NEWS about Botanical Art and for Botanical Artists

Guide to Online Botanical Art Instruction & Courses

23/3/2020

Many of you will be unable to attend botanical art classes, courses and workshops during the Coronavirus Crisis.

However there are a couple of alternatives for learning more techniques about how to draw and paint plants to botanical standards away from a physical face to face class. These are:

online instruction
art instruction books

Guide to Online Botanical Art Instruction & Courses

For those wanting to learn more about botanical art and illustration at home, there was nowhere on the web offering a comparative analysis and evaluation of the available online instruction and tutorials in botanical art and illustration - until I published my Guide to Online Botanical Art Instruction & Courses.

My webpage providing advice and information on how to choose and lists of those providing online instruction in botanical art and illustration

This web page includes:

RECOMMENDED READING

a SUMMARY of what Online Botanical Art Instruction is
a SUMMARY of who benefits from online instruction
OVERVIEW of providers of Online Botanical Art Courses - this indicates the different types and providers, namely
- Recognised Institutions (e.g. Botanic Gardens) - providing distance learning courses using web-based instruction
- Online Instruction via Video Tutorials
- Online Instruction via individual Teachers (written guides and/or ebooks plus typically minor use of videos. Plus some teachers also provide one on one masterclasses, critiques and/or tutorials)
- Corporate Providers of Online Instruction Platforms - where botanical art (and art too) is just one of very many topics taught.
CHECKLIST of questions for prospective students - to be used by students who want to evaluate the alternative options on offer

BOTANICAL ART ONLINE COURSE PROVIDERS

LIST of Online Providers of Botanical Art Instruction - more information
REVIEW of Online Botanical Art Courses - if you'd like to say what you want from online courses or what you think about online course provision there is a form. No comments are published but may inform the future content of this page.

It's essential that BEFORE parting with any money
you are clear about:
- what type of instruction or course you are buying
- what you are paying for i.e. what the instruction comprises
- whether it works on ALL your online devices(desktop/tablet/smartphone etc) i.e. the website must be designed for and accessible by all mobile devices
- how the payment scheme works - whether it is one-off or a subscription scheme and whether any subscription is automated (i.e. payments renew automatically until you stop them)
- whether you can get a refund if you realise you've made a mistake
- whether you are dealing with a tutor who knows about all the Regulatory Requirements of eCommerce which should provide you with protection in the event of a concern (e.g. data privacy) or dispute (e.g. re your consumer contract)

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Providers of Online Botanical art Instruction include:

Recognised Institutions
- providing distance learning courses using web-based instruction

UK: Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh - 3 year Diploma Course and 6 month Certificate Course - with a team of tutors
UK: London Art College - Botanical Painting Online Art Course (D9) (Tutor: Polly O' Leary ) Botanical Coloured Pencil Online (D12) (Tutor: Ida Mitrani)
USA: Cornell University - Online Botanical Illustration series

Online Instruction via Video Tutorials
by Botanical Artists/Tutors

Anna Mason - Learn botanical painting online
Billy Showell - Online Tutorials
Wendy Hollender - Botanical Basics and Draw Botanical's Complete Course
Jarnie Godwin - Online Botanical Watercolour Tutorials

Online Tuition via individual tutors
- using written guides / ebooks and videos + feedback / Private Facebook Groups i.e. it varies

Dianne Sutherland - Botanical Art Online
Elaine Searle - Paint Botanical Online Shorts
Gaynor Dickson - Gaynor's Flora - Online Botanical Art Course
Julia Trickey - Botanical Art Tutorials
Ann Swan - Pencil Potential - Online Tuition Programme
Shevaun Doherty - Botanical Elements
Sarah Morrish - Illustrating Nature's Details - Online Courses

Corporate Instruction Providers - Online Instruction
- the platform is owned by a company which elects to provide teaching as a business. It can change the business model at any time (e.g. as happened with Craftsy).

Udemy - Paint Realistic Watercolours and Botanicals - with Heidi Elliis
Bluprint / Craftsy - Botanical Illustration With Watercolor & Colored Pencils with Adele Rossetti

I do NOT include those are providing video tutorials or other online instruction which is design oriented i.e. not observing the essential characteristics of botanical art and illustration.

I hope you find this Guide useful during the Coronavirus Crisis.

