NEWS about Botanical Art and for Botanical Artists

Australasian Exhibit in 'Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art' at Kew

10/12/2019

The Australasian exhibit within Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art is the first one you come to as you go through the double doors from the reception area of the Shirley Sherwood Gallery. into Gallery 1.

It covers contemporary botanical art by both Australian and New Zealand artists past and present. You can read more about the artists in my earlier blog post Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art #6: Australasian Artists

Below you can see photos of the paintings in the exhibition - with names of the plants, credits for the artists and explanations of and/or any stories I know about the plants and/or artists!

Australia and New Zealand have strong artists traditions with flourishing art and conservation societies. We had a botanical exhibition here... of a Florilegium of contemporary plant portraits demo Sydney's three botanical gardens, as well as two smaller 'Down Under' shows with paintings by Australian and New Zealand.
Introduction to the Australasian Gallery

Paintings by Paul Jones, Susannah Blaxill, Annie Hughes and Julie Nettleton

The first paintings you see on your left as you walk through the door contain some stunners.

The small gem-like painting of Agapanthus is by Susannah Blaxill. It's painted in watercolour and gouache on (if I recall correctly) some Rory McEwen vellum which she painted for the Rory McEwen exhibition in the gallery in 2013. I seem to recall there's a story that she had never painted on vellum before and was petrified of making a mistake. As you can clearly see she didn't - and if you take a very big magnifier and look very carefully you can see the tiny hatching strokes she used. It's an absolutely beautiful painting - a real gem!
Above it is a small painting of Violas, painted in acrylic by Paul Jones. It's been in quite a few exhibitions including "A new Flowering" exhibition at the Ashmolean in 2005
The large painting of an enlarged white Camellia japonica 'Elegans champagne' on white paper (800mm x 760mm) is by Annie Hughes GM (RHS: 2011, 2012, 2013, 2017). Annie won her first RHS Gold Medal for a suite of eight paintings of Camellias in 2011 and the painting was acquired from the exhibition at the Royal Botanical Garden in Sydney in March 2012.
The painting on the right is of Styphelia triflora by Julie Nettleton who won an RHS Gold Medal and 'Best Painting in Show' for an exhibit of Grass Trees in 2016. It has an amazing full page image in the book which allows you to see properly all the paintings of parts.

Paintings by Bronwyn van de Graaff , Celia Rosser and Beverly Allen.

The next three paintings speak Australia to me.

The Xanthorrhoea johnsonii Grass Tree is by Bronwyn van de Graaff which has a great composition.
The Banksia serrata Saw Banksia (1995) is by Celia Rosser OAM PhD (Hon.) who one is of the world's finest living botanical artists. She dedicated herself to producing watercolour paintings of every Banksia species every known Banksiaover 25 years. These were published as The Banksias, a three-volume series of monographs (1981, 1988 and 2000). This banksia requires you to take a magnifier with you if you want to see the level of detail she has achieved. It gets a full page in the book - but you need to get up close and personal with this painting! (You can see why in this blog post)
The Strelitzia nicolai by Beverly Allen GM (RHS 2007, NYBG 2010) is amazing and is the feature image of the exhibition. It's also used on the cover of the book produced in association with the exhibition.

0 Comments

Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art #2: North and Latin American Artists

13/11/2019

0 Comments

Today, I'm documenting information about the artists from North and Latin America who have artwork in the new exhibition Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art - celebrating 30 years of the Shirley Sherwood Collection - which opens at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art at Kew Gardens on Saturday 16th November 2019 - until 15 March 2020. (note the opening and last entry times at the end)

The art work in the exhibition comes from entirely from the private collection of Dr Shirley Sherwood.

(Shirley Sherwood) became interested in plants and art as a young child and went on to study Botany at Oxford University before earning her D.Phil as part of the team that discovered the drug Tagamet.

She started the Shirley Sherwood Collection in 1990 and it now includes over 1,000 paintings and drawings representing the work of over 300 contemporary botanical artists from 36 countries around the world.

