NEWS about Botanical Art and for Botanical Artists

NEW Books about Botanical Art and Illustration in 2019

16/6/2019

Halfway through 2019, it's time for a round-up of the Best Botanical Art and Illustrations books to be published in 2019.

I've created a new web page for NEW Books about Botanical Art & Illustration in 2019 which features the books seen below and more - with mini reviews (of the ones I've seen so far) and details about the books. I'm guessing there may be more before the end of the year and I'll update as and when formally notified about publication (i.e. publisher; date and ISBN numbers)

BELOW you can find out about:

a summary of the new books in 2019
how to find the best books about botanical art and illustration on this website
how to tell me about an upcoming publication about botanical art and illustration

New Books in 2019

Below is a summary list of the books on my page - just titles, authors and their publication date. READ MORE about them by visiting this page

January 2019

Botanical Artistry by Julia Trickey - a small book about projects and processes.by a professional botanical artist and tutor and winner of four RHS GMs.
Treasures of Botanical Art by Shirley Sherwood and Martyn Rix - the second edition of the book first published in association with the inaugural exhibition at the new Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art

June 2019 (July in USA)

Botanical Illustration from the Royal Horticultural Society: The Gold Medal Winners by Charlotte Brooks - the Curator of the RHS Lindley Library.

August 2019

Rosie Sanders' Roses: A celebration in botanical art by Rosie Sanders a professional artist, author and tutor. She won her first RHS GM in 1981!
RHS John Reeves: Pioneering Collector of Chinese Plants and Botanical Art by Kate Bailey - a scholar re Chinese art and John Reeves

September 2019 (November in USA)

Botanical Illustration from Life: A Visual Guide to Observing, Drawing and Painting Plants by Işık Güner - an RHS Gold Medal winner and professional botanical illustrator and tutor.

October 2019

The Shirley Sherwood Collection by Shirley Sherwood - associated with the major retrospective exhibition about the Collection opening at the end of 2019. I predict this is going to be a very popular wish for a Christmas present!

The Best Books about Botanical Art & Illustration

You can find out more about the best books about botanical art and illustration in

The Best Botanical Art and Illustration Instruction Books
The Best Botany Books for Botanical Artists
The Best Books about Botanical Art History, Artists & Illustrators
NEW Books about Botanical Art & Illustration in 2018
Other books can be found on related and specific topic pages

Please note that I fund this website via the Amazon Associate links for the books you'll find on this site. Each purchase via this site produces a few pennies for the continuing support of this website. Thank you.

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More NEW books in 2019 or 2020?

You're invited to tell me about a new botanical art or illustration book in 2019 or 2020. It can be about

instruction in botanical art instruction or illustration
a portfolio/florilegium/collection or
a botanical art history topic

You need to tell me:

title
author
publisher
topic summary
format (hardback or soft/paperback)
no. of pages / no of illustrations (colour and B&W)
ISBN numbers
planned publication date
URL for more details

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Certificates - Society of Botanical Artists Annual Exhibition 2019

8/6/2019

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This is about all the botanical artwork and botanical artists and illustrators who received on of the two types of Certificates awarded at Plantae, the 2019 Annual Exhibition of the Society of Botanical Artists 2019. These were:

a Certificate of Botanical Merit
a Certificate of Exhibiting Excellence

This is the third of four posts about the Plantae exhibition - see the end for more details of the exhibiting artists and who won the main awards and prizes.

About the Certificates of Botanical Merit

Ficus carica ‘White Marseilles’ – Cardinal Pole’s White Fig by Sandra Doyle (watercolour on vellum £900)

The annual exhibition of the Society of Botanical Artists is not a "strictly botanical" show in the same way that the RHS botanical art shows are.

This is because the SBA's founder Suzanne Lucas MBE FLS HPRMS PPRMS FPSBA HonSWA HSF BMS (1915-2008) believed very strongly that the portrayal of plants need not always be highly scientific and illustrative.

