NEWS about Botanical Art and for Botanical Artists

A Curious Performance: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Art of Natural History

7/5/2018

Maria Sibylla Merian was a woman of both Art and Science. She was a Botanical & Natural History Illustrator who was the first to record metamorphosis

A Curious Performance: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Art of Natural History by Kate Heard at the Linnean Society

BELOW you can view the video of the presentation at the Linnean Society - A Curious Performance: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Art of Natural History by Kate Heard, Senior Curator of Prints and Drawings at Royal Collection Trust. This was part of the 300th

I attended the talk last December and, despite having already already created a resource about her, I learned a few new things that evening!

It covers her life but also the Merian illustrations which are in the Royal Collection kept at Windsor Castle. It includes comparisons of the printed image with the watercolour on vellum in the Royal Collection.

This video is very much recommended viewing for all Merian fans- however the presentation and the video lasts 45 minutes

Find out more about Maria Sibylla Merian

See About Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717)

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VIDEO of the SBA Annual Exhibition 2017

29/1/2018

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I knew that the Society of Botanical Artists were planning a video of their annual exhibition. This morning it's finally been published! I've embedded:

a large version on ARCHIVE: Past Botanical Art Exhibitions in the UK
a smaller version above.

It's well made - with nice music! I know how long these videos can take time to do, so I'm very impressed - particularly with the steady hand and the shot taken from up a step ladder! 2nd year student Grace Sutton currently studying film and television production at Ravensbourne University London is responsible for it. I believe she is an "SBA Relative".

'Changing Seasons' - Society of Botanical Artists Annual Exhibition in 2017

Sadly, the SBA will NOT be having an annual OPEN exhibition in England in 2018.
Billy Showell (President Designate) and her team are looking for alternative options for a future venue for this annual OPEN exhibition.

The SBA Winter Newsletter which I received at the weekend indicates there will be a number of smaller exhibitions and satellite events supported by SBA members - such as:

May 18 2018 - Supporting Botanical Art Worldwide at The Artworkers Guild, Bloomsbury, London
23-24 June 2018 - Exhibition at Woburn Abbey Garden Show

PLUS exhibitions by SBA members at botanical gardens in Spain and Germany

20 March - 20 May 2018 - Tulipa Tulipae, Madrid Botanical Gardens, Spain - comprising 87 paintings by 47 artists
26 October - 25 November 2018 - The Seasonal Garden, November Palmengarten, Frankfurt, Germany

PLUS lots of exhibitions by individual members and small groups.

I've now updated my Exhibitions Pages for all known botanical art exhibitions / exhibits - see

I've also got exhibition pages dedicated to Africa, Asia, Australasia and North America (and will set up one for South America very soon!)

Did you know you can get your botanical art exhibition listed?
Just use the form at the bottom of every exhibition page to send me the details.

For those wanting to improve their botanical art knowledge and skills
The Best Botanical Art and Illustration Instruction Books
(including the NEW book for 2018 about
"Botanical Painting" by Margaret Stevens PPSBA)
and
Botanical Art Classes, Courses and Tutors
around the world

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About Esmée Winkel, botanical illustrator at Naturalis

24/10/2017

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Esmée Somers Winkel is a professional scientific illustrator who specialises in botanical illustration. This is the second of my posts about working as a botanical illustrator.

Esmée works as a Scientific illustrator and Botanical artist for the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden and at the Hortus Botanicus, Leiden in the Netherlands.

Her work is world-class and has been recognised in a number of prizes and awards.

This post includes

two videos about her professional work and
a summary of her educational background and training; exhibitions, awards and botanical art classes.

The Art of Botanical Illustration

Her work is explained in this Naturalis Newsroom interview about The Art of Botanical Illustration. It explains her background and education, what she does and shows you her normal working environment.