Cycad 1998 Female cones of Encephalartos ferox by Leslie Carol Berge (1959-2017)

This post has two parts relating to the botanical artists in the exhibition who come from

North America - specifically USA and Canada
Latin America - specifically Brazil and Mexico

Every day this week - including Saturday when the exhibition opens - I am documenting information about the artists whose artwork has been selected to hang in this major exhibition. I'm also including images of some of the artwork in the exhibition. This is one you will not want to miss.

Yesterday I published information about the Artists of the British Isles and Ireland
Below you can find:

the names of artists whose work is displayed - with a link to their website embedded in their name (or a link to a dedicated page on my website for some of the deceased artists)
a short profile of each artist - focusing on their achievements
the names of the plants in their artwork which has been selected for the exhibition. Where plants have been featured in previous books by Dr Sherwood this is noted next to the name.

The remaining posts concern the botanical artists

Thursday - from countries in Europe,
Friday - from countries in Asia and South Africa and
Saturday - from Australia and New Zealand.

I'm very much looking forward to the Private View which a lot of those artists will be attending. This is a very special group of artists!

NOTES:

If you don't want to miss one of my blog posts, I suggest you subscribe to this blog - see side column or subscription box later in this post
The images below have been featured in previous posts of mine about previous exhibitions at the Gallery or about the artists. Many thanks to Sophie Cooper, Personal Assistant to Shirley Sherwood for providing me with the lists of artists and to Maria and Victoria for providing updates for what is hung.

Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art
#2 (a): North American Artists

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Francesca Anderson GM FLS (1995, 99)
b. 1946. (BA. MA, MFA) A botanical artist who always works in pen and ink with 13 works in the Shirley Sherwood Collection. She has received two RHS gold medals (Amaryllis in 1995; Brassica series in 1999). She is a former President of the American Society of Botanical Artists, founder and president of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden Florilegium Society, a Fellow of the Linnean Society and and a Trustee of Brooklyn Botanic Garden. She has had her work exhibited extensively and internationally in museums in Sweden, Scotland, London, South Africa, Australia, Berlin, and Japan and has works in the collections of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, the Hunt Institute, the RHS Lindley Library and the National Gallery of Modern Art in Scotland as well as other public and private collections.

Cyclamen 1992

Leslie Carol Berge (1959-2017) - see image at the top of the post
b. Massachusetts 1959. 8 works in the Shirley Sherwood Collection. Renowned for her paintings of cycads. Her painting of the female cones of the cycad, Encephalartos woodii (extinct in the wild) featured on the front cover of "A Passion for Plants" and was reproduced in the Washington Post. Graduated in Art History, Painting and Drawing from Bennington College, Vermont. MA in Illustration At Art Institute of Boston. Became a freelance artist in 1981. Participated in early botanical art courses organised by Dr Sherwood. Exhibited in the 7th International Exhibition at the Hunt in 1992.

Cycad 1998 Female cones of Encephalartos ferox
Bushman's Cycad 2001 Encephalartos trispinosus

0 Comments

Exhibition: Hedgerow: Stories from a linear world by Yanny Petters

31/10/2019

0 Comments

HEDGEROW, stories from a linear world is a new solo exhibition of new work by Yanny Petters. Yanny is a well known botanical artist in Ireland and also a Gallery Artist at The Olivier Cornet Gallery in Dublin

“Since childhood I have loved and observed hedgerows. Whenever we kids went rambling along the lanes of our neighbourhood, to pick flowers or blackberries or just wandering to each other’s houses, we wondered at the secrets within these linear worlds...”
Hedgerow, stories from a linear world by Yanny Petters

Her work raises awareness of the wild plants of Ireland - revealing them as an evolved species living in symbiotic harmony in ancient habitats rather just a bunch of weeds.

The exhibition comprises drawings and paintings of the Hedgerow, an iconic element of the Irish countryside. These are:

a series of Verre Eglomisé paintings of hedgerow silhouettes in Gold leaf and pigment
a series of seasonal paintings in watercolour on Arches Paper (see top image)
a series of black pencil drawings of the linear nature of the hedgerow

The Black pencil drawings and the 'Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter in a Hedgerow' series are also available as Archival pigment ink prints on watercolor paper, in a limited edition of 10 each only.

