NEWS about Botanical Art and for Botanical Artists

Call for Entries - Margaret Flockton Award 2020

19/2/2020

Entries are now being accepted for the Margaret Flockton Award for Excellence in Scientific Botanical Illustration 2020.

Illustrators from around the world are asked to submit:

original scientifically accurate taxonomic illustrations completed since March 2018
These are highly detailed monochrome (black and white) drawings primarily undertaken in pen and ink, pencil or rendered using digital software.
They must clearly highlight all of the distinctive features of the species - as highlighted in the published taxonomic description of the plant .

All submissions must be in a digital format.
The deadline for digital online entry is Monday 2nd March 2020 (EST)

You can read more about it on:

the Margaret Flockton Award page on the RBGS website
the page about The Margaret Flockton Award for Excellence in Scientific Botanical Illustration on this website - where I break out and summarise all the important things you need to know if you want to enter - on one page

Crop of one small part (less than 25%) of the scientific botanical illustration which won first prize in 2019

The Margaret Flockton Award is unique amongst international art awards. This is because it

focuses exclusively on contemporary scientific botanical illustration (as distinct from botanical art) - which must be monochrome and 2D
commemorates the contribution Margaret Flockton made to Australian scientific botanical illustration.

The award is sponsored by The Maple Brown Family and the Foundation & Friends of the Botanic Gardens.
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Margaret Flockton Award Prizes 2020
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Most taxonomic botanical illustrators enter this award competition because of the credibility "awarded" to those selected for the exhibition. This is, of course, enhanced for all those who win the award or come second or get a "highly commended"

However the cash award for this international botanical illustration competition are significant.

First prize: AU$5,000;
Second prize: AU$2,000;
3 x Highly Commended.

In addition this Award brings additional benefits. First it is low cost

entry is free and
there are no costs involved in submitting your illustrations because it is all digital!

Plus you can also sell a print of your illustration direct to interested parties with no commission deducted. Those selected for the exhibition can sell prints of their work direct from their websites or email addresses to the public and collectors (meaning no commission is deducted by RBGS).

Overall it's a "win win" award for all concerned!

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Margaret Flockton Award 2020 - Exhibitions
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The exhibition will be held in the three different gardens which make up the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney.

Royal Botanic Garden Sydney - Joseph Maiden Theatre (Saturday 9 May - Sunday 24 May 2020, daily 10am - 4pm) enter via Woolloomooloo Gate on Mrs Macquaries Road
The Australian Botanic Garden Mount Annan - The Australian PlantBank (Tuesday 2 June - Friday 31 July 2020, weekdays 10am - 4pm)
The Blue Mountains Botanic Garden Mount Tomah - Visitor Centre (Tuesday 3 November - Sunday 13 December 2020, daily 10am - 4pm)

I'll be doing further blog posts about the artists selected for the exhibition and the prizewinners.

You can follow the two botanical illustrators who administer this Award on their Instagram Page https://www.instagram.com/rbg_illustration/

View this post on Instagram

Last stop for the 2019 Margaret Flockton Award Exhibition @bluemountainsbotanicgarden, Mount Tomah. 9 August to 15 September. Enjoying the view whilst bumping in, but not the tangled nylon cords!! #scientificillustration #bluemountainsbotanicgarden #margaretflocktonaward #botanicalillustrationpenandink #botanicalillustration

A post shared by Catherine W & Lesley E (@rbg_illustration) on Aug 7, 2019 at 9:03pm PDT

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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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Four botanical artists selected for residency at Oak Spring Garden

28/1/2020

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Last August I wrote about the call for entries for the inaugural Botanical Artists in Residence Program (BAiR) offered by the Oak Spring Garden Foundation (see Call for Entries: Botanical Artists in Residence Program at the Oak Spring Foundation).

On Friday the Oak Spring Foundation announced that not one but FOUR botanical artists had been selected for their inaugural 2020 Botanical Artists in Residence (BAiR) program.

The botanical artists are:

Keiko Nibu Tarver (Japan/USA)
John Pastoriza-Piñol (Australia)
Maria Alice de Rezende (Brazil)
Fátima Zagonel (Brazil)

They were chosen through a competitive selection process in partnership with the American Society of Botanical Artists.

Below there's a brief bio of each of them and then an explanation of what happens during their residencies.

Four botanical artists in residence

Interestingly all but Keiko Nibu Tarver already appear in my listings of leading botanical artists on this website. (I plead the fact, as indicated, that the USA listing is still a work in progress and incomplete).

Links in their names go to either their websites or another web page about their work.