About Esmée Winkel

Education and training

Esmée has two degrees

Master Scientific Illustration, Maastricht Academy of Fine Arts and Design and Maastricht University
Biology BSc, Leiden University

Following her biology studies, she was introduced to botanical illustration by Anita Walsmit Sachs, who was head of the Art department and scientific illustrator at the Nationaal Herbarium Nederland prior to her retirement. Subsequently, Esmée learned about scientific illustration in depth during her Masters Degree course at Maastricht. She also credits the influence of Jan van Os, who was a full-time illustrator, National Herbarium the Netherlands until his retirement in 2003 and was also awarded the Jill Smythies Award

Awards and Prizes

In terms of awards she has excelled! For her scientific botanical illustrations in pen and ink, she has been awarded:

2017: second prize in the Margaret Flockton Award
2016: the Botanical Illustrator Award for Excellence in Scientific Botanical Art from the American Society of Botanical Artists (ASBA)
2016: a second RHS Gold Medal for her display of drawings of rare and endangered orchids in 2016 (see Interviews with RHS Botanical Art Gold Medallists - from the UK and Europe - and video below)
2014: the Jill Smythies Award for excellence in botanical illustration by the Linnean Society
2013: an RHS Gold Medal in 2013 for a set of meticulous and well-designed pen and ink drawings of Leguminosae (see Interviews with RHS Botanical Art Gold Medal Winners)
2012 - a BISCOT Gold Medal in 2012

My interviews with her for the RHS Gold Medals (links above) include descriptions of how she works and her tips for scientific botanical illustration in pen and ink
(You can DOWNLOAD my Notes on using the Røtring Pen © botanical illustrator Esmée Winkel GM (March 2016) document from the pen and ink page on this website)

Esmée Winkel with two of her pen and ink illustrations from her Gold Medal winning display at the RHS Botanical Art Show in 2016

Membership

She is a member of the American Society of Botanical Artists, the Dutch Society of Botanical Artists and a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London.

Exhibitions

Esmée started exhibiting in 2009 and, since then, has exhibited multiple times each year.

Earlier this year her work was exhibited internationally in a wide variety of contexts and venues - as follows:

'Focus on Nature XIV', Roger Tory Peterson Institute (RTPI), USA (Download FON XIV Catalog (PDF 8.6 MB))
Botanische Kunst - Fruit in Beeld, members exhibition Dutch Society of Botanical Artists, Fruitteeltmuseum Kapelle, the Netherlands. (1 April 2017 - 24 February 2018)
'The Beauty of Botanical Drawing at Esmée Winkel' with the Art and Heritage Commision Maastricht University, the Netherlands
the 19th International Botanical Congress and Botanical art exhibition, Shenzhen, China
'Tradescant's Orchard Exhibition' at the Garden Museum, London

In future, you can see her work in the Out of the Woods: Celebrating Trees in Public Gardens exhibition - The Third New York Botanical Garden Triennial.

Esmee Winkel with Diospyros lotus, a date-plum tree at the Tradescant's Orchard Exhibition at the Garden Museum

I should also mention that Esmée also has a truly admirable wardrobe of 'botanical jackets' which will be appreciated by all those who also endeavour to 'dress for the exhibition'!

Collections

Her work is included in the permanent collections of

Naturalis Biodiversity Center,
Hortus botanicus Leiden,
Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation,
Focus on Nature New York State Museum,
the RHS Lindley Library and in
private (Royal) collections. "

More about Esmée Winkel

You can read more about Esmée on her website http://www.esmeewinkel.nl where you can see a portfolio of some of her works (please do NOT copy or pin).

You can also see her work in the video below about Orchideeen in de Hortus botanicus Leiden (Orchids in the Botanical Garden at Leiden) - where she also teaches botanical illustration - see below.

Botanical illustration classes with Esmée Winkel

Esmée teaches Classes in Botanical Illustration at the Hortus Botanicus Leiden. Upcoming classes (10.30-15.00 h) include:

Saturday 4 November: Seeds, working with a binocular
Saturday 9 December: Tropical plant families / characteristics
Saturday 27 January: Rice and other grasses
Saturday 24 February: Tropical fruit
Saturday 17 March: Onions and other bulbs
Saturday 25 June: Flowers and pollination

More about becoming a botanical illustrator

This is the second post about people working as professional botanical illustrators.

See also How to become a botanical illustrator (March 2017) which includes a 5 minute video created to illustrate a career in botanical illustration featuring botanical illustrator Catherine Wardrop, one of two botanical illustrators employed by the Royal Botanic Garden in Sydney.

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Interview with JR Shepherd (Part 1) + Video

10/5/2017

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J.R. Shepherd had an extremely successful solo exhibition called Leafscape at Abbott & Holder in Bloomsbury, London in February 2017.

