NEWS about Botanical Art and for Botanical Artists

Exploring the Future of Botanical Image Making with Laurence Hill

24/1/2021

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: Yesterday I sat down in front of my television - switched to YouTube, found the Linnean Society YouTube Channel - and watched an excellent video about "Exploring the Future of Botanical Image Making | Laurence Hill" - which you also can see below. It's

a slideshow video with LOTS of images and commentary by Laurence
followed by a discussion via Zoom with questions asked by those who watched it in real time.
one of their Lunchtime Lectures series

Below you can find out

why I'm highly recommending this video
where you can find out more about botanical photography
where you can find out more about the work and botanical images of Laurence Hill

Our digitally connected world is profoundly image led yet the practice of botanical image making, and types of image commissioned is little changed in several hundred years. Laurence Hill uses examples from the Fritillaria Icones Project, to look at structuring images for online use and wider uses within botanical science and science communication.

I've known Laurence for some time - having first met him at the RHS Show in 2014 where he was exhibiting his botanical photography about Fritillaria. He is a botanical researcher who happens to take photographs to reveal different ways of recording plants. (see below)

He is always pushing the boundaries and thinking about new ways in which botanical images can tell stories and be more accessible to help others tell their stories.

The reason I'm highly recommending this video to botanical artists is that some of the things Laurence has to say will, I know, stimulate some artists into rethinking what they are doing in terms of drawing / painting / displaying / sharing images of plants. It's that basic. Laurence challenges the traditional and asks us to consider ways in which the effort employed might be made informative and useful and tell stories and help people understand the world we live in rather better. I'd be very surprised if there was no change in practice as a result of all the botanical artists watching this video.

Note: One of the good things about the Linnean Society is they've been recording lectures via video for some time. I also recommend a meander through the content on their YouTube Channel

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More about botanical photography

You can read more about botanical photography on the following pages on my Botanical Art and Artists website

HISTORY: Famous Botanical Photographers
CONTEMPORARY: You can find Notable contemporary botanical photographers on my page about people working on other media - Botanical Printmakers, Photographers, Sculptors and Digital Illustrators

More about Laurence Hill

In simple terms I photograph plants and share them with others but by applying a set of carefully considered rules these photographs have a value which goes beyond this unassuming act. For more than a decade I have used digital technologies to explore new ways of recording and presenting botanical science and I am particularly interested in how a systematic photographic approach can produce new insights. Similarly how digital image ‘sets’ as voucher specimens will enhance and extend the value of research. We need to consider how we present, link and verify digital data and the Fritillaria Icones website is my contribution to this emerging field.

Laurence Hill with his intensely botanical and extremely well presented exhibit of Fritillaria affinis and a discussion and demonstration of plant variability relative to the agreed taxonomic description of one species of a wild plant

You can read more about Laurence Hill and his digital photography as follows

website: http://www.fritillariaicones.com/ - his photographic botanical database to help with the identification, research and conservation of Fritillaria. This is an Open Access web based resource, available to anyone anywhere regardless of means and without the need to travel to various libraries and herbaria.
Laurence Hill has won RHS Gold Medals for Botanical Photography as follows:
- 2014 - Kobaimo - Japanese Endemic Fritillaria - Reflections on the RHS Botanical Art Show Autumn 2014
- 2017 - Deconstructed Fritillaria (Click to download PDF (19.2MB) of images) - see RHS Awards for Botanical Photography 2017
- 2018- Species Boundaries: Fritillaria affinis - see RHS London Botanical Photography Show 2018 - Awards and Medal Winners

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VIDEO: Watercolour painting of a pomegranate by Lucy T Smith

3/1/2021

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Lucy T Smith was recently asked to do a video for the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.
The full film - which is 40 minutes long - was produced as part of their current display of Renaissance Watercolours.

This film was produced for the Renaissance Watercolours display on until April 2021 at the V&A Museum

This is the 40 minute video - enjoy!

Sit back and relax as award winning botanical artist Lucy T Smith paints a watercolour of a pomegranate using traditional techniques.

Lucy T Smith is a highly regarded botanical illustrator who has won a number of international awards.

She has been Freelance botanical illustrator at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew for the last 20 years.
She also works on commission.

You can see more of the artwork produced by Lucy T Smith on the following websites:

website http://www.lucytsmith.com/
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/palmsmithy/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Palmsmithy/
Kew Gardens - Meet Lucy T Smith, award-winning botanical illustrator | Kew - Lucy is one of a number of highly skilled freelance botanical illustrators working at Kew to produce line drawings for scientific plant publications.

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Find out more about leading Botanical Artists around the world

Renaissance Watercolours - at the V&A Museum

This display presents for the first time watercolour during the Renaissance as a unified art form, highlighting its versatility and pivotal role in understanding, interpreting and documenting the natural world.

The V&A Museum is currently closed due to the Tier 4 Covid-19 Constraints in London - however you can see a number of botanical works from the Renaissance Watercolours display on the website including:

Watercolour, by Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues, about 1575, England. Museum no. AM.3267W-1856. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Daffodils and a Red Admiral Butterfly, watercolour, by Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues, about 1575, England. Museum no. AM.3267A-1856. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Citron, watercolour, by Vincenzo Leonardi, about 1640, Rome, Italy. Museum no. E.426-2009. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Lucy and I were planning a visit to see the exhibition just before the covid variant struck and numbers spiked in London. So now it will have to wait until it becomes safer and the Museum reopens.

