NEWS about Botanical Art and for Botanical Artists

Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art #6: Australasian Artists

18/11/2019

Find out about the Australasian artists - from Australia and New Zealand - whose artwork is now on display in Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art, the new exhibition at Kew Gardens celebrating 30 years of collecting 1,000+ artworks from all over the world for the Shirley Sherwood Collection of Contemporary Botanical Art.

Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art is now open at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery at Kew Gardens and will be on display until 15th March 2020.

Below is one small gem which you can see in the exhibition.

One of the most beautiful small paintings you will ever see. Agapanthus by Susannah Blaxill painted on McEwen vellum for the McEwen exhibition at SSG in 2013

This post "Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art #6: Australasian Artists" is the sixth in my series of posts about the artists in the exhibition.

Previous posts have travelled around the world

Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art #1: British Artists
Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art #2: North and Latin American Artists (USA, Canada Brazil and Mexico)
Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art #3: European Artists (Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Russia, Spain and Sweden)
Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art #4: Artists from Asia (China, India, Japan, Korea, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand)
Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art #5: South African Artists

Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art
#5(a): Australian Artists

Below you can find:

the names of artists whose work is displayed - with a link to their website embedded in their name (or a link to a dedicated page on my website for some of the deceased artists)
a short profile of each artist - focusing on their achievements. Those who have achieved more get longer profiles!
the names of the plants in their artwork which has been selected for the exhibition. Where plants have been featured in previous books by Dr Sherwood this is noted next to the name.

Also noted is the number of artworks each artist has in the collection.

Strelitzia nicolai by Beverley Allen - photographed during the 'Down Under II' exhibition in 2018 at SSG

Beverly Allen GM (RHS 2007, NYBG 2010)
(6 works in the SS Collection)
b. 1945 in Sydney, Australia. BA in Fine Arts from Sydney University. A graphic designer who began studying botanical art in 1997, became a botanical artist in 1998 and now exhibits and teaches masterclasses internationally. Has exhibited annually at the RBG Sydney ‘Botanica’ Exhibition since 1999, and exhibits internationally. Exhibited at the 11th International exhibition at the Hunt in 2004. Won an RHS Gold in 2007 for eight watercolour paintings of Epiphyllum. In 2010, she was awarded the inaugural Gold Medal for Botanical Art by the New York Botanic Gardens. Her work is in many major collections including Kew, the RHS Lindley Library, the Hunt, Highgrove and Transylvania Florilegiums. and the Shirley Sherwood and Alisa and Isaac Sutton Collections. It can also be seen in a large number of publications. She is the Co-Founder and President of the Florilegium Society at the Royal Botanic Gardens.

Strelitzia 2003 Strelitzia nicolai (on the cover of the book about the exhibition)
Pomegranates and seed pods of Gloriosa 2011

Susannah Blaxill
b. 1954 in Armidale, New South Wales. She has been painting full time since 1985. She's recognised as being one of the world’s leading botanical artists specialising in watercolour (on white and black paper), pencil and recently in charcoal. A lot of people have seen her Beetroot and request to see it. I investigated why in my blog post Susannah Blaxill's beetroot and a magnifying glass (do read it to see why you MUST bring a magnifying glass to this exhibition!). This is an interview with Susannah Blaxill

Beetroot (Contemporary Botanical Artists)
Agapanthus 2012 (Painted especially for McEwen Exhibition SSG 2013) - see image at the top of this post

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Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art #5: South African Artists

17/11/2019

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Find out about the South African artists whose artwork has been selected for display in the new exhibition Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art at Kew Gardens - which celebrates 30 years of collecting 1,000+ artworks for the Shirley Sherwood Collection of Contemporary Botanical Art.

This is the fifth in my series of posts about the artists in the exhibition.

Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art #1: British Artists
Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art #2: North and Latin American Artists (USA, Canada Brazil and Mexico)
Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art #3: European Artists
Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art #4: Artists from Asia
today's post is about artists from South Africa
the final post is about artists from Australia and New Zealand

This retrospective exhibition of Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art is at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery at Kew Gardens. It opened yesterday and continues until 15th March 2020.

Margaret de Villiers with her RHS Gold Medal winning Cape Ericas in 2016

Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art
#5: South African Artists

Below you can find:

the names of artists whose work is displayed - with a link to their website embedded in their name (or a link to a dedicated page on my website for some of the deceased artists)
a short profile of each artist - focusing on their achievements. Those who have achieved more get longer profiles!
the names of the plants in their artwork which has been selected for the exhibition. Where plants have been featured in previous books by Dr Sherwood this is noted next to the name.

