NEWS about Botanical Art and for Botanical Artists

Tulipa Tulipae 2018 at Real Jardin Botanico de Madrid

21/3/2018

Tulipa Tulipae opened yesterday in the Villanueva Pavilion at the Real Jardín Botánico (RJB) in Madrid. The exhibition comprises:

a review of the techniques used for drawing, painting and printing tulips over the centuries - drawing on the archives and library of the RJB and drawing with images of the RJB Archive and Library
85 original artworks portraying a variety of tulips by 47 botanical artist members of The Society of Botanical Artists.
the blooms of 21,000 bulbs that have been planted at the entrance of the Botanical Garden, in the Terrace of Paintings.

The exhibition continues until the 20 May 2018. Opening hours vary by month.

You can see a video of a television segment on the local news about the exhibition - which includes an interview with Marta Chirino who has organised the exhibition and contains views of the exhibition.

There is a rather wonderful catalogue in Spanish and English and I hope to be able to find out more about how this will become accessible and/or available in the next few days.

I've been promised some pics from exhibition after the excitement of the launch activities - so there'll be another blog post

There are also a wide range of educational and outreach activities, including workshops, guided tours and live demonstrations during the next two months.

Botanical illustration courses + Meet the artist

Some of the activities are art-related. For the student of botanical illustration these include:

Botanical watercolor illustration with Diane Sutherland 12 - April 14, 2018
Botanical illustration with gouache and watercolor on dark background Shevaun Doherty 19 - 21 April 2018
Botanical drawing course Marta Chirino 3 - 5 May 2018
Children's workshop: We draw a flower 6 - 16 years old Marta Chirino May 13 2018

There are also a couple of opportunities to meet some of the artists participating in the show.

Meet the artist: Shevaun Doherty and Marta Chirino April 22, 2018
Meet the artist: Sylvia Balch, Christine Flintham, Pamela Taylor and Marta Chirino29 April 2018

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In Search of Rory McEwen - another chance to see the BBC documentary

9/12/2017

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BBC4 In Search of Rory McEwen 23.30 on Monday 11 December 2017

The BBC documentary programme about Rory McEwen, first broadcast in 2015, is to be repeated on Monday.

If you missed 'In Search of Rory McEwen' first time around, I suggest you stay up late and/or set your device to record so you can watch this programme and then watch it again! The presenter is Jools Holland, who is married to Rory's daughter Christabel McEwan.

It is probably going to be available on iPlayer as well - and generally that's for around 30 days or longer if it goes into the Digital Archive of important programmes from the past. However I frankly wouldn't chance it and will be setting my digibox to record.

Those who know Jess Shepherd will also spot her small role in the documentary - painting in the Chelsea Physic Garden - see A grand day out for the BBC - which has lots of detail about what happens when you agree to participate in a BBC documentary!

Folk superstar and truth-seeking artist: The real Rory McEwen (8 December 2017) was published today on the BBC website. This tells the story of the music and art of Rory McEwen which is also told in the documentary. It's a good place to start if you don't know about his history and varied activities besides botanical art. It also features large images of a selection of Rory McEwen's brilliant botanical paintings

For those wanting to find out more and read more about Rory McEwen, I suggest you visit my dedicated webpage about him - About Rory McEwen, Botanical Artist (1932-1982).

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