Gallery: Olivier Cornet Gallery, 3 Great Denmark Street, (beside Belvedere College, off Parnell Square) Dublin 1.
Dates: 13 October - 17th November 2019
Hours: Tuesday to Friday: 11am to 6pm (till 8pm on Thursdays); Saturday and Sunday: 12 noon to 5pm. Closed on Mondays (or viewing by appointment only)

Visit the exhibition's page the gallery website for images and more information

Below is what the gallery looked like as they got ready for the opening of the exhibition.

All is ready at the @OC_Gallery for the opening of Yanny Petters’ solo exhibition at 3 pm today. Do join us pic.twitter.com/dvf4blllbG
— OlivierCornetGallery (@OC_Gallery) October 13, 2019

Blog posts are emailed to you when you
Subscribe to Botanical Art & Artists - News by Email
Your subscription is: ONLY to this blog + ONLY activated IF you verify the link you will receive.

Yanny Petters, 'Elder, stile, gorse and the sheep gap', black pencil on conservation board (80x120cm). Available as an archival pigment ink print on w/c paper, in a limited edition of 10 each only (40x60cm), Unframed: 175 euro, Framed: 295 euro. @OC_Gallery is open till 5pm today pic.twitter.com/JEbnODfFVI
— OlivierCornetGallery (@OC_Gallery) October 28, 2019

About the hedgerow in Ireland

Increasing concerns about both a changing climate and the need to protect biodiversity means that hedgerows need to cherished for the health of our future generations.

The hedgerow goes back a long way in history. It both divides and holds together the rich habitat that remains after our forests were cleared. Land boundaries can be traced back to Neolithic times and the circa-12th-century Townland boundaries are the country’s longest standing land divisions.

Hedgerows also serve as windbreaks, to shelter our livestock, reduce soil erosion, aid drainage and provide homes for beneficial predators who protect our food crops from pests.

At a time when farming practices are changing in scale, many of these valuable hedgerow habitats are being removed and scrubbed out of existence. New hedges can be planted but ONLY the ancient hedgerows can support up to 3000 organisms from flowers and trees, birds and animals to insects and microscopic creatures.

0 Comments

4th Annual Exhibition of the Scottish Society of Botanical Artists

7/10/2019

0 Comments

The fourth Annual Exhibition of the Scottish Society of Botanical Artists (SSBA) opens next Saturday, 12th October in Kirkcudbright in Dumfries & Galloway.

Exhibition: Nature's Designs - 4th Annual Exhibition of the SSBA - includes 70 new botanical artworks by more than 25 botanical artists.
Venue: Whitehouse Gallery
Dates: 12th October - 2nd November 2019
Days: Monday to Saturday
Hours: 10am - 5pm
Admission: Free

"Just Fritillaries" by Anne Fraser 30 x 39 inches £2,150

The exhibition combines

new paintings from award-winning botanical painters
fresh work from first-time exhibitors.
traditional approaches
more contemporary interpretations of botanical art within the ‘traditional’ framework of botanical art.

About the Scottish Society of Botanical Artists

The Scottish Society of Botanical Artists (SSBA) was established as a charity five years ago to encourage and promote botanical painting in Scotland. Members come from across Scotland. The SSBA also now has a growing number of members based in England or abroad.

I applaud the fact that the Scottish Society of Botanical Artists takes their annual exhibitions of botanical art to various venues across Scotland. The annual exhibition is always held in a variety of galleries in different parts of Scotland - with the aim of expanding awareness of botanical art within Scotland as a whole.

"Enchanted Forrest" - the first annual exhibition was held in Falkirk
"The Colours of Nature” - the second annual exhibition was held in Stirling
"The Shapes of Nature" - the 3rd exhibition was held at Milngavie, near Glasgow.

