NEWS about Botanical Art and for Botanical Artists

Roses by Rosie Sanders

14/8/2019

Next month, in September 2019, the award-winning and best-selling artist Rosie Sanders has:

an exhibition opening of 20 new botanical paintings in watercolour at Jonathan Cooper's Park Walk Gallery in Chelsea
a book being published

Rosie Sanders has been awarded five Gold Medals for her botanical art by the Royal Horticultural Society, has been regularly exhibited in various exhibitions at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art, Kew Gardens, and has exhibited at the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, Carnegie Mellon University and has work in their collection of botanical art.

She is renowned for creating very large paintings of flowers in watercolour.

Rosie Sanders: By Any Other Name

Rosie Sanders: By Any Other Name
Venue: Jonathan Cooper, Park Walk Gallery, 20 Park Walk, London, SW10 0AQ
Dates: 26th September - 12th October 2019

Rosie has been exhibiting with Jonathan Cooper since 2002 and it is a mark of a very successful and best selling artist that in general she has a solo exhibition at his gallery every other year. Latterly these have coincided with the publication of a new book (see below)

This exhibition will include 20 new paintings - with most included in her new book. I'll be visiting this exhibition and writing a review - with images - late in September.

The exhibition will focus primarily on the beauty of the rose, and will feature many of the works included in the publication Rosie Sanders’ Roses: A celebration in botanical art, which will be released by Batsford in September 2019.

Every buyer of one of Rosie's paintings will receive a personal letter about the painting (to be given unopened to the final recipient or buyer of the painting).

Gallery hours are 10 am – 6.30 pm (Monday to Friday) and 11 am – 4 pm on Saturdays.

You can see some of the images of her paintings which will be in the exhibition on her Instagram account https://www.instagram.com/rosiesanders.4apple/

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Rosie Sanders' Roses - a celebration in botanical art

Rosie Sanders' Roses: A celebration in botanical art is due to be published on 5 September 2019 by Batsford.

This NEW BOOK is a follow up to her very popular and successful book Rosie Sanders' Flowers: A Celebration of Botanical Art, also published by Batsford in late 2016 (UK) and early 2017 (USA).

I predict this one will be every bit as popular - if not more so - than the last. One of the most popular "how to" query about flower painting on Google is "how to paint a rose in watercolour" which generates over 90 MILLION responses.

This book focuses just on roses - however it's not a "how to" book.

It's introduced by an introduced by an extended essay on the resonance of the rose as a timeless motif - all across the world - in our art, literature, poetry, folklore and gardens.
it contains over 80 stunning paintings and sketches are shown for the first time
the text sitting next to the image of her painting includes the text from the personal letter which explains the creative and emotional process she went through to create it.

I've not seen a copy yet but I've no reason to suppose it won't be just as good as the last one which was very highly rated.

ORDER THIS BOOK

Rosie Sanders' Roses: A celebration in botanical art from Amazon UK
Rosie Sanders' Roses: A Celebration of Botanical Art from Amazon.com

These are affiliate links if you order using these links to help me pay for the cost of this website.

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Call for Entries: Botanical Artists in Residence Program at the Oak Spring Foundation

3/8/2019

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The inaugural Botanical Artists in Residence Program (BAiR) offered by the Oak Spring Garden Foundation is now accepting applications - as part of its Artists Awards program

The opportunities offered by BAiR and the requirements for applications are detailed below, followed by

information about other artists awards made by OGSF and
how to find out more about the Oak Spring Garden Foundation and its gardens, library and botanical art.

What's on offer

a $1,500 award
stay at the Oak Spring estate in Upperville, Virginia - with accommodation and 24-hour access to studio space.
for a minimum of two weeks and a maximum of four weeks sometime during the period April 1 – May 22, 2020.
ground transportation to/from Oak Spring (from either Dulles Airport or Union Station).
This is a copy of the 2020 OSGF Residency Handbook
This is a link to the Oak Spring Foundation's page on Google Arts and Culture which demonstrates some of the artwork in the Library.

Transportation to/from Washington, D.C. is the responsibility of the applicant.

The aim of this program is to extend our support for artists to practitioners of botanical illustration

The Oak Spring Estate - home to the Oak Spring Garden Foundation - from above (House and gardens bottom left and Library top left) in Upperville, Virginia

What's required

Artists must choose from plants in Oak Spring’s living collection, during the period of residency. in order to maintain the integrity of The Oak Spring Florilegium
Artists must submit at least one original artwork produced as a result of the residency to The Oak Spring Florilegium and assign all copyright in the artwork to the Florilegium.

The award is contingent upon the awardee submitting one original work that Oak Spring obtains full copyright to, and which will become part of The Oak Spring Florilegium.