CLICK the image to go to this page on this website

Teach Botanical Art Online

I'm also going to try and provide a Guide to all those thinking about switching their workshop teaching to online instruction - hopefully this week. Although I expect this may be a work in progress for a while.

If you're interested, please use comments below (or contact me) to tell me what you want to know about.

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Coronavirus: Updating Course Directory for Cancellations and Postponements

16/3/2020

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Over the weekend - and following recent announcements about travel restrictions and border closures - I started to update the International Directory of Classes, Courses and Workshops in Botanical Art & Illustration on my Botanical Art and Artists website.

As a result:

the Europe and USA pages have been updated for
- notices about travel restrictions
- notifications of cancellations or postponements - where I've seen these or been informed about them.
the UK and Australasia pages to date have minimal updates

The notice is typically along the lines of the following.....

CORONAVIRUS: Courses indicated below may be subject to cancellation or postponement.
Please contact the organiser for the latest situation. It's possible courses will be rescheduled for a later date.

IF YOU TEACH A COURSE - THIS IS WHAT YOU CAN DO...

If you know for definite that the course you are teaching is:

either CANCELLED
or POSTPONED

I'd very much appreciate it if you could use the form at the bottom of the relevant page and let me know. I will then amend the directory - and will ALSO indicate the rescheduled date for you as and when this happens.

The pages are:

A reminder about law and regulations

I'be begun to hear one or two stories relating to art teachers (generally) cancelling workshops but with little regard for their legal obligations in relation to

contract law and
regulations relating to distance selling (online).

I'm sure this is happening because people are unaware of the standards they need to follow when trading generally or online and the application or otherwise of force majeure.

FORCE MAJEURE

"Force majeure" is normally defined as unforeseeable circumstances that prevent someone from fulfilling a contract.

It's important to note that the concept of force majeure in relation to contracts varies from country to country.

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Denver Botanic Gardens: Illustrator in Residence 2020 - applications invited

30/1/2020

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Applications are invited from experienced botanical illustrators for the School of Botanical Illustration 2020 Residency Programme at the Denver Botanic Gardens.

It will interest all botanical illustrators who have completed a certificate in botanical illustration, like to travel to draw and paint new plants and are capable of teaching a workshop. The Residency offers a stipend of $4,000 to cover the essential costs (offset costs of travel and transportation, art supplies, and living expenses.) of the six week residency between June and October 2020.

The Illustrator in Residence Program is an exciting opportunity for illustrators to find inspiration in the natural beauty of Denver Botanic Gardens and further their practice with in-depth access to the Gardens’ extensive scientific collections. Residents will illustrate the Garden’s collections and landscapes with a focus on documenting plants native to the Rocky Mountain region, supporting the
Gardens’ dedication to preservation, conservation, education and biodiversity.

This file provides all the details of the Residency - which I also summarise below.

sbai_illustrator_residency_2020.pdf
File Size:	270 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

The deadline for submissions is Feb. 29, 2020 11:59 p.m. (Mountain Standard Time)

VENUE
Denver Botanic Gardens 1007 York Street, Denver, CO 80206

This page provides an overview of the Gardens
This is a link to a map of the York Street Gardens and facilities

Denver Botanic Garden from above

ARTISTS IN RESIDENCE
In recent years, the SBAI at Denver Botanic Gardens has had a number of botanical artists participate in their Residency Programme including:

2015: Ikumi Kayama (USA) and Benjamin Cardenas Valderrama (Colombia)
2016: Lauren Bassing (USA) and John Pastoriza-Piñol
2017: Katherine Rudebusch (USA) and Isik Guner
2018: Asuka Hishiki

READ about Isik Guner's experience during her residency in 2017 - Artist Residency in Denver Botanic Gardens

SEE EXAMPLES of the artwork produced in the blog posts by the School of Botanical Illustration a Denver Botanical Gardens.

2018 Residency Artwork for the Denver Collection by Asuka Hishiki

SCOPE OF THE RESIDENCY
The scope of this residency features two key elements:

Creation of a body of work supporting the mission of Denver Botanic Gardens, particularly focused on plants native to Colorado and the Rocky Mountain region.
Leading one 3-day workshop for 12 students in the Gardens’ School of Botanical Art and Illustration. This workshop will focus on a technique or media that the resident specializes in, subject to the approval of the Gardens. Dates of the workshop will be determined based on the residency timeframe. PLUS interaction with visitors is optional though highly encouraged, promoting public understanding and appreciation of the natural world and offering an opportunity for visitors to see the Gardens through the eyes of an artist.