Also noted is the number of artworks each artist has in the collection.

Fay Anderson
(3 works in the SS Collection)
b. in 1931 in Lahore in what was then northern India and is now Pakistan. Educated in India and England. She emigrated to South Africa in 1952 and now Lives in Cape Town. Studied at the Michaelis School of Fine Art in Cape Town achieving a Diploma in Fine Arts in 1955. She has always worked as a freelance botanical artist. In 2013, she was awarded the Kirstenbosch Biennale Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of her very considerable contribution to South African botany and raising awareness of South African flora in the last 50 years. Fay’s work is represented in a number of important collections including the Hunt Institute and Missouri Botanical Gardens, St Louis in the (USA), The Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, London (UK); South African National Biodiversity Institute in Pretoria and Cape Town as well as the Shirley Sherwood Collection at Kew Gardens. Has contributed illustrations to many different publications and two of her illustrations also appear in Blunt and Sterne’s The Art of Botanical Illustration. Contributed work to two exhibits by the Botanical Research Institute South Africa which were awarded two RHS Gold Medals in 1980 and 1984.

Nivenia stokoei (A Passion for Plants, page 30)

Sibonelo Chiliza
Born in 1979 in Mtwalume (near Port Shepstone). In 2000 he enrolled at the Durban University of Technology to study Textile Design and Technology. In 2004 he spent a three-month internship at the Durban Botanical Gardens, followed by a six-month internship at the National Herbarium. Subsequently employed to manage the scanning and databasing of the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) Pretoria art collection. He has worked on images for three books, taken part in several group exhibitions and won awards in the three SANBI Kirstenbosch Biennials that he has participated in. He also now has work in the Shirley Sherwood Collection. (1 work in the collection)

Paint brush lily 2012 Scadoxus puniceus

Gillian Condy GM (with SANBI 1986, 1990, 1993, 1997, 1999, )
(5 works in the SS collection)
b.1952 in Nairobi. Grew up in England. Diploma in graphics and scientific illustration at Middlesex Polytechnic plus MA by project ('British Poisonous Plants') at Royal College of Art. Recently retired as the resident botanical artist for the South African National Botanical/Biodiversity Institute (1983-2017). Has participated in over 180 group exhibitions worldwide and contributed to numerous publications including Curtus's Botanical Magazine. Awarded the Jill Smythies Award from the Linnean Society (1990) plus seven RHS Gold Medals and two Gold Medals at the Kirstenbosch Biennale. Exhibited at the 7th International at the Hunt. One of the founding members of the Botanical Artists Association of Southern Africa. (see also A new aloe species named after Gillian Condy. Invited to contribute to the Highgrove and Transylvanian Florilegia under the auspices of the Prince's Trust and features in the Sydney Florilegium. Her work is also in numerous private collections. This is an article about her.

Turk's Cap Aloe 2007/16 Aloe peglerae - see below

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Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art #4: Artists from Asia

16/11/2019

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This is the fourth in my series of posts about artists who have artwork in the new exhibition Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art at Kew Gardens relates to Asia. The artists are from China, India, Japan, Korea, Philippines, and Thailand

Three posts in my series of SIX posts about the artists in the exhibition have been published previously:

Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art #1: British Artists
Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art #2: North and Latin American Artists (USA, Canada Brazil and Mexico)
Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art #3: European Artists

Two more posts (to come) relate to:

#5 artists from South Africa
#6 artists from Australia and New Zealand

Mieko Ishikawa GM (2006) with her very famous painting of "Acorns from Brunei" and Flowering Cherries Prunus Pendula" owned by Shirley Sherwood. (Pictured in the Flora Japonica exhibition in 2016)

The exhibition celebrates 30 years of the Shirley Sherwood Collection - and is being exhibited in the Shirley Sherwood Gallery at Kew Gardens - which opened 11 years ago and has now received well over 1 million visitors.

The exhibition opened today and continues until until 15 March 2020. (note the opening and last entry times at the end)

I'm expecting it will get a lot more visitors with this new exhibition which comprises artwork from Shirley Sherwood's Collection of Contemporary Botanical Art which is the largest private collection in the world - with more than 1,000 artworks.

Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art
#4: Asian Artists

Below you can find:
the names of artists whose work is displayed - with a link to their website embedded in their name (or a link to a dedicated page on my website for some of the deceased artists)
a short profile of each artist - focusing on their achievements
the names of the plants in their artwork which has been selected for the exhibition. Where plants have been featured in previous books by Dr Sherwood this is noted next to the name.

CHINA

Jinyong Feng
b.1925. Taught most of the contemporary botanical illustrators in China. He has also exhibited widely including at the Hunt and the Missouri Botanical Gardens. He is retired from a senior position at the Botanical Institute in Beijing.

Camellia chekiangoleosa 1994 (Contemporary Botanical Artists)
Camellia chrysantha (The Art of Plant Evolution)

Tai-li Zhang
b.1938. Worked as a botanical artist all her life. She trained at the School of Botanical Painting, Institute of Botany, Academia Sinica in Beijing from 1958-1960. She then worked for the next 35 years at the department of plant taxonomy in the Institute of Botany. She has exhibited her work in many exhibitions in China and also in Australia, the Missouri Botanical Gardens in the USA and the Everard Read Gallery in South Africa. She also exhibited in the 6th International Exhibition at the Hunt Institute. Over 1,000 of her drawings were reproduced in Flora Reipublicae Popularis Sinae.

Paulownia elongata (Contemporary Botanical Artists)
Maidenhair Tree 1994 (Contemporary Botanical Artists)

INDIA

Damodar Lal Gurjar
b. 1958. Graduated from Rajasthan School of Arts, Jaipur in 1981. His botanical artwork featured in a solo exhibition, Enduring Perfection: Paintings by Damodar Lal Gurjar, at the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation in 2001. He has work included in A Passion for Plants: Contemporary Botanical Masterworks.

Nasturtium Tropaeolum (A Passion for Plants, pg 93)

Thakur Ganga (Rai Sahib) Singh (1895-1970)
Born in India. He joined the Dehra Dun Forest Institute in 1911 and served as a Senior Artist for 30 years until his retirement in 1945. In 1931 he took long leave for a year and travelled to London for formal training as an artist at the Slade School of Art. He was made Rai Sahib ( a title of honour) for his contribution to art. Court painter to Yadhavindra Singh, Maharajah of Patiala. Ganga Singh was engaged by the Maharajah in 1942 to reproduce his collected flora in watercolour drawings. He became a permanent member of His Highness' staff and painted over four hundred watercolours over a period of twenty years.

Tiger Lily Lilium lancifolium (A Passion for Plants, pg 212)

When I was a schoolgirl I visited Pakistan just after partition and spent some wonderful months exploring the Himalayas of the North West Frontier Province, close to the border with Kashmir, I will never forget the spectaucyalr drifts of delphiniums flowing down the mountains, the alpine streams and high valleys dotted with orchids and lilies. As a budding botanist I scrambled up the mountains with my pony, collecting and pressing plants, which I eventually took to Kew.
Shirley Sherwood - in her profile of Thakur (Rai Sahib) Singh in "A Passion for Plants"

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Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art #3: European Artists

14/11/2019

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Find out about the European artists who have artwork in the new exhibition Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art - celebrating 30 years of the Shirley Sherwood Collection.

Angela Petrini (Italy) Shirley Sherwood at RHS Botanical Art Show 2018 - with the painting which has just been purchased between them. The next day the one on the left also joined the collection!

The exhibition opens at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art at Kew Gardens on Saturday 16th November 2019- until 15 March 2020. (note the opening and last entry times at the end)

The art work in the exhibition celebrates the 30th anniversary of the private collection of Dr Shirley Sherwood and the artwork in all six galleries comes from that collection.

This is the third in my series of posts about the artists in the exhibition.

Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art #1: British Artists
Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art #2: North and Latin American Artists (USA, Canada Brazil and Mexico)
Today: European Artists
Friday: from countries in Asia and South Africa
Saturday: Australia and New Zealand

Below you can find:

the names of artists whose work is displayed - with a link to their website embedded in their name (or a link to a dedicated page on my website for some of the deceased artists)
a short profile of each artist - focusing on their achievements
the names of the plants in their artwork which has been selected for the exhibition. Where plants have been featured in previous books by Dr Sherwood this is noted next to the name.

Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art
#3: European Artists

Although Shirley Sherwood is renowned for having created a collection of contemporary botanical art, she ha also acquired pieces by past masters of botanical art.

OLD EUROPEAN

Franz Andreas Bauer (1758-1840) DEDICATED PAGE on this website
Worked at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew for over 50 years and latterly was employed as "Botanick Painter to his Majesty" and drew all the new flowering plants at Kew.

Erica fascicularis numbered ‘6’ Erica fascicularis

Basil Besler (1561-1629) DEDICATED PAGE on this website
Basilius Besler is not a botanical artist. Rather he was the man best known for compiling the book known as the Hortus Eystettensis which was a florilegium of all the plants grown in the garden of the prince bishop of Eichstätt in Bavaria.

Rose of Jericho I and III and Melocactus intortus or Turks' II Cap Cactus 1615

Besler - Rose of Jericho I and III and Melocactus intortus or Turks' II Cap Cactus 1615

Barbara Regina Dietzsch (1706-1783)
A very talented member of the from the Nuremberg artist dynasty Dietzsch. Her work was exported and although credited with being a court painter she rejected this description.

Redcurrant Branch with Butterfly - Gouache heightened w white on vellum

Johann Dietzsch (1710-1769)
A German draftsman, engraver and painter who used watercolour and body colour to produce paintings in the Dutch style eg on prepared vellum with a dark background. According to this article in The Economist - this is the artist who prompted Dr Shirley Sherwood to break her rule to only buy work by contemporary artists.

Woolly Thistle Silvbum marianum

AUSTRIA

Jakob Demus
b.1959. one of a few botanical artists who are printmakers. He produces etchings and diamond-needle dry points. His Ranunculus Asiaticus is in the Shirley Sherwood Collection and more work is in the Hunt Collection.

Ranunculus asiaticus 1988

Unlike a normal drypoint, the sharpened diamond shears smoothly through the copper, allowing the artist to make extremely precise, almost photographical images.

BELGIUM

Gertrude Hamilton
born (in 1968) and educated in Belgium. Received graphic arts training in Paris, and later studied at the Art Students League in New York, where she discovered the art of botanical and natural history illustration. She is a member of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden Florilegium Society.

Red & Purple Currants Raspberries Snail & Bee 2001

Red & Purple Currants Raspberries Snail & Bee by Gertude Hamilton

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Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art #2: North and Latin American Artists

13/11/2019

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Today, I'm documenting information about the artists from North and Latin America who have artwork in the new exhibition Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art - celebrating 30 years of the Shirley Sherwood Collection - which opens at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art at Kew Gardens on Saturday 16th November 2019 - until 15 March 2020. (note the opening and last entry times at the end)

The art work in the exhibition comes from entirely from the private collection of Dr Shirley Sherwood.

(Shirley Sherwood) became interested in plants and art as a young child and went on to study Botany at Oxford University before earning her D.Phil as part of the team that discovered the drug Tagamet.

She started the Shirley Sherwood Collection in 1990 and it now includes over 1,000 paintings and drawings representing the work of over 300 contemporary botanical artists from 36 countries around the world.

Cycad 1998 Female cones of Encephalartos ferox by Leslie Carol Berge (1959-2017)

This post has two parts relating to the botanical artists in the exhibition who come from

North America - specifically USA and Canada
Latin America - specifically Brazil and Mexico

Every day this week - including Saturday when the exhibition opens - I am documenting information about the artists whose artwork has been selected to hang in this major exhibition. I'm also including images of some of the artwork in the exhibition. This is one you will not want to miss.

Yesterday I published information about the Artists of the British Isles and Ireland
Below you can find:

the names of artists whose work is displayed - with a link to their website embedded in their name (or a link to a dedicated page on my website for some of the deceased artists)
a short profile of each artist - focusing on their achievements
the names of the plants in their artwork which has been selected for the exhibition. Where plants have been featured in previous books by Dr Sherwood this is noted next to the name.

The remaining posts concern the botanical artists

Thursday - from countries in Europe,
Friday - from countries in Asia and South Africa and
Saturday - from Australia and New Zealand.

I'm very much looking forward to the Private View which a lot of those artists will be attending. This is a very special group of artists!