Note that all visits must be booked when the V&A is open

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About Nirupa Rao - a contemporary botanical illustrator in India

9/12/2020

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Nirupa Rao is a very impressive botanical illustrator based in Bangalore, India. She has generated more press for her activities as a botanical illustrator - and for the importance of plants and tackling 'plant blindness' - than most of her peers around the world.

Her aim is to work toward promoting the cause of science communication, as well as deepening the intersections between art and science. Her work is inspired by regular field visits into the wild, and informed by close collaboration with natural scientists to achieve accuracy.

I highly recommend you watch her TED Talk (see video below) about her work - and how she tackled the illustration of

30 native species of extremely tall rainforest trees of the Western Ghats, in southern India - including the whole tree, its leaves, fruit, flowers and seeds. (Published in Pillars of Life—Magnificent Trees of the Western Ghats (2018). This debut project was undertaken in collaboration with naturalists Divya Mudappa and TR Shankar Raman of the Nature Conservation Foundation.
the fantastical plants of the Western Ghats - through the support of a National Geographic Grant and the Hidden Kingdom Project

A National Geographic Young Explorer, Nirupa received a grant to create her book Hidden Kingdom—Fantastical Plants of the Western Ghats (published in 2019).

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community.
Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

Other activities

In 2019, she participated in a Plant Humanities program at Harvard University's Dumbarton Oaks Research Centre, and was due to participate in a show at their museum in 2020, which has been postponed due to COVID-19.

She recently collaborated with the Centre for Wildlife Studies in India on Wild Shaale ('Wild School' in Kannada), an environmental and conservation-education program designed for rural school-going children, aimed at nurturing interest and empathy toward India’s wildlife and wild places.

one to watch out for in Forbes India - annual 30 under 30 issue

She has also been

During the COVID-19 lockdown, she

recorded art classes to be televised on the national channel Doordarshan, as part of a program coordinated by the Going to School Foundation, and
conducted a workshop for Science Gallery Bangalore's PHYTOPIA exhibition.

In addition, she has illustrated

the cover of Amitav Ghosh's latest novel, Gun Island, and
re-jacketed four of his older novels for Penguin-Random House.

You can find Nirupa Rao as follows:

website: https://www.nirupa-rao.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/niruparao/

I'm also adding her into the section about Contemporary Botanical Artists and Illustrators in India (on the page about "Botanical Artists in Asia" Page)

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Dare to be Square - available to view online

26/10/2020

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Dare to be Square - the non-juried virtual exhibition of small works of botanical art by members of the American Society of Botanical Artists attending ASBA's virtual conference is now available for all to see online on YouTube (see below)

The Small Works Online Exhibition Premiere slideshow premiere of "Dare to be Square" occurred at the Welcome Reception on Wednesday, October 14th

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UPDATED: Guide to Online Botanical Art Instruction & Courses

29/9/2020

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I've UPDATED my page which provides a Guide to Online Botanical Art Instruction & Courses - to take account of the many developments since the Pandemic started.

It's clear that face to face workshops and classes are going to be very few and far between for some time to come - and I hope all those that are running them have got adequate insurance!

In the meantime there has been a bit of an explosion of botanical art instruction on Zoom and Facebook Live and other platforms where it is possible to have interactive experiences between tutor and student.

I felt very challenged as to how make it simpler for people to understand the different - and proliferating - options on offer. At one point I thought a separate Zoom page was the answer - and then realised that Zoom is a vehicle and platform rather than a category in its own right.

So the page has now been revised, edited and re-categorised as follows.
Plus I've pushed it up the Education Menu as I think it's going to be used rather more often over the next year or so.

Content

This is what you can find on the page - and I make no apologies for providing a lot of explanation about how it all works at the beginning.

SUMMARIES of:

WHAT Online Botanical Art Instruction is
WHO benefits from online instruction
WHERE you can learn about botanical art online
WHO PROVIDES online botanical art instruction
HOW Botanical Art is taught online

+ FAQS CHECKLIST about Online Learning Options
This is based on Frequently Asked Questions (FAQS) by prospective students (from my Facebook Survey). I recommend students use this as a basis for evaluating alternative options 

OVERVIEW of Online Botanical Art Courses / Videos

This indicates the different types of provision.
While researching "who offers what" in relation to botanical art instruction online, I found that instruction, courses, tutors and fees payable are described in VERY different ways - hence the need to sort and categorise!

DETAIL

I then provide a detailed summary of every provider I know that is providing botanical art instruction online, with:

some detail about the provider
course offering
links to relevant websites
fees or subscriptions payable

Which means that if I've got the categories right, you can compare "like with like".

Who gets on - and stays on - depends on whether I am confident in their abilities and capability in terms of teaching online. That might be the next thing up for review

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Let me know.....

If you are a teacher
with a developed BOTANICAL ART instruction offering online and you are NOT on the list, then you can contact me.