Opportunities could include:

Offering an open studio to share works in progress
Conducting demonstrations for the public
Writing blog posts for the Gardens’ website

DURATION OF THE 2020 RESIDENCY

six weeks between June 9 and October 9, 2020.
40 hours a week engaged in residency activities, ideally Monday through Friday although some flexibility is possible.
Optional professional development opportunities like lectures or programs may also be available to the resident during evenings and weekends.

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The 20 Most Popular Pages about Botanical Art

31/12/2019

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Today I'm sharing the 20 most popular pages on Botanical Art and Artists (excluding specific artists) over 2018-19.

See if you can predict what will be popular.
Do tell me if you're surprised by any of the rankings. I know I was! It's made me rethink some future plans - and also identified pages I need to work on some more.

One of the ways I try to improve Botanical Art and Artists is by paying attention to what interests visitors to the site. That's why I regularly look at the website statistics. Periodically I pull a pdf file of Google Analytics and take a look at which pages which get the most traffic and which pages which get the lowest and the highest bounce rates.

I've decided to limit the timeframe for the count to 2018 and 2019 as I've introduced quite a few new pages since it started, over 4.5 years ago, in April 2015. However sorting out the ranked order based on my Google Analytics data was not at all easy and I ended up using an Excel spreadsheet and sorting on two data sets!

BELOW:

Check to see if there are any popular pages you've missed on a website which now has well over 1,000 web pages and blog posts.
Visit the pages - links are embedded in the titles of the top 20 web pages ranked below in order of popularity

1. Past Masters of Botanical Art & Illustration (1500-1900)
This one is way out in front and has been ever since I created the site. It gets more hits than the home page! This particular page is really interesting as it highlights and summarises some of the famous botanical artists and illustrators and Past Masters - between 1500 and 1900 - from the UK, France, Netherlands / Flemish, Germany & Austria, Italy, Australasia, Africa - specifically South Africa, North and Central America and South America. Plus and other notable artists working within botanical art and illustration. (Note Famous Asian Botanical Artists (600 - 1500) from China, India and Japan are on a separate page - and I probably need to create a seperate page for Europe too)

2. NEWS about Botanical Art and for Botanical Artists
My News Blog started after the main site was created but has become very popular ever since. The number of subscribers also continues to climb

3. Tips and Techniques
Extremely popular right from the beginning. A good tip for any botanical artist wanting to create traffic to their website is to provides tips and techniques - for free - on your website or blog or social media site. People love them. Next best tip is alert me to your tip and if it's good enough then I'll add it into this resource page and you'll get even more traffic!

4. Best Botanical Art Instruction Books
A very popular page because I only list the books I rate and I also provide lots of reviews - and some of them are in-depth. This is a VERY long page with LOTS links to sub-pages which review books by specific people

5. What is Botanical Art?
The perennial question - hence the ranking. I try to provide an answer by quoting others on this topic. I add to it when I find a great new comment or insight.

6. Scientific Botanical Illustration
How to draw plants to scientific standards. This page includes basic instruction on what to do and what not to do when illustrating plants to scientific standards; drawing aids which promote accuracy in measurement and rendering in scientific illustration links to practical tips and techniques for botanical illustration from leading scientific botanical illustrators and organisations providing support for scientific illustration. Plus articles about the history of scientific botanical illustration and the development of contemporary Flora.

7. Botanical Artists and Illustrators UK
This page highlights artists and illustrators creating contemporary botanical art and illustration of distinction who are based on or born in the UK - England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. This page which has way more artists than any other continent or country in terms of people who qualify for the listing.

8. Plant Names and Botanical Latin
When recording a plant name wrong can affect the colour of medal you receive at an RHS Botanical Art Show it's worth making an effort to understand how plant names are constructed and how to write them. (There's a few artists who wish growers made the same effort!). Plus it's a topic which does not get a lot of coverage online!

9. How to draw and paint leaves and trees
I've been saying for a long time, botanical art is not just about painting flowers! The second thing I've remarked on more than a few times is there is a major market for the author who writes the definitive book on how to paint plants and trees. I get asked by publishers for names of artists I'd recommend for specific topics. If you're interested contact me.