NOTES:

If you don't want to miss one of my blog posts, I suggest you subscribe to this blog - see side column or subscription box later in this post
The images below have been featured in previous posts of mine about previous exhibitions at the Gallery or about the artists. Many thanks to Sophie Cooper, Personal Assistant to Shirley Sherwood for providing me with the lists of artists and to Maria and Victoria for providing updates for what is hung.

Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art
#2 (a): North American Artists

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Francesca Anderson GM FLS (1995, 99)
b. 1946. (BA. MA, MFA) A botanical artist who always works in pen and ink with 13 works in the Shirley Sherwood Collection. She has received two RHS gold medals (Amaryllis in 1995; Brassica series in 1999). She is a former President of the American Society of Botanical Artists, founder and president of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden Florilegium Society, a Fellow of the Linnean Society and and a Trustee of Brooklyn Botanic Garden. She has had her work exhibited extensively and internationally in museums in Sweden, Scotland, London, South Africa, Australia, Berlin, and Japan and has works in the collections of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, the Hunt Institute, the RHS Lindley Library and the National Gallery of Modern Art in Scotland as well as other public and private collections.

Cyclamen 1992

Leslie Carol Berge (1959-2017) - see image at the top of the post
b. Massachusetts 1959. 8 works in the Shirley Sherwood Collection. Renowned for her paintings of cycads. Her painting of the female cones of the cycad, Encephalartos woodii (extinct in the wild) featured on the front cover of "A Passion for Plants" and was reproduced in the Washington Post. Graduated in Art History, Painting and Drawing from Bennington College, Vermont. MA in Illustration At Art Institute of Boston. Became a freelance artist in 1981. Participated in early botanical art courses organised by Dr Sherwood. Exhibited in the 7th International Exhibition at the Hunt in 1992.

Cycad 1998 Female cones of Encephalartos ferox
Bushman's Cycad 2001 Encephalartos trispinosus

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Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art #1: British Artists

11/11/2019

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Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art opens at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art at Kew Gardens on Saturday 16th November 2019 (see details of dates and hours at end of this post).

On the same day Shirley Sherwood's latest book, celebrating her extensive and leading private collection of contemporary botanical art, is also published. The Shirley Sherwood Collection: Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art will be available from the shop in the Gallery as well as the Main Shop.

Banner image for the exhibition website page on the Kew website

Cover of Dr Sherwood's NEW Book about The Shirley Sherwood Collection

For all those of you who have collected (as I have) Dr Sherwood's previous books and have admired the artwork on their pages this is the most amazing opportunity

first to see the real paintings in the exhibition - and to see examples of all those she has acquired since she first started writing about contemporary botanical art
also to see them recorded in the new 320 page hardback book about The Shirley Sherwood Collection - which is without any doubt the most important private collection of contemporary botanical art in the world.

I have absolutely no doubt that this exhibition will be enormously popular and - without even seeing it yet - that this book will undoubtedly become a best seller and a seminal reference on this topic!

About the exhibition artists

This entire retrospective exhibition is selected from Dr Sherwood's personal collection of over 1,000 contemporary botanical artworks - plus a few "old favourites"!

The exhibition is organised according to geographical regions of the world recognising her very many travels in pursuit of botanical art - and the truly international nature of her collection.

Every day this week - including Saturday when the exhibition opens - I am going to publish the names of the artists who have work in the exhibition - starting today with the ARTISTS OF THE BRITISH ISLES AND IRELAND - and moving on to those from

Wednesday - North and Latin America,
Thursday - from countries in Europe,
Friday - from countries in Asia and South Africa and
Saturday - from Australia and New Zealand.

I'm very much looking forward to the Private View which a lot of those artists will be attending. This is a very special group of artists!

(If you don't want to miss one of my blog posts, I suggest you subscribe to this blog - see side column or subscription box later in this post)

Below you can find:

the names of artists whose work is displayed - with a link to their website embedded in their name (or a link to a dedicated page on my website for some of the deceased artists)
a short profile of each artist - focusing on their achievements
the names of the plants in their artwork which has been selected for the exhibition. Where plants have been featured in previous books by Dr Sherwood this is noted next to the name.

The images below have been featured in previous posts of mine about previous exhibitions at the Gallery or about the artists. Many thanks to Sophie Cooper, Personal Assistant to Shirley Sherwood for providing me with the lists of artists and to Maria and Victoria for providing updates for what got hung.

Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art
#1: Artists of the British Isles and Ireland

Gillian Barlow GM (1994, 1997, joint 1999); Veitch GM
b. 1944 Current Chair of the RHS Picture Committee (joined 2005) and a judge for the RHS Botanical Art Shows. Won three RHS Gold Medals and a Gold Veitch Memorial Medal (2015) for an outstanding contribution to advancement of the art of horticulture. Official Orchid Artist for the RHS (1999-2005). Deputy Chairman of the Chelsea Physic Garden Florilegium Society. Work in various collections: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; RHS Lindley Library, Shirley Sherwood Collection, and Hunt Institute. (Prints) She has also worked as a Herald painter at London's College of Arms for 30 years

Artichoke Seed Head 2001 Cynara cardunculus (see A New Flowering)

Stephanie Berni
b. 1949 in Bristol. Began botanical painting in 1996 for The English Gardening School Diploma Course. with Anne Marie Evans. Has work in The Shirley Sherwood Collection and the Highgrove Florilegium. Her Australian Tree Fern painting adorns the front cover of Shirley Sherwood’s Book A New Flowering; 1000 Years of Botanical Art.

Australian tree fern 2004 Balantium antarcticum (see A New Flowering)

Raymond Booth (1929-2015) DEDICATED PAGE
a botanical, wildlife and natural history artist of international renown who lived a reclusive life in Yorkshire and exhibited at the Fine Art Society. One of a very few botanical painters who used oil for his paintings. His work is held in various collections including the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, the Shirley Sherwood Gallery at Kew and the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation in Pittsburgh. He grew and painted many rare species of Japanese plants and then painted 85 paintings to illustrate the book Japonica Magnifica, published in 1992. Included in Contemporary Botanical Artists (1996)

Rosa moyesii 1988 Rosa moyesii (See Contemporary Botanical Artists)

Victoria Braithwaite
b.1973 Exhibits with the SBA and the SSBA. Has work in the Shirley Sherwood Collections (exhibited Kew 2016 and 2017)

Peony, Greenbank Garden 2018

Jenny Brazier GM (1982, 1988 1989, 1994, 2000)
b.1936 No formal training. Encouraged to paint plants and flowers in her later years by Wilfrid Blunt. Has work in The Art of Botanical Illustration' (1994 version), in the V&A and Shirley Sherwood Collection plus five Gold Medals for works in watercolour on both paper and vellum. Exhibited at Hunt 1983. Awarded the Jill Smythies award for Botanical Illustration by The Linnean Society in 2002. Founder member of the SBA plus current Chair of the Eden Florilegium Society

Cyclamen pseudibericum 1993 Cyclamen pseudibericum (See Contemporary Botanical Artists)

Norah Briggs (1905-1989)
Mother of Shirley Sherwood

Aristolochia sp. 1949

Dr Andrew P. Brown GM (1992, 1994, 1997, 1999)
b. 1948. Awarded four Gold Medals by the RHS. He is a freelance botanical illustrator for Kew Gardens; Secretary of the Chelsea Physic Garden Florilegium Society and author of the books associated with exhibitions by the Chelsea Physic Garden Florilegium Society. Previously Head of Biology at Westminster School, London. Current member of the RHS Picture Panel.

Voodoo Lily 1994 Sauromatum venosum (See Contemporary Botanical Artists)

Andrew Brown with his Voodoo Lilly

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Natura Picta - International Exhibition of Botanical Art

9/11/2019

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Natura Picta is an International Exhibition of Botanical Art which opened last week in Italy at The Fine Art Society of Florence, Società delle Belle Arti-Circolo degli Artisti “Casa di Dante”.

Venue: Società delle Belle Arti-Circolo degli Artisti
This is an old arts society which has had leading personalities of the art and literature world as members. Its headquarters are situated in a fine stone building in the heart of Florence's historical center. This is also the home of the Museo della Casa di Dante, in an area which was home to the 13th century location of the houses of the Alighieri family.
Address: “Casa di Dante”, Via Santa Margherita 1/r, Florence.
Dates: Sunday 3 to Thursday 14 November 2019

The exhibition has been organised by Simonetta Occhipinti and Giulano Gallo.

