 2019 dates and deadlines for 2020 submissions

11/10/2018

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This is an update on "need to know" facts relating to the 2019 and 2020 RHS Botanical Art Shows.

The RHS website has been updated with key facts about the 2019 and 2020 Botanical Art Shows
I've summarised these below.
Read the details in the Botanical Illustration Exhibitor Factsheet (557kB pdf)

View of part of the RHS Botanical Art Show 2018

Facts about the RHS Botanical Art Show

The RHS Botanical Art Show is an OPEN and INTERNATIONAL exhibition
It's the longest running and TOP juried botanical art show in the world.
No other show juries a minimum portfolio of six botanical artworks for every exhibit
It's the LARGEST juried international art show in the world.
It receives submissions and exhibits from botanical artists and botanical illustrators from around the world. Asia, Australasia, Africa and Europe contribute most international artists from outside the UK.

It would be great to see more artists from North, South and Central America!

RHS Botanical Art Show 2019 - show dates

Make a note for your diaries!
The dates for the RHS London Art & Photography Show in 2019 are

Wednesday 24–Thursday 25 July 2019.
Plus a late event on Tuesday 23 July 2019.

My understanding is that the 2019 show will be in the RHS Lindley Hall.

RHS Botanical Art Show 2020
- application for approval to exhibit

If you want to exhibit at the RHS Botanical Art Show in 2020, you must first submit your work for approval to exhibit. I'll be updating my page about RHS Botanical Art Shows but I've summarised key facts below

This is how the submission process works to be ELIGIBLE to apply for space to display work at an RHS Show in 2020:

IF YOU HAVE NOT PREVIOUSLY EXHIBITED you must first submit a sample of four pieces of work to the RHS Picture Panel for assessment and approval at the May Submission Selection Meeting.
Artists based outside the UK can submit rolled prints of the same (value £0) rather than original art. This enables them to get through Customs without problems. (Prints are not returned)
The above requirement relates to both individual artists and groups
The artwork does NOT need to be related to your proposed exhibit. However all pieces must demonstrate that you can produce a very high standard of botanical illustration. (You can view my previous blog posts for images of exhibits displayed at previous shows)
If submitting as a Group, you must submit at least one artwork by each artist
The next Submission Selection Meeting is on Thursday 9 May 2019
Artwork - for assessment and approval - at this meeting can be submitted to the Lindley Library in London between Tuesday 23 April and Thursday 2 May
Please contact the Picture Panel Secretary before sending any work. It's recommended that you hand deliver artworks.

The RHS Lindley Library and Headquarters of the RHS at 80 Vincent Square, London

Dawn Jolliffe Botanical Art Bursary

If the cost of exhibiting is likely to prevent you from exhibiting then you can apply for funding support.

The Dawn Joliffe Botanical Art Bursary is available to support botanical artists in their endeavours to prepare an exhibit and then display it at the show.

Funding is available to help support artists with

the costs of staging an exhibit at one of the RHS Shows
towards the costs of travelling to paint plants in their natural habitat.

For more information and to apply see Apply for an RHS Bursary

Tips for exhibiting at the RHS Botanical Art Show

For more about RHS Botanical Art and Photography Exhibitions see the following dedicated pages on this website:

PLUS In the Tips and Techniques area of the EDUCATION section you can find Tips from RHS Botanical Art Gold Medal Winners - these provide tips around

an outline of the process from application to exhibit through to the exhibition
includes several articles about tips about how to be successful at an RHS Botanical Art Show by RHS Gold Medal-winning artists. Every year they come up with new tips!
how to mount the display
how to transport your exhibit

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Botanical Art: "Ask an Expert" events at Kew

7/10/2018

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Kew Gardens has three botanical art surgeries set up over the Autumn and Winter for budding botanical artists to:

view how a professional botanical artist works - and see examples of their completed work
ask technical questions about aspects of botanical art and illustration - and
receive practical tips and advice about developing their own work.

Below are

the dates/times of the three drop-in sessions in October (starting next Sunday), December and February
profiles of the three artists who will be hosting the sessions.

The events are free i.e. included with the price of admission to the Gardens.

Sunday 14th October, drop in session 11am - 3pm

Masumi Yamanaka GM (2010)
Masumi was in Nara, Japan but has lived in the UK since 1987. She studied botanical art with Pandora Sellers.

She has been a freelance botanical artist based at the Herbarium at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew since 2007In 2010, she won an RHS Gold Medal for her illustrations of Aesculus indica 'Sydney Pearce'. She has exhibited at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery at Kew as follows:

‘Trees’ - Winter 2009,
‘Bulbmania’- Summer 2010
‘Kew Artists’- Spring 2011.
In 2015, her exhibition of 'Kew's Heritage Trees' was held in the Shirley Sherwood Gallery. It portrayed the oldest and iconic trees in the garden and the paintings now form part of Kew's permanent collection.
In 2016 she co-ordinated and organised the Flora Japonica exhibition (2015) at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery and was one of the authors (with Martin Rix) of the book about Flora Japonica

Masumi Yamanaka with one of the paintings she did for her exhibition of Kew's Heritage Trees at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery

Sunday 9th December, drop-in session 11am - 3pm

Lucy T Smith GM was born in Sydney but now lives and works in London. She works in pen and ink and watercolour.

Lucy has been worked as a botanical illustrator for the Palms of New Guinea project based at Kew for very many years. She also illustrates new species for Kew and is documenting a number of the waterlilies growing at Kew - including the world's largest and smallest. As well as freelancing as a botanical artist for Kew, Lucy also produces paintings for private commissions and exhibitions and teaches botanical illustration. She leads the Kew Certificate in Botanical Illustration and runs short courses in botanical illustration for Kew Gardens and Chelsea Physic Gardens

Lucy has also received a number of prestigious awards

She was won two RHS Gold Medals
In 2004, she was awarded the Jill Smythies Award for excellence in Scientific Illustration from the Linnean Society of London.
In 2014 and again in 2017, She won the Margaret Flockton Award for Scientific Illustration - against professional botanical illustrators from all over the world.

On the Kew website there are two articles about her work -

Lucy T Smith with some of her own botanical illustrations in pen and ink - in the Library at Kew Gardens (April 2018)

Sunday 17th Feb 2019, drop-in session 11am - 3pm

Deborah Lambkin GM (1999) has been the official 'Orchid Artist' to the Royal Horticultural Society Orchid Committee since 2005. In 1999 she was awarded an RHS Gold Medal for her collection of eight paintings of Nerines in 1999. To date she has contributed more than 400 orchid paintings to the Royal Horticultural Society's Orchid Painting Collection. She has also exhibited at the World Orchid Conference Botanical Art Exhibition 2014 and published in Curtis Botanical Magazine

Deborah was born in Ireland and lives in London. She trained at the National College of Art and Design (NCAD) in Dublin and is a Member of the Irish Society of Botanical Artists and the Chelsea Physic Garden Florilegium Society. . She also has work in the collection of the National Botanical Gardens. Dublin.

In 2014 she joined RHS Picture Advisory Panel which includes judging at the RHS Botanical Art shows.

Four orchid paintings by Deborah Lambkin at the RHS Spring Show 2016

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