“To incorporate more recent techniques and styles in a broader interpretation; combining the scientific and representational, giving a rich and varied view of the wonderful world of plants.”

Consequently the SBA created the award of a Certificate of Botanical Merit in order to:

highlight the importance of drawings and paintings which are created in a botanical style - including some which observe the very precise niceties of scientific botanical illustration
for those botanical artworks in the exhibition which are particularly noteworthy in this respect.

The recipients of a Certificate of Botanical Merit are also chosen every year by a wholly independent Judge who is well qualified in terms of their botanical / horticultural knowledge.
were selected by Kew Gardens' botanical illustrator Lucy T Smith - twice winner of the Margaret Flockton Award

In recent years that person has been Lucy T. Smith GM BVA MVA . Lucy is a very experienced and multi award-winning professional botanical illustrator who produces botanical illustrations for publication by the Royal Botanic Garden at Kew. She won the very prestigious Margaret Flockton Award in 2014 and 2017 (see Second Margaret Flockton Award win for Lucy T. Smith) and the Jill Smythies Award for Botanical Illustration, awarded by the Linnean Society of London in 2004 . Her work has been published in numerous scientific publications. She also works as a botanical art tutor at Kew (including the Certificate of Botanical Illustration at Kew) and the Chelsea School of Botanical Art.

When judging the artwork for CBMs, Lucy is not looking for a presentation along the lines of a strict scientific botanical illustration brief - but rather one she is looking for whether an image fulfils the brief of describing the plant accurately and well.

The CBMs in 2019

The artworks and their artists receiving CBMs in 2017 are listed below - followed by images of their work. The artworks also list the media and the price of the work in the image caption.

The name of the work is listed first followed by an alphabetical listing by surname of the artist - with a link to their website embedded in their name if they have one.

Ficus carica’ White Marseilles by Sandra Doyle - this is Cardinal Pole’s White Fig, which grows in the garden of Lambeth Palace. Originally planted by the last Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury, Cardinal Reginald Pole, in 1556 and still thriving today. (for image see the top of this post)
Aloe arborescent by Angie Gray SBA Fellow
Horned Melon by Agita Keiri
Winter Cardoons by Maryna Kyselyova
Iris pseudacorus by Nina Mayes
Monkey Puzzle by Michelle Eun Young Song SBA Fellow
Calypso bulbosa by Anna Suprunenko
The Hawthorn at Gilfach by Claire Ward SBA Fellow

Now for the images of the artwork which merited a CBM.....

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Bloom 2019: Selected Botanical Artists and exhibit titles

31/5/2019

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The 7th Annual Exhibition of Botanical and Floral Art in Bloom is at the Phoenix Park Visitor Centre in Phoenix Park, Dublin until the end of June 2019. It's part of the annual festival of Bloom in the Park (which is the Irish version of the Chelsea Flower Show).

All artwork and a selection of cards, prints and other items by the participating artists are available to buy.

It opened yesterday and this post is about those artists selected for the exhibition. For more information about how to enter the Bloom exhibition see my blog post about the Call for Entries: 7th Annual Botanical Art Exhibition - Bloom in the Park 2019

The next post will be about the prizewinners.

Drosera rotundifolia, D. anglica, D. intermedia Sundews by Jane Stark

Selected Artists

Selected artists are listed below in alphabetical order of their surnames.
Links to the artist's website is embedded in their name

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The Linnean Society presents The Jill Smythies Award 2019 to Deborah Lambkin

29/5/2019

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Deborah Lambkin after being presented with the Jill Smythies Award 2019 | Permission of The Linnean Society of London

Every year The Linnean Society of London has a ceremony to present various Medals and Prizes in recognition and celebration of the achievements of various individuals and academics in relation to the natural sciences.

This is about the winner of The Jill Smythies Award in 2019 - Deborah Lambkin.