Artists will also be asked to provide digital submissions of other works started or completed on-site for an archive held at Oak Spring. However, the artists may keep their original sketches and any additional original works produced as part of the residency.

Who can apply?

Botanical artists who:

demonstrate artistic excellence in botanical art over time
have been selected to exhibit in international juried exhibitions of botanical art.
are available for a minimum of two weeks and a maximum of four weeks during April 1 – May 22, 2020 for a residency on the Oak Spring estate in Upperville, Virginia
have a visa to visit the USA if a non-resident/citizen
can finance getting and from Washington DC (Dulles Airport or Union Station)

What you have to do to apply

First READ the flyer about the Botanical Artists in Residence Program (BAiR)

Next

create a profile and login to our OSGF Applicant Portal at osgf.force.com/grantee/.
Log in and select “Explore Grant Opportunities” in the upper left
Select “2020 Botanical Artists Application.”

You may encounter errors in creating an application profile if you use Safari as your web browser. Please try using a different web browser, and if you continue to encounter issues, try clearing your cache.

You must submit

a resume/curriculum vitae (not to exceed 3 pages);
a short description of your creative practice and how you would benefit from a residency at Oak Spring;
five images of your best works (required). All images submitted must be of art executed by hand in two-dimensional media including watercolor, pencil, pen and ink, colored pencil, mixed media, oil, acrylic, gouache, egg tempera, and original prints (aquatints, etchings, etc.).
any and relevant links/uploads to/of an online portfolio of work (optional);
references who can speak to your artistic practice and suitability as a resident. (Successfully completed residencies at other arts organizations or botanical institutions will be an asset.)

Deadline for receipt of applications: November 8, 2019 at midnight EST.

The aim is to notify all applicants on the status of our selections by mid-December 2019.

Other Artists Awards

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RHS London Botanical Art Show 2019 - Awards and Medal Winners

24/7/2019

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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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Isobel Adams, Orchids and Great Dixter

1/7/2019

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When visiting Great Dixter last week, there were lots of local orchids in the uncut meadow grass areas of the site. I love garden websites that actually identify plants you can see - as the Great Dixter site does in relation to the Front Meadow area

The grass is cut twice (August and late autumn) and all is removed and composted. Orchids native to the Weald are a particular success; early purples, green winged, twayblade and spotted (Dactylorhiza fuchsii). It is a sanctuary for them, since changed farming and woodland practices have eliminated most of their natural habitats.
Great Dixter website - Front Meadow (my bold)

Plate 53 Wild Flowers of the British Isles written and illustrated by Isobel Adams - highlighting the spotted, early purple and greenwinged orchids

Common spotted-orchid (Dactylorhiza fuchsii according to Dixter and Orchis maculata according to Isobel Adams) photographed in the front meadow

H. Isobel Adams and Wild Flowers of the British Isles

Mrs Harriet Isabel Adams FLS (1863-1952) illustrated and wrote Wild Flowers of the British Isles which was published in two volumes by Heinemann in 1910. (digitised in 2016)

She sought help from others in gathering specimens but remarkably little is known about her.

It's one of my all time favourite books about wild flowers in Britain and I do wish some publisher would get to grips with the task of publishing a facsimile. I guarantee it would sell well to both botanical art lovers and the wider public because it is both informative and her illustrations are so very beautiful to look at.

Her book does not compete, of course, with Bentham or Hooker's handbooks; but it is sufficiently scientific to enable serious botanists to recommend it to beginners. There are some eighty full-page plates in this quarto volume. We have seen few flower drawings (always excepting Curtis's 'Flora Londinensis') that have given us so much pleasure to look at. From one to half-a-dozen plants are figured on a page ; but Miss Adams manages to keep the character of each species distinct, and the grouping is often full of skill and grace. We have nothing but praise for the colouring, especially the various greens. The yellow of the rock-rose is beautiful, and the more subdued mauves and pinks are excellent. It is all slightly conventional, but gives a truer effect than many an attempt at realism.
The Spectator Archive

Isobel Adams trained at Birmingham School of Art and became a noted 'Arts and Crafts' Illustrator. On 15th November 1906, 'Mrs Harriet Isabel Adams' was elected as a Fellow of the Linnean Society, having been proposed at the previous meeting. She was also a member of the The Botanical Society and Exchange Club of the British Isles. She died age 89 in 1952.

Below are a couple more of her plates about the Orchid Family - as found in the British Isles. Plus details about the fabulous Great Dixter garden for those who'd like to visit

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Selected Artists: ASBA 22nd Annual International

30/6/2019

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Members of the American Society of Botanical Artists selected for the 22nd Annual International Exhibition later this year are listed below.

The Annual International is open to all ASBA members in good standing, worldwide.