I asked Jess for an interview because I wanted to try and convey the pathway to a virtually sold out exhibition in central London, how it all happened and everything that led up to it.

This is a very long read - but reading it will hopefully be very helpful for all those who aim to become a professional botanical artist and have a sell-out solo show!

This first post is a summary of the project and some background about Jess.
The next post investigates how the project got off the ground and on to the walls of the gallery and the pages of the catalogue.

A selection of cropped views of the paintings in Leafscape.

I met with Jess (as I know her) after the exhibition closed - but before it was taken down - for an interview (see below)

You can see my video of the exhibition below. It's a slow pan round the two rooms at the top of Abbott and Holder where the exhibition was held. You can see Jess in the video. All wobbles and creaks are down to my handheld videoing technique.

Note the red spots!

The Leafscape project

The reason I asked for the interview is that I was enormously intrigued by the fact that this wasn’t just an exhibition. It was an exhibition with a lot of added extras.

Leafscape was an absolutely HUGE project that Jess managed on her own. She had to:

paint a set of 30+ paintings,
organise a gallery - my first insight into what was going to happen around about a year previously when she told me she’d managed to secure a slot at Abbot and Holder in Museum Street
get all the paintings professionally photographed
arrange for frames
ship them all from Spain and make sure they arrive at the framers in immaculate condition!

Collecting paintings from the framers

arrange for giclee prints to be made of selected paintings - in different sizes - and set up a ‘shop’ website at Inky Leaves Publishing https://www.inkyleavespublishing.com/
arrange a kickstart project to fund the catalogue https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inkyleaves/leafscape-a-limited-edition-art-book-by-inky-leave and
do a CD of the sounds associated with the leaves
do all her own press and publicity.
host an exhibition
assemble book boxes and ship out 500 hardback catalogues to addresses all over the globe

Moreover it was also very successful i.e.

She generated a huge following on Facebook before the exhibition even opened
masses of people attended the Private View - when 19 paintings were sold (including one to an extremely prestigious collector - as in ‘even better than Shirley Sherwood’);
she met her kick starter target for the catalogue, exceeded it, generated very nearly £25k - and enhanced the product offering as a result. The followed up with another Kickstart for a soft back version
Plus she sold almost all her paintings (30+) - priced at £400 for the small ones £1,800 for the medium sized and £3,600 for the large ones.

I was so overwhelmed after hearing about how far some of your had travelled to see the leaves. I had visitors from New Zealand, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, America and Australia. Some of you had driven miles in the storms, all the way from Scotland. It was utterly amazing seeing everyone in such a short space of time and to be able to listen to your stories and talk about botanical art and where it is going. I was visited by the second year students who are studying at the Chelsea School of Botanical Art and gave them a quick talk and then RHS weekend was a real buzz. I was lucky enough to see Rory's daughter, Samantha McEwen and eminent artists such as Rob Kesseler, Martin Sexton and Boyd and Evans and then Rachel de Thame popped with her daughter. Talk about a thrilling experience!
Jessica Shepherd

So who is this person who achieved so much - and how did it all happen?

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Video and review of RHS London Botanical Art Show 2017

6/3/2017

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This year I got permission from the RHS to video the RHS London Botanical Art Show 2017. This way those who aspire to enter in future - or have been thinking about visiting - can

see what the exhibition is like and
see what sort of standards people need to achieve to get exhibited.

You can find my 8.34 minutes VIDEO later in this blog post, but first....

my comments about the exhibition itself.....

RHS London Botanical Art Show 2017

Three Gold Medal winning exhibits together got a lot of attention - top: Shirley Slocock; middle Denver Botanic Garden School of Botanical Art and Illustration and bottom Kathy Pickles

This year's show was slightly smaller than the one in 2016. It was planned to have 29 artists (35 in 2016) from 10 different countries (10 in 2016). In reality due to two artists pulling out late on due to the serious ill-health of close family members, the exhibition was reduced to 26 artists from 8 different countries.

As both of the artists who didn't exhibit are also previous Gold Medal Winners, the number of Gold Medals awarded may also have been reduced. This year it was 9 compared to 13 in 2016.