This page is the "top tips" page dedicated to tips and techniques for how to draw and paint botanically correct trees and leaves. Drawing and watercolour painting instruction includes step by step demonstrations, videos and books. I'm currently working my way through an analysis of every instruction book in terms of how good it is in providing instruction for leaves and/or trees.

10. Contemporary Botanical Artists and Illustrators
This is the gateway to all the pages about the contemporary botanical artists and illustrators listed on this website who draw, paint and print plants and flowers AND have been recognised for their excellence and mastery of their individual approach to botanical art and illustration [Note Continent / country listings are not definitive. They're being updated all the time]

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Where can you find a botanical art course in England, Scotland and Wales in 2019?

21/1/2019

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My directory of short courses, classes and workshops in botanical art and/or illustration in England, Scotland and Wales has been updated to include all those being held in 2019 that have been:

notified to me and/or
are being venues which had courses last year.

The Miller's House at Flatford Mill - now a Field Centre offering workshops and short courses

Where can you find a botanical art course in 2019?

The list is organised geographically.
Each area is prefaced by a list of botanical art tutors listed in that section.
Each course is delisted after it has been held - hence now is the best time of year to get an insight into the short courses on offer.

Places with courses, classes or workshops in 2019 include include:

England

London
East Anglia - Cambridge, Essex, Suffolk
Midlands - Birmingham
North - Cheshire, Derbyshire, North Yorkshire
South and SE England - Hampshire, Hertfordshire, Kent, Surrey, West Sussex
South West England - Bath, Bristol, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Somerset, Wiltshire

Scotland - Edinburgh

Wales

Cardiff,
Gwynedd,
Powys,
Vale of Glamorgan,
West Glamorgan

Hassop Hall Hotel in Bakewell, Derbyshire

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For your information

I can only list what I'm told about or find about - hence I don't pretend that this list is comprehensive.

This page ONLY lists Botanical Art & Illustration workshops, classes and courses

by Organisations
and/or at Educational Centres in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
and NOT in a private home.

(i.e. it's a reasonably safe bet that they comply with all relevant legislative and regulatory requirements for having third parties on their premises). I'm much less sure of compliance by domestic premises - hence why they are typically excluded.

Tutors and tuition providers can tell me about their course (if it has not been included) by providing the information requested at the bottom of the page and using the dedicated form for UK Course Information.

Reputable UK-based tutors are listed in the International Directory: Botanical Art Tutors (along with tutors around the world)

West Dean College in West Sussex

For Tuition in Other Countries

I'm also updating the courses in other countries and would appreciate updates.
See separate pages for Botanical Art Tuition offered in:

North America - USA, Canada and Caribbean
Australasia - Australia
Europe and North Africa - Austria, France, Ireland, Italy, Morocco Netherlands, Romania and Spain

These also have a form at the bottom of the page for tuition updates.
Courses in Africa, Asia and South and Central America will be added on separate pages in due course

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Botanical Art and Artists: looking back, looking forward

1/1/2019

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Today seems a good day to

look back at the momentous year for botanical art in 2018 and
look forward to what's happening in 2019 for botanical art and artists around the world

First I'd like extend all my readers my very best wishes for your botanical art and travels in 2019.

May your paper work properly, your brushes not drop hairs, your paints behave as they're supposed to, your pencils sharpen and keep their points, the frames arrive on time, your artwork not get lost on its travels post - and for you to discover new plants and tutors who inspire you to do more superb botanical artwork!

Botanical Art and Artists in 2018

I must confess I absolutely and totally ran out of steam re. covering botanical art towards the end of 2018 and had a very quiet few weeks towards the end of the year - despite a pile of books to review (which will now be reviewed this month - for all of you with money to spend from Christmas)!

Botanical Art Exhibitions

So much had been happening during the course of the year in relation to botanical art exhibitions around the world that I had to race to keep up - metaphorically speaking - for most of the year. (More literally, there was a point during the year when I could barely walk!). There were exhibitions I wanted to see that I just couldn't get to and ones which I've seen which I still need to write about....

Some of the Catalogues from the Worldwide Exhibition of Botanical Art currently on display at Kew

One of the main reasons for all this was the HUGELY successful Worldwide Exhibition of Botanical Art in 2018.