A total of 48 artworks by international artists from 12 countries (the USA, Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Norway, Russia, Slovenia and the UK) were selected from 230 entries from around the world.

The Judges making the selection were:

Frank Almeda, Curator of Botany Emeritus, Institute for Biodiversity Science and Sustainability, California Academy of Sciences
Julie Bly DeVere, Head Curator and Collections Manager, Historic Filoli Estate
Martha Kemp, Botanical Artist (see also the listing on this page)

Exhibition details are as follows:

Venue: The Studio, Marin Art & Garden Center, 30 Sir Frances Drake Blvd, Ross, CA 94957
Dates: September 22 - November 17, 2019

The venue seems to have stimulated rather more entries from California than usual and a lot of artists from California are in the show.

Cynthia Rice 2019. Artichoke ( Cynara scolymus)

The artists are listed below alphabetically by country - with the exception of the USA which comes first.

If I have any details wrong please let me know and I will correct them ASAP. I'm also open to adding in images.... :)

USA

Lots and lots of artists from California!

Claudia Campazzo (California) - Born in Chile to an Italian family, she has lived all of her adult life in the United States. Currently lives in Fairfax, California. Lost her hearing in 2016 and began painting as a creative alternative to her career as a violist.
Carrie Di Costanzo - Took up botanical art in 2008 and is an active ASBA exhibitor; won the Jurors’ Award for Distinction of Botanical Art Presentation at the 14th International show
Catherine Dellor (California) - a commercial artist who became a landscape designer and then started studying botanical art in 2008. Exhibits widely in group exhibitions - but mainly in California. Serves on the board of NCalSBA as well as the national board of ASBA.

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Book Review: RHS Botanical Illustration - The Gold Medal Winners

26/6/2019

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HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: For all botanical artists aspiring to enter the RHS Botanical Art Exhibition and win a Gold Medal - and for all botanical art lovers everywhere. This book makes a major contribution to both

the recording of contemporary botanical art
learning about how to produce top quality botanical art.

RHS Botanical Illustration - The Gold Medal Winners is a book I've been waiting for, for a long time - not least because I proposed to the RHS Publications a while back that there really should be a book about the RHS Gold Medal Winners for Botanical Art.

I think the difference between the book I had in mind and that which has been produced is that this one largely

provides a historical account of the RHS Art Collection and how it developed over time
celebrates a selection of the artists who have worked in the latter half of the 20th century and the first two decades of the 21st century
highlights some 60 of those whose artwork is in the RHS Lindley Library Collection of Botanical Art and Illustrations

Hence no Pandora Sellars (whose career took off after being seen at the RHS Botanical Art Shows in 1977) - although the book does include Mary Grierson.

I'm especially pleased we now have a list of all those who have won an RHS Gold Medal in the past - going all the way back to 1930! This was, as I anticipated it might be, a MAJOR exercise in terms of compiling a list from various Minutes of Committee meetings and other records of medals awarded. I know this is the first time ever a complete list has been published! As a result I now have a list of artists whose names need adding into my lists of top botanical artists in the world. That's because any artist who creates a suite of 6 or 9 botanical paintings or illustrations and wins an RHS Gold Medal has always been right up there for me in terms of determining what makes a good artist excellent.

Below is my review of the book - and at the end I tell you the techie details and how to get a copy.

It's also a bit of a "pat on the back" to those artists whose work made it into the book. Hence my photographs of artists are my own taken at the various RHS Botanical Art Shows - as the book very much focuses on the paintings and there are no photos of the artists. Personally I like to see both - not least for scale purposes!

Annie Hughes - who created the painting on the cover - with her Best Painting in Show of an Astrophytum in 2012.

About the book

The book comprises:

an introduction covering (1) the Lindley Library Collection of Botanical Art; and (2) the development of medals for botanical art - and notable awards made by the RHS
commentary by the Chair of the RHS Picture Panel on the current process for aspiring botanical artists to achieve medals at the show
profiles of a selection of 60 RHS Botanical Art Gold Medal Artists, from all over the world who ALSO have work in the Lindley Library Collection - because it was purchased or commissioned by the Lindley Library Collection or because it was donated to the Library by a Gold Medallist. These profiles include accounts of how some of them approached their work.
the Historical List of ALL the RHS Gold Medal Winners (who total a lot more than the 60 in the book) - which runs to six pages and 168 RHS Shows!
a detailed list of all the illustrations in the book - by their botanical latin name

The introduction to the book documents the history of botanical illustration for the RHS, including the commissioning process and the collection developed by the RHS Lindley Library - some of which I knew but some of which came as a complete surprise.

More interesting, for me, was the notion of how botanical art should also be recognised in terms of medals awarded and how this has developed over time.

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