Exhibiting Artists

(Left to Right) Giuliana Gallo, Elena Zito, Simonetta Occhipinti, Silvana Rava, Gillian Barlow, Lidia Vanzetti, Daniela Denzel

The artists exhibiting in Natura Picta are pictured above and listed below

ITALY

Simonetta Occhipinti - Lives and works in Tuscany on the hills around Florence. Member of the ASBA and the Circolo degli Artisti Casa di Dante. She has painted botanical subjects from a young age and also worked on reproductions of old Flemish and Renaissance paintings attending a school of art restoration and ancient decorative techniques. She has had numerous personal and collective exhibitions organised by prestigious associations and institutes including: Museo di Storia Naturale, Florence, Camerino University, Accademia dei Georgofili, Lindlay Hall of London. In 2016 she won an RHS Gold Medal for eight paintings of citrus plants from the Medici Family Gardens. She collaborates with the “Dei Semplici Botanical Garden of Florence” and with the Tuscan Horticultural Society
Silvana Rava - Textile designer, she began botanical painting in 2000. Her preferred medium is watercolour on paper or vellum though she also enjoys exploring other techniques such as silverpoint. In 2008, she won an RHS Gold medal for Medicinal plants of Lake Como; in 2009 at “Botalia” in Lucca she received the Gold medal “Panterino d’oro”, and in 2017 she was awarded a RHS Silver Gilt medal. She regularly teaches botanical art at the Botanical Museum of Pisa, at the Ortifloricola Comense Society, Lezzeno Town Hall, in Como, and at other prestigious locations. Her paintings are in the collections of the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, the RHS Lindley Library in London and the Museo della Grafica in Pisa. She is a member of Floraviva.

Paintings by Simonetta Occhipinti

Paintings by (left) Daniela Denzel-Timmer and (right) Lidia Vanzetti

Lidia Vanzetti - Lidia has been interested in nature and drawing since childhood. She began her botanical painting career in 2004 and has participated in major exhibitions in Italy and abroad and had a number of solo exhibitions of her botanical art. Lidia has won important awards, including three RHS Gold Medals. (I met Lidia when she won her second RHS Gold Medal in 2011 with a very pleasing series about the Pears of the Piedmont and her third in 2016 for Grapes of the Piedmont) and a Silver-Gilt Medal at BISCOT in 2010. She has artworks in national and international, private and public collections, including the Hunt Institute, Pittsburgh (USA).
Elena Zito - Lives in Pisa. Over the years, has participated in a number of courses in botanical and naturalistic painting courses with several renowned artists in Italy. She has also exhibited widely at botanical gardens and museums within Italy. In 2015, she became a member of Floraviva, the Italian Association of Botanical Artists.

Guiliana Gallo, Gillian Barlow and Mary Dillon

AUSTRIA

Daniela Denzel-Timmer - Lives in Vienna.

IRELAND

Mary Dillon - Member and Founding Chairperson of the Irish Society of Botanical Artists; Elected member of the Watercolour Society of Ireland; Fellow Member of the Society of Botanical Artists, UK; Member of the American Society of Botanical Artists. She has exhibited her botanical art extensively in trenational exhibitions including currently in the 16th International Exhibition of Botanical Art and Illustration at the Hunt Institute of Botanical Documentation

Paintings by Mary Dillon

NETHERLANDS

Giuliana Gallo - born and brought up in Italy, on the Island of Elba but now lives in the Netherlands. She has shown her work in numerous exhibitions in the Netherlands and internationally, including Germany, Italy and UK, at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery, in Kew Gardens.
Anita Walsmit-Sachs - Professional botanical illustrator and teacher. She was Head of the Art Department and scientific illustrator (until 2013) of the Nationaal Herbarium Nederland, part of the University of Leiden, (now the Naturalis Biodiversity Center). Founder of the Dutch Society of Botanical Artists. She has exhibited widely in the Netherlands and internationally. Her work is held in many private collections including the Hunt Institute of Botanical Documentation, the New York State Museum, Albany USA and Teylers Museum, Haarlem, The Netherlands.

UNITED KINGDOM

Gillian Barlow - Chair of the RHS Picture Panel. Her paintings are public collections such as the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew; Royal Horticultural Society; Chelsea Physic Garden; British Council; Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney, Australia; Hunt Institute, at Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA; Vassar College USA; and private collections including The Shirley Sherwood Collection.

Three paintings by Gillian Barlow

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Venue for the exhibition in Florence

My thanks to Mary Dillon for kindly supplying the photographs of the exhibition.

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