Although the quality of work at the top end was good, initially I thought there was more variability in standards across the whole exhibition when compared to the last show in London. However when I did the medal count, this simply wasn't true in terms of medals the situation was as follows:

Gold Medals 9 (13 in 2016)
Silver Gilt: 10 (8 in 216)
Silver: 5 (11 in 2016)
Bronze: 2 (1 in 2016)

You can Download the list of 2017 awards (57kB pdf)

Crowds throughout the exhibition inbetween the Pandanus Best Exhibit and the Root Vegetables Life Cycle which has Best Painting

As always I was able to walk round the show and spot the Gold Medal exhibits before I saw the Medal Card attached to their stand. That's because there's something different about a Gold medal-winning exhibit. They stand out. They're unique. They're very high quality.

Some examples:

the exhibit is highly botanical (e.g. Keiko Fujita's Bamboo or Mariko Ikeda's Pandanus or Denver's Rocky Mountains: Plants and Fungi with altitude or Annie Hughes Eucalyptus)
the exhibit is very specifically habitat related (e.g. the Denver Rocky Mountain exhibit or Shirley Slocock's Wayside tracks and verges which documented the wild flowers growing in specific locations or Suyein Kim's Endemic Plants of Korea
alternatively, the exhibit is highly horticultural (never ever forget the RHS is a horticultural society!) (e.g. Bridget Gillespie's Root Vegetables: Life Cycle)
the artist has produced more than is asked for - at a consistent high quality e.g. Kathy Pickle's Clematis and Mayumi Ishi's Roses.
the artist has a track record of producing high quality exhibits - I only have to see the artist! (e.g. Annie Hughes and Kathy Pickles).

BOTANICAL (Plant Family): Growth of Bamboo in Japan by Keiko Fujita (Japan)

HABITAT: Rocky Mountains: Plants and Funghi with Altitude - Half of the exhibit by the instructors of the Denver School of Botanical Art & Illustration (USA - Colorado)

HORTICULTURAL: Root vegetables: Life Cycle by Bridget Gillespie GM

The RHS this year for the first time produced a board explaining how they assess the exhibits. While insiders and those with a copy of what used to be a hard to find document which listed the criteria knew what was important, this wasn't always immediately apparent to those visiting the show. Hence you'd get people liking exhibits because it was very pretty - and not realising that there were issues which meant that the exhibit got marked down.

So the key things which judges are looking for are:

botanical accuracy
exact colour reproduction
attention to detail
aesthetic appeal - it needs to look good
individual quality of the drawings or paintings
the way the whole exhibit is presented - in terms of botanical content and artistic effect. This includes labels identifying plants and other explanations.

PLUS

Exhibits attracting a higher award tend to be given to exhibits illustrating a particular theme OF plant family

I'm not sure everybody has quite got the message that it's not just about having a theme but rather it's about having a theme related to a specific plant family.

UPDATE: A very experienced exhibitor has written to me and suggested that the "of" (above) may have been a typo and SHOULD have been "or" as per the printed guidelines. In which case this is less of a change than it looked at first! I'm writing to the Picture Panel to check. However I'd observe that the higher medals do by and large go to exhibits with a strong botanical, horticultural or habitat theme.

Climbers growing in my Devon Garden by Kate Barling (Silver Medal)

For example, Kate Barling had a very pretty exhibit which was well presented and had great explanations of all her plants in labels underneath each one - and it won her a Silver Medal.

However, while "Climbers growing in my Devon Garden" might represent a coherent theme, it misses out on having an emphasis on

one botanical plant family; or
a specific habitat for wild plants or flowers or
an emphasis on a horticultural plant family.

I asked also Kate about her feedback and she said that the judges felt there should have been more variation of greens in the leaves. I've picked this aspect as an example of issues which can arise under the colour accuracy criteria because it's a problem that I know a lot of artists experience from time to time. Either the green is not right for the plant or there is insufficient variation in tonal values to describe how the leaf works properly.

There was a clear lesson at the show for all those who find mixing and painting greens to be a bit of a challenge and that came in the form of all the green leaves in Bridget Gillespie's exhibit of Root Vegetables: Life Cycle where differences in green within and between plants were much more evident within this Gold Medal winning exhibit.

That for me is the value of visiting the show and why all those who can visit easily should make a point of doing so - and making the date of your visit non-negotiable!

RHS minimum exhibit requirements back in 2011 was 8 paintings

I heard a new theme at this year's show. Judges telling exhibitors that they don't need to do so many paintings! Apparently, the Picture Panel judges are getting a bit anxious whether there is a new trend to submit more than six paintings.