John Pastoriza-Piñol (Australia)

contemporary botanical artist based in Melbourne, Australia
completed his docturmiento in Botany at University of Vigo, Galicia, in Spain
Awards: Won an RHS Gold Medal (2005); received the ASBA Dianne Bouchier Award for Excellence in Botanical Art (2013) and a grant from The Australia Council for the Arts (2016) which enabled him to spend a 3 month residency in New York.
Collections: his work is held in numerous public and private collections around the world and is included in several major Florilgium projects including the Highgrove and Transylvanian Florilegia.
Currently represented by Scott Livesey Galleries, Australia.
Teaching: teaches intermediate/advanced classes at the Geelong Botanic Gardens and workshops around the world

Magnolia x soulangeana by John Pastoriza-Piñol

Maria Alice de Rezende (Brazil)

currently based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Graduated from the National School of Fine Arts at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
Works as an art teacher as well as a botanical illustrator on projects with researchers at the Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden. Her current project is involves illustrating the biodiversity of the South Atlantic Islands.
Her main creative practice is her personal work of illustration of native species of Brazilian flora.
Awards: Margaret Mee Fellowship Programme Artist Scholar (2004) at the Royal Botanic Gardens in 2004
Exhibitions: her work has been exhibited in Japan, Brazil, the UK, and the US - including the 16th International Exhibition at the Hunt Institute in 2019.

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The Top 10 Botanical Artists & Illustrators

30/12/2019

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The 10 most popular botanical artists and botanical illustrators from the past - with dedicated pages on my website - are ranked and listed below.

To date the 18th and 20th centuries are doing very well. The spread across the centuries is as follows:

1600s: 1
1700s: 3
1800s: 2
1900s: 4

It's very interesting that the top three female botanical artists are all people that I would think of as being part of the great "exploration" heritage of botanical art. They used their own initiative to decide where to go, what to paint and how to present it in terms of contemporary ways of exhibiting and publicising their work.

Some food for thought maybe as people compile their "to do" lists for next year?

Links to the dedicated web pages for each artist are embedded in the names of the botanical artists listed below. The ranked order is based on the Google Analytics data for my website for the last four years.

1. Maria Sibylla Merian (1647 - 1717)
Her popularity is, in part, influenced by all the events and celebrations of her life generated by the 300th anniversary of her death in 2017. There was a lot of interest in her life during that period - and since.

2. Pierre-Joseph Redouté (1759 - 1840)
Probably one of the most popular botanical artists with the general public. Due in no small part to the considerable reproduction of his paintings for wall decorations. However his achievements in terms of "series" paintings were considerable and varied - particularly Les Liliacees (1802 - 15) and Les Roses (1817 - 21). He also has the unique distinction of painting on commission for both Queen Marie Antoinette and the Empress Josephine Bonaparte!

3. Margaret Mee (1909 - 1998)
A lot of her paintings of plants in the Amazon Rainforest were exhibited in the "Brazil - a Powerhouse of Plants" exhibition at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art at Kew Gardens in 2016. Her focus on the destruction of the Amazon rainforest has also seen her much referenced in recent times

4. Marianne North (1830 - 1890)
There are not many artists who can say they've travelled to and painted plants in

North and Central America: the USA, Canada, Jamaica and the Caribbean,
South America - Brazil and Chile.
Europe - Tenerife
Asia - Japan, Singapore, Sarawak, Java, Sri Lanka, India,
Australasia - Australia, New Zealand,
Africa - South Africa and the Seychelles

I think this botanical artist enjoys a lot of fame due to having her very own gallery at Kew. If you want to make sure your botanical art continues to be seen after your are no longer around, it's a great idea to build a dedicated art gallery to do just that! Plus her artwork is unique and well remembered once seen for how it is hung in the Marianne North Gallery.

5. Rory McEwen (1932 - 1982)
Probably the best known and most popular of more recent contemporary artists. As 'The Colours of Reality' Retrospective Exhibition in 2013 at Kew demonstrated, this is an artist who has been a considerable influence on many of the most talented leading botanical artists of today

6. Elizabeth Blackwell (1707 - 1758)
A lady botanical artist with a fascinating backstory who painted plants growing in the Chelsea Physic Garden. Blackwell compiled and published her hand drawn, engraved and coloured "A Curious Herbal" (1737-1739) in order to raise funds to free her husband from debtors prison.

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7. Sydney Parkinson (1745 - 1771)
The botanical artist who sailed on the Endeavour, with Captain Cook, to South America, Tahiti, New Zealand and Australia - and died on the way back. He's well known in connection to the development of his drawings and paintings for Banks Florilegium.

8. Georg Dionysius Ehret (1708-1770)
The leading botanical artist in Europe in 1750! This German born artist was a prodigious artist who produced an enormous number of high quality illustrations on commission for various botanical publications and plant collectors. He was one of the most influential botanical artists of all time due to his development of the Linnaean style of botanical illustration. He is also one of my favourites!

9. Arthur Harry Church (1865-1937)
A botanist who focused on the morphology and structure of plants and began to illustrate to demonstrate his findings. He has since earned a reputation as a scientific botanical illustrator of note.