I LOVED seeing all the photos and videos about their exhibitions that people posted to Facebook and their websites. It really felt like a huge community effort by the botanical art community across the world.
I also loved writing the blog posts about all the exhibitors in the exhibitions (for which I had information). It was great to make contact with so many new groups (for me). I also learned so much about botanical artists worldwide - and all those who were listed in a blog post got a link to their website from mine!
In addition, it helped me write about a lot more artists across the world for my leading artist pages on the website

Decals decorate the exterior of the Gallery to mark the decade since it opened in April 2008.

Four other highlights were:

the 10th anniversary of the opening of the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art at Kew and its one millionth visitor - see One millionth visitor to the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art!
the visit by the Florilegium of RBG Sydney artists in April - for the exhibition of their work at Kew. See"The Florilegium: The Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney" exhibition at Kew Gardens and List of artists exhibited in "Down Under II: Works from the Shirley Sherwood Collection". It was a simply stunning exhibition and I met some lovely ladies for the first time - and I very much enjoyed what I now call "Australia Day" (which reminds me I still need to upload all those photos of the artists and Herbarium visit to Dropbox for you!)
the largest ever RHS Botanical Art Show in July - at which 16 GOLD MEDALS were awarded(!!!) - see RHS London Botanical Art Show 2018 - Awards and Medal Winners. Hye Woo Shin went one better than her previous Best Exhibit Award and received a Judges Special Award for her exhibit of "Plants of Dokdu Island"

Hye Woo Shin and her Special Judges Award for her RHS exhibit "Plants of Dokdu Island"

New Pages in 2018

There were a number of new pages on the website in 2018 - and there are lot more in draft. Probably the new pages are of most interest to students of botanical art are the ones about

Online Botanical Art Courses. I'll be looking to developing this further in 2019.
NEW Books about Botanical Art and Illustration - new Instruction books will remain on this page for 12 months after publication

Traffic growth

Growth in traffic to my website has been exponential in 2018.
Traffic has been on a marked upward trend since the website started in 2015. However, traffic is now three times more than that in 2016.

Botanical Art And Artists Traffic in 2018: No. of unique visitors (blue) and pageviews (green) per month

In 2018 my website received (see chart below)

654,354 pageviews (green column)
469,482 unique visitors (blue column) to my website

At one point this summer, I started to think I might make it to 1,000,000 visitors to my website by the end of the year! However although this didn't quite happen - it will be happening very soon - probably end of February/March! (you can see my counter in the right hand column). I must think of some way of celebrating!

This year I need to get into training so I don't run out of steam!

Botanical Art and Artists in 2019

I'm looking forward to some more great things for botanical art and from botanical artists in 2019. I'm going to say a few words below about

my plans for my website in 2019
exhibitions in 2019

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Sarah Jane Humphrey - being a botanical illustrator

13/12/2018

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Sarah Jane Humphrey in her studio

In this video, Sarah Jane Humphrey is interviewed by Melanie Chadwick about her career and how she found her way into a career in illustration and her own botanical illustration niche.

Sarah Jane Humphrey GM is a botanical and natural science illustrator, author, tutor and now shopkeeper.

2018 has been a big year for Sarah Jane

in June 2018, her book Botanical Art with Scientific Illustration was published. READ my REVIEW: Botanical Art with Scientific Illustration by Sarah Jane Humphrey for more details
in July 2018, she won her first RHS Bold Medal Gold Medal by the RHS for Medicinal Fruits and their symbiosis with Pollinators (after a previous Silver and then Silver Gilt).
in November 2018, she opened her own shop in Falmouth called Botanical Atelier at 19A Arwenack St. Falmouth. TR11 4AS where she is delivering botanically oriented events and workshops.

To date her career has involved

graduating from Falmouth University with an Honours Degree in Illustration.
becoming represented by the Wildlife Art Company for illustration work. She was their very first female Scientific and Natural History Illustrator.
securing contracts for botanical, natural history and scientific illustration work from a variety of clients and publishers
delivering workshops on Botanical Illustration in Cornwall

View the video to find out more about how she developed her career to date.

Websites:

Portfolio https://www.sarahjanehumphrey.com/
Botanical Atelier https://botanicalatelier.co.uk/

Botanical Art with Scientific Illustration by Sarah Jane Humphrey

The video is part of Melanie Chadwick's series of interviews called Creative Conversations on YouTube.

Each episode we chat about running a business, struggles and successes as well as sharing tips and advice which may be helpful to others working in the creative world. Pull up a chair and enjoy!

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