I'm wondering if this is maybe a "new judge" thing because those of us who have been painting for the RHS for a long time AND those of us visiting RHS for some time well remember when the minimum requirement for an exhibit was EIGHT artworks (not six as it is now). Above is a photo I took at the 2011 show in the Lindley Hall - where each exhibit very clearly has 8 paintings.

Below are three of Kathy Pickles's Clematis paintings. While for most people this would be half her exhibit, for Kathy this is just a quarter of her exhibit. There are nine more! However Kathy goes way back in terms of painting for the RHS. This was her seventh Gold Medal and she got her first back in the early 90s.

Three of the 12 paintings of Clematis by Kathy Pickles GM - for her 7th Gold Medal.

I gather the point being made is that the Judges have to look at each and every painting in an exhibit really carefully - and on average look at them all four times (or is that four different judges looking at each painting?). This is because the grade of medal you get is based on the weakest painting. While this may be a complete joy if the exhibit wins a Gold Medal, it's less so if the exhibit isn't up to this standard. However even Mrs Ishi who won a Gold for her roses was advised to paint fewer paintings next time if she wants to exhibit her roses again.

I think the other thing that influences this injunction not to paint too many paintings is that as the show gets bigger it will become intolerable for the judges if all the exhibitors start painting more than six.

I predict if it becomes a major problem, then it will be addressed by telling exhibitors when they arrive that they can hang six and that's it. So if you do paint more than six, think on - there may come a time when extra paintings won't help in any way.

Video of the RHS Botanical Art Show 2017

Below is my video of the exhibition:

It starts with an overview of the entrance and what the entire exhibition looks like.
This is followed by an explanation of the standards for the exhibition and what judges look for when assessing the artwork.
Individual exhibits by artists are then ordered into sections according to the colour of medal they achieved - starting with the Gold Medals.
each video of each individual exhibit is annotated with the name of the artist, the country they come from and the title of the exhibit.

I hope you enjoy it. Do let me know what you think.

(Also can I apologise, it was supposed to be in HD but didn't turn out that way for some reason I have yet to identify!)

If you're interested in entering The RHS Botanical Art Show in 2018, you will need to first be approved to exhibit.

The process for how this happens is outlined on my page about the RHS Botanical Art Exhibitions.
Plus the process for getting from thinking about an application to actually exhibiting is set out on my NEW PAGE about Tips from RHS Gold Medal Winners.

More about the RHS Botanical Art Show 2017

Past blog posts include:

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Florum Exhibition 10th - 17th September 2016

8/9/2016

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Over 50 botanical artists and flower painters and printmakers are participating in the annual Florum Exhibition which opens on Saturday - details below.

Venue: Jeffrey Harrison Visitor Centre at Kent Wildlife Trust - Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve, Bradbourne Vale Road, Sevenoaks, Kent TN13 3DH (click the link to see this on Google Maps and get directions from your location)
Dates: Saturday 10th - Saturday 17th September 2016
Hours: 10am - 5pm each day
Admission: Free

This is not an open exhibition, nor is it a strictly botanical art exhibition per se or a formal art society. Florum was started by the late Elizabeth Smail FLS FSBA whose aim was to create a colourful and inspiring mix of works celebrating plant life.

One of the ways in which this exhibition is different is that artists are invited to submit work and there's a range of different types of portrayal of plant life and media on display in the exhibition. Plus lots of prints and cards. All work is for sale .

I've got work in the show and will be stewarding at the exhibition next Friday 16th September if you'd like to meet me!

You can get a taster for the exhibition through my slideshow of last year's exhibition (on YouTube).

You can find out more about Florum on:

their website http://www.florum.co.uk
the invited artists
their Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/ExhibitionFlorum/

Includes the names of all the participating artists

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Botanical art tips and techniques video by Julia Trickey

11/8/2016

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Botanical artist and tutor Julia Trickey GM SBA has produced a 5 minute video which has lots of tips and techniques.

It's based on a recent commission to produce small artworks for a display board showing which plants can be found in a rockery.

More Video Tips about Botanical Art

You can find more videos relevant to botanical artists (including ones by Julia) on my website page about Video Tips for botanical art. This has additional pages about:

You can see more videos by Julia on her YouTube Channel - Julia Trickey: short adventures in botanicalart

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