10. Pandora Sellars (1936 - 2017)
The youngest of the botanical artists in this list and the one who died most recently. She is widely considered to be a contemporary equivalent to the botanical masters of the past and one of the top botanical painters of all time. Botanical Theatre: The Art of Pandora Sellars (1936-2017) - a retrospective exhibition of her paintings on display at Kew demonstrated that for those who were fortunate enough to be able to visit and see her work

Tomorrow - for the last blog post of the decade, I'll be reviewing the Top 20 Pages on my Botanical Art & Artists website based on the number of pageviews they've enjoyed since they were created.

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Francis Bauer: the first botanical illustrator at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew

11/12/2019

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Today is the anniversary of the death of Francis (Franz) Bauer FRS FLS at the age of 82, on 11th December 1840.

Francis Bauer was born an Austrian. He was born in in Feldsberg in Lower Austria (now Valtice in the Czech Republic) on 14 March 1758. However he spent 50 years at Kew Gardens - illustrating plants.

He visited London in 1788 when he was 30 and met Sir Joseph Banks who had a passion for botany and was extremely pleased to meet Bauer - probably at his home at 32 Soho Square. He has by this time realised that finding a competent botanical painter was far more difficult than finding an engraver.

In 1789, Bank appointed Bauer as a natural history illustrator with an annual annuity for life of £300. Bauer subsequently settled permanently in Kew and became the first resident plant illustrator at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew.

His title was the 'Botanick Painter to His Majesty' for his work at Kew Gardens. A subsequent complication was that his paintings were owned by the crown which gave them to the British Museum! They're now in the Natural History Museum - with just one orchid painting at Kew! However the Natural History Museum has an excellent website where you can see many of them.

Thumbnails of works by Francis Bauer in the Natural History Museum

He is very well known for

his use of the microscope to study and make meticulous and very impressive studies of dissections and pollen grains. He observed nuclei in plant cells in 1802 and began to study pollen diversity
painting a number of illustrations of plants of the genus Strelitzia from South Africa between 1818 - 1820
his studies of orchids while working with John Lindley. He starts to publish Illustrations of Orchidaceous Plants in 1830.
his painted record of "Drawings of Plants Cultivated in the Royal Garden at Kew" (1790-1820) - which is now kept in four different institutions but with very little at Kew!

If you want to see very good reproductions of his paintings, I highly recommend The Bauers Joseph, Franz & Ferdinand: An Illustrated Biography by Hans Walter Lack (see end) which has excellent and large reproductions of his work in what is a very large, comprehensive and heavy book! I got my copy from the Bodleian bookshop when I went to see the exhibit of Ferdinand Bauer's colour scheme.

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NEW: The Shirley Sherwood Collection has a website!

27/11/2019

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The NEW Shirley Sherwood Collection website - Home Page

Last night Shirley Sherwood announced that the Shirley Sherwood Collection of Botanical Art now has a website. The URL is http://shirleysherwood.com - which I'm sure all fans of botanical art will want to bookmark

I've known about it for some time but also knew that the natural time for a public announcement would be at last night's Private View for the "Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art" exhibition at The Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art at Kew Gardens. So today is the right time to share with everybody else!

Below I'll describe what you can find on the website and how to access the different sections and pages within the website.

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RHS London Botanical Art Show 2019 - Awards and Medal Winners

24/7/2019

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This post is about who won which award and which colour of medal at the RHS London Botanical Art Show 2019.

Below you can read about

which artists won Awards for outstanding botanical artwork
the names of artists and exhibits which won different colour medals - and some images of the Gold Medal winners

There are:

10 Gold Medals ( UK x 5; Japan x 4; Russia x 1;)
8 Silver Gilt Medals
10 Silver Medals
2 Bronze Medals

Links in the names of artists are generally to their websites where you can see more about their botanical artwork.

If you'd like to read more bout the individual artists, please refer to Exhibiting artists at the RHS Botanical Art Show 2019

Awards for outstanding botanical artwork

There are three Awards this year - which were awarded as follows:

Best Botanical Painting 2019: Mariko Ikeda GM (2017-2019): P.Tectorius ‘En Khelen’ - Mariko is developing an excellent track record. She won Best Exhibit in her first exhibit and Best Painting this time.
Best Botanical Art Exhibit 2019: Naomi Gumma GM (2019): The Lifecycle of the Shimonita Welsh Onion Naomi's art extends well beyond her botanical painting - see the video below (in the Gold Medal section) of her dance associated with her exhibit.
Judges’ Special Award 2019: Betsy Rogers-Knox: Exploring the Seasons at Beckley Bog - This was awarded because of the significant educational value about plants growing in a specific environment of Betsy's images.

Best Botanical Painting 2019: Mariko Ikeda GM (2017-2019)

Best Botanical Art Exhibit 2019: Naomi Gumma GM (2019): The Lifecycle of the Shimonita Welsh Onion

Judges’ Special Award 2019: Betsy Rogers-Knox

RHS Gold Medals 2019

There are ten Gold Medals. It's important to also note that

Four previous GM winners repeated their GM from their last exhibition and
Four previous GM winners did not win a GM this time.

Just because you have won a GM before there is no guarantee you can repeat this. The medal is awarded for a specific exhibit not the botanical Artist per se.

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