PLEASE USE MY ADD my ONLINE course (for tutors) FORM - AFTER you have reviewed the information I need from you

If you are a botanical art student
PLEASE COMPLETE the Review of Online Botanical Art Courses form
It would help me greatly if you could:

EITHER Tell me what sort of course you'd ideally like to do online
AND/OR Tell me what you "need to know" before you choose an online course and decide to pay a fee or subscription.
AND/OR Provide feedback about any online courses you have paid for and taken. e.g. Why did you opt for online learning? Who provided the course? Did course delivery meet your expectations - based on information provided? What did you have access to and do? Did you find it helpful? What did you like/not like? Was any aspect disappointing?

PLEASE NOTE COMMENTS ARE NOT PUBLISHED ONLINE - unless you indicate permission to use them for testimonials.

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VIDEO: Lara Call Gastinger and how to keep a perpetual journal of botanical illustrations

3/7/2020

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This is about a recently published video of American botanical illustrator Lara Call Gastinger talking about how her botanical sketching and illustration work is produced.

Plus an opportunity to see more videos of Lara working on her perpetual journal and botanical art

I last saw Lara Call Gastinger with her Gold Medal winning exhibit of plants across the months at the RHS Botanical Art Show in 2018

ABOUT LARA CALL GASTINGER (GM 2007, 2018)

graduated from the University of Virginia in 1998 with a degree in Biology. She subsequently achieved a Masters in Plant Biology.
she was the Chief Botanical Illustrator for the Flora of Virginia Project - which involved drawing some 1300 illustrations (about 90% of the illustrations in the Flora of Virginia book)
RHS Gold Medal winner in 2007 for a very impressive series on Plants of Virginia - 10 Walks in Virginia which is one of my 'all time favourite' exhibits.
She won a second RHS Gold Medal for Seeing Plants; a year in Virginia" - her suite of 12 sepia watercolour paintings of plants she has found on her walks in different months of the year.
She frequently draws and paints a compendium of plants with a particular connection eg habitat or season.
She keeps a Perpetual Sketchbook Journal

ABOUT THE VIDEO: In the Studio with Lara Call Gastinger

This video - which you can see below - has two parts

The first part is a video record of her work. It covers and focuses on

her seasonal sketchbook journal which has a double page spread for each week of the year - and new sketches are added year by year. This then illustrates the changes in seasonality across the year and from year to year
how the dating system works - and how she adds sketches and observations every week
her art materials and supplies for creating entries in the perpetual journal -
- her sketchbooks,
- micron pens - in black or sepia. She prefers 003
- her paints and palettes and containers and brushes,
- a magnifying lens to help you see plant features
- a field guide to help identify plants
her own more developed artwork - created using watercolour paints
the benefits of keeping a perpetual journal
- become more skilled at observation
- improve your drawing skills and techniques
- note the changes in plants due to changes in season and the changes in climate
- use your perpetual journal as a resource to develop your own botanical art and illustrations (and win an RHS Gold Medal!)

Pay attention, be astonished and tell about it.
a quotation which has influenced Lara

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ABBA: Beginner's Botany for Botanical Art

17/6/2020

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The Association of British Artists is developing a resource about Beginner's Botany for Botanical Art. This post highlights what is available.

It's part of a new series of articles and videos associated with promoting learning amongst those new to botanical art.

A still frame from the ABBA video "Three B's Episode 2 - Complex Flowers"

Elaine Allison, the new President, has produced two excellent videos which started off as a live streaming event - plus two blog posts. The focus of both is on The three B's.... Beginner - Botany-Botanical Art

You can find the videos on the BRAND NEW ABBA Channel called - ABBA for All. It's worth subscribing to this with your Google account if you want to follow what they produce.

I think it's an excellent idea. In my opinion, it's also something that more botanical art societies should do - although in order to emulate what ABBA is doing it does take

knowledge of both botany and botanical art
plus experience and expertise in both teaching and presenting on video.

Let's hope that there are some more botanical art societies out there prepared to develop similar resources.

Episode 1: Simple Flowers

There is something more important than knowing what parts of the plant are called and that is what does it really look like. This requires detailed anatomical observation. Where possible, it is really useful to see the plant growing in the wild. Get to know the habitat, location with respect to other plants and if it is the same species, how the form can change depending on where it grows.

The FIRST module focuses on simple flowers and provides a short introduction to basic descriptive botany

this is the blog post
this is the video - The 3 B's Episode 1- Simple Flowers (24 minutes) - which you also watch below. However you'll enjoy the big screen version on YouTube more.

Using a common native plant, the Geranium, the module considers

The botanical knowledge needed to produce an accurate botanical illustration
What you need to know about your plant specimen before you start drawing
Equipment that might be useful when studying the morphology of your plant
Examination of a single plant in terms of:
- scientific name
- environment in which it is found
- the genus of Geranium
- a diagram of the important parts of the plant
- an exploded diagram of the Inflorescence - with an analysis of what is shown

Episode 2: Complex Flowers

Understanding how the flower is put together is the first step in producing a great piece of artwork that is botanically accurate.

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