Thrilled to announce that I am the recipient of the 2019 @LinneanSociety #JillSmythiesAward for Botanical Illustration. Here I am with previous winners Niki Simpson and Christabel King. I may be tweeting about this forever, sorry! pic.twitter.com/mZfl7PU782
— Deborah Lambkin (@DeborahLambkin) 25 May 2019

The Linnean Society of London is the world’s oldest active biological society. Founded in 1788 by Sir James Edward Smith (1759–1828), who was its first President. The Society takes its name from the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) whose botanical, zoological and library collections have been in its keeping since 1829.

The Society aims to promote the study of all aspects of the biological sciences. Through awarding medals and grants, the Society acknowledges and encourages excellence in all of these fields.

About The Jill Smythies Award

The Jill Smythies Award is made annually to a botanical illustrator - for excellence in published botanical illustrations which contribute to plant identification.

The award comprises a silver medal and a prize of £1,000.

I have a complete page about this very prestigious award for botanical illustration on my website - and this

explains more about the award
how the nomination and award process works
highlights previous winners.

‘Established in 1986 by the late Mr B E Smythies FLS, in honour of his wife, the late Florence Mary Smythies ("Jill"), whose career as a botanical artist was cut short by an accident to her right hand. Awarded to a botanical artist in recognition of excellence in published illustrations, such as drawings or paintings, in aid of plant identification, with the emphasis on botanical accuracy and the accurate portrayal of diagnostic characteristics.’

I was expecting that the work was in recognition of Deborah's work as the official RHS Orchid Artist - she records all new orchids which are either bred or found in order to provide a record of that orchid's characteristics for future identification and assessment.

However I'd forgotten that illustrations of cultivars of garden origin are not eligible.

Instead, the key component of the assessment of her contribution to botanical illustration focused on her paintings of Australian Nicotiana for RBG Kew - see below.

Some of Deborah's work on Australian Nicotiana species from @RBGKew that was examined by the Linnean Society for consideration for the Jill Smythies prize.

About Deborah Lambkin

Deborah Lambkin was born and brought up in Ireland. She studied at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin, Ireland prior to coming to live in London

She has been a professional botanical artist for more than 20 years. She works as/for:

the Official Orchid Artist for the Royal Horticultural Society Orchid Committee (since 2005). She has contributed more than 400 orchid paintings to the Royal Horticultural Society’s Orchid Painting Collection.
She undertakes freelance botanical illustration work for the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew and The Eric Young Orchid Foundation, Jersey, UK.
She is a regular contributor of paintings to Curtis's Botanical Magazine, Kew.
In 2014, she joined the RHS Picture Advisory Panel. Membership of this committee involves judging the botanical art and illustrations at the RHS Botanical Art shows.

You can find Deborah on Instagram and Twitter - and she's very definitely worth following.

This is a very useful article she wrote about Dealing with plant specimens.

Below Deborah is pictured this week with the other winners of awards and medals in 2019

Congratulations to our 2019 medal □ winners! The full list can be found here! https://t.co/9ODvB3tayo If you know someone who you believe deserves an award why not nominate them for next year? pic.twitter.com/X2UuGqwrHv
— The Linnean Society (@LinneanSociety) 29 May 2019

The Jill Smythies Award: Previous Winners

The previous winners of The Jill Smythies Award are a very elite club!

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Artists exhibiting at the 16th International Exhibition of Botanical Art at the Hunt Institute

22/5/2019

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The 16th International Exhibition of Botanical Art & Illustration at the Hunt Instutute of Botanical Documentation includes 41 artworks by 41 artists who are citizens of 14 countries.

Below you can find the names of the artists organised by country

links to their websites are embedded in their names
plus a brief comment about the artist.

"Fading Beauty" by Vivienne Rew - Watercolour on Fabriano Artistico Extra White HP 300lb (the old stock) ; 45cm x 45cm

Exhibition

Venue: 5th floor of the Hunt Library building at Carnegie Mellon University
Dates: 17 September–18 December 2019 with a
Reception: 17 October (6–8 pm).
Opening Hours: Monday–Friday, 9 a.m.–noon and 1–5 p.m.; Sunday, 1–4 p.m. (except 20 November and 24–27 November).
Admission: Free

Artists selected to exhibit at
16th International Exhibition of Botanical Art

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What's a suitable plant theme for the RHS Botanical Art Show?

