Botanical Art Worldwide - Basic Principles

The second Botanical Art Worldwide Project will focus on and celebrate biodiversity in the crops that have been closely associated with the human species over thousands of years. The theme is designed to draw attention to the vast variety of food and useful plants available, in contrast with the relatively few varieties currently used in mass cultivation. Plants eligible for inclusion are those cultivated for food, textiles, building, energy, and medicine

Artists around the world are working on this project to:

• - build partnerships between artists, institutions, scientists, and the public.

• - raise awareness of the worldwide renaissance in botanical art.
• - acknowledge and build upon the increasing ease of communication and connection between botanical artists wherever they might live and work.
• - increase appreciation and understanding of crop diversity around the world.
• - engage in a project to document some of the world’s diverse crop plants.

Botanical Art Worldwide in the UK (England, Wales and Northern Ireland)

Botanical Art Worldwide 2025

The second Botanical Art Worldwide Project will focus on and celebrate biodiversity in the crops that have been closely associated with the human species over thousands of years. The theme is designed to draw attention to the vast variety of food and useful plants available, in contrast with the relatively few varieties currently used in mass cultivation. Plants eligible for inclusion are those cultivated for food, textiles, building, energy, and medicine.
Currently, many heritage species and varieties are only cultivated in small quantities by specialist growers on a limited scale. It is vital to promote this genetic diversity in a world challenged by a growing population, changing climate, and habitat losses.
Botanical Art Worldwide Website

What is The Jill Smythies Award?
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A medal and £1,000 to a botanical artist for outstanding, diagnostically relevant, published illustrations
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 in aid of plant identification, with the emphasis on botanical accuracy and the accurate portrayal of diagnostic characteristics.

Nominations
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• We do not accept self-nominations

RHS Best Botanical Artwork 2023: Hoya Latifolia G.Don. / Bold under (Sun) Stress by Eunike Nugroho (Indonesia)

The RHS Botanical Art & Photography Show 2023
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Entrance to the Saatchi Gallery - just off the Kings Road in Chelsea

​RHS Botanical Art Awards 2023

The Director of the Saatchi Gallery welcomes people to the third RHS Botanical Art and Photography Show at the Saatchi Gallery.

Nina Mayes receiving the RHS Best Botanical Art Exhibit Award 2023

What is the Margaret Flockton Award?

Every year, illustrators from around the world submit scientifically accurate drawings that accompany the published taxonomic description of a plant, clearly highlighting all of the distinctive features of the species. Original taxonomic illustrations are highly detailed black and white drawings primarily undertaken in pen and ink, pencil or digitally rendered.

Who can enter the Margaret Flockton Award?

What can you enter?

Audrey Eagle (courtesy of Royal Society of New Zealand)

LODER CUP AWARD 1985 CITATION
She devoted herself to the descriptive painting of native plants. Her ambition was to paint every known native tree and shrub in such detail that her drawings might make identification easier, and serve as a reference for those engaged professionally in forestry, parks and reserves administration, botany, and botanical research. She painted many rare species, some still unnamed and only recently discovered.

In 1975 Audrey Eagle published her first volume of Eagle's Trees and Shrubs of New Zealand, which included 228 coloured botanical illustrations. In 1982 her second volume, with 405 paintings of woody stemmed flora, endowed future generations with an accurate pictorial record of New Zealand trees and shrubs, complete with flowers, fruits and seeds capsules. These works represent twenty years of painstaking care and accurate artistry in the search for, recording and correct identification of specimens.
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Mrs Eagle was a member of the Nature Conservation Council from 1977. She took a keen and active interest in its work, particularly in the conservation of indigenous flora. She has given expert assistance to forest rangers and led many botanical, conservation and youth groups on field trips, freely sharing her expertise. Her fine native garden in Ngaruawahia was a show case for native plants suitable for the home garden. Here she also raised and donated rooted cuttings and seedlings of rare species.
Loder Cup: List of all winners since 1929

Timeline
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​Audrey's interest in nature commenced as a child and she recalls her childhood in Wroxton (Oxfordshire), "...every spare moment was spent exploring the countryside on bicycle and on foot. Hours were spent in woods, on hillsides and by streams, observing plants, birds and other details of the countryside. It was during this time that she began to paint plants, though she had been keen on drawing and painting from the age of about five"
Anonymous 1986: Profile - Mrs Audrey Eagle. Nature Conservation Council Newsletter No.61: 4.