19/5/2019

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This is a post for all those botanical artists who will be hearing round about now whether or not they have been approved to exhibit at the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Botanical Art Show between 2020-2025.
(See my earlier post The RHS Picture Panel - Approval to Submit)

Once approved you have five years to exhibit at a show. This is because the RHS very much appreciates that some exhibits often require two to three years or more to assemble in terms of the research, the field trips, collection of material, checking with botanists - and finally the painting! Not to mention the presentation, labelling and saving up to transport the exhibit to London from all over the world!

However first you have to settle on a suitable subject - or plant theme - to win a medal at the RHS Botanical Art Show!

READ ON to find out more about what RHS Gold Medal winners have titled their exhibits in the last decade!

List of Titles of Gold Medal Winning Exhibits at RHS Botanical Art Shows

Last year I looked back at all the RHS Botanical Shows I've covered and written about in the last decade (and more) and I reviewed all the title of the exhibits that won an RHS Gold Medal for Botanical Art.

This is a link to List of Titles of Gold Medal Winning Exhibits at RHS Botanical Art Shows which I created as a result of my review and analysis.

CATEGORIES: My review generated a list of the categories that the titles fall into - AND a commentary on each of those categories. The categories are:

Family or Genus Names
Exhibits related to specific locations/habitats
Habit / Lifecycle / Growth
Common and Generic Names
Medicinal Plants
Theme names related to botanical history
Unspecific Theme names
Unspecific / media related names
Mixed plant names

Each category on the page includes:

all the Exhibit Titles (and the year) and
the names of the gold medal winners

TIP #1 - When reviewing the lists of exhibit titles by ALL the exhibitors it was very clear to me that:

there was a VERY marked difference in the distribution of titles across the various categories at different medal levels
two of the categories were very much favoured by Gold Medal Winners

TIP #2 - I concluded from this that the choice of topic and the focus you give it - with the Exhibit Title - is a clear marker from the very beginning of whether or not you are setting your sights high and aiming for the very best level of achievement. In essence have you determined your goal and refined your focus BEFORE YOU START TO PAINT!

However that's not to say that there isn't a lot of scope to stand out at the Show by focusing on one of the less frequented categories (eg Theme names related to botanical art history)

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT ARTISTS AND EXHIBITS

You should be able to find out more about the artists in my lists of artists as winning a Gold Medal is one of the criteria for getting a listing on this website!

If you want to see what a gold medal winning exhibit looks like

try the artists' websites - some of them include images of their RHS exhibits
you can also see pictures of many of the Gold Medal winning exhibits in my blog posts covering the shows - see my page - ARCHIVE:RHS Botanical Art Shows (2007-2018)
PLUS you can review Tips from RHS Botanical Art Gold Medal Winners (in EDUCATION) .

ARCHIVE RHS Botanical Art Shows 2007-2018

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Kew Video: What is Botanical Art?

25/4/2019

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The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew have published a new video about 'What is Botanical Art'.

Botanical art plays an important role in Kew’s scientific work. Find out how Kew’s botanical artists reconstruct specimens, and how their drawings help our botanists study plants.

It features somebody I know well - Lucy T. Smith - who is one of the botanical illustrators who work at Kew. She produces assignments for the botanists and for publication in Curtis Botanical Magazine and other botanical publications - as well as teaching students of botanical illustration.

Also involved is Dr Maria Vorontsova FLS who explains why botanical illustration is still superior to photography in terms of recording what's important and helping scientists differentiate between plants - and why she finds Lucy's illustrations of her plants so valuable.

Botanical illustrations aren't just art. They communicate precisely what's needed for the taxonomic science.
Maria Vorontsova, Research Leader

Lucy T Smith working on a botanical illustration at Kew

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for those needing a two minute introduction to precisely why botanical illustration is needed and how it is produced.

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