You can find out more about botanical art exhibitions in Scotland on my dedicated web page Botanical Art Exhibitions in Scotland

Blog posts are emailed to you when you
Subscribe to Botanical Art & Artists - News by Email
Your subscription is: ONLY to this blog + ONLY activated IF you verify the link you will receive.

About the Whitehouse Gallery

The Whitehouse Gallery is a contemporary art & craft gallery based in the historic artist town of Kirkcudbright, South West Scotland. It now has two levels and holds between 5-6 mixed exhibitions over the year, combining up-and-coming talents with some of the leading artists and makers in the country. The gallery is wheelchair accessible - but there is no access to the upper level.

SSBA Director and artist Kate Braithwaite said,

“It’s a real pleasure to be hosted by the prestigious Whitehouse Gallery, the light and space will complement the work of our Members beautifully.”

0 Comments

Plants with a Purpose - BSBA Exhibition 2019

1/10/2019

0 Comments

Plants with a Purpose is the title of this year's biennial exhibition of botanical art by the Bath Society of Botanical Artists. It opens this week on Thursday 3rd October.

Venue: Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution (BRLSI), Queen Square, Bath
Dates: 3rd - 21st October 2019
Hours: 10am - 4 pm every day except Sunday

Life on earth depends on plants, without them mankind would cease to exist. This exhibition aims to help us appreciate the plant world and how important it is for us all to care for it.

For the past eighteen months members have been painting plants that are used by us whether as food, medicine or used for clothing, building and fuel.

Over seventy paintings will be on display with additional information about the diverse ways in which we use plants. All artwork is for sale and greetings cards and calendars are also for sale in the exhibition.

Illustrated Talk - What have plants ever done for us?

An illustrated talk on What have plants ever done for us? by Timothy Walker, Past Director of the University of Oxford Botanic Garden and Harcourt Aboretum. Timothy Walker is also an author and has won four gold medals at Chelsea Flower Show. In June 2011, he presented the three-part television series Botany: A Blooming History, which has recently been repeated on BBC4. His particular interest is in plant conservation.

The talk will be held at 7.30 pm on Friday 18 October 2019, at BRLSI, 16 Queen Square, Bath BA1 2HN Tickets £6 from Bath Box Office, Bridgwater House, 2 Terrace Walk, Bath BA1 1LN   Tel: 01225 463362

About the Bath Society of Botanical Artists

Bath Society of Botanical Artists has about 40 members who all share a passion for botanical illustration. Members meet to paint every Thursday in Winsley, a village near Bath.

Our members use a variety of media for creative botanical expression, including watercolour, coloured pencil, pen and ink, and graphite. Many started with little experience of botanical painting and some have gone on to study for a qualification in Botanical Art. Others have developed the skills to become members of the Society of Botanical Artists (SBA), and some have been awarded medals at the prestigious Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Botanical Art Shows.

Blog posts are emailed to you when you
Subscribe to Botanical Art & Artists - News by Email

American Society of Botanical Artists: 22nd Annual International Exhibition and Events

21/9/2019

0 Comments

Cover art: ©Kristin Jakob, Calypso bulbosa on Mt. Tamalpais, watercolor on vellum

The 22nd Annual International Exhibition of the American Society of Botanical Artists is taking place on the West Coast for the first time. It opens to the public tomorrow - on Sunday, September 22, 2019 - with:

a Reception between 3pm-6pm
Artist demos from 3:00 - 4:00 by Catherine Dellor, Kristin Jakob, Lucy Martin, Deborah Shaw, and Nancy Wheeler Klippert, who will demonstrate in five different media.

I LOVE the cover of the Exhibition Catalogue! The cover art is by Kristin Jacob who has produced a lot of illustrations of Californian native plants in her botanical art career.

22nd Annual International Exhibition - details

American Society of Botanical Artists: 22nd Annual International
Organised by: American Society of Botanical Artists and Marin Art & Garden Center
Venue: The Studio, Marin Art & Garden Center,
Address: 30 Sir Frances Drake Blvd, Ross, CA 94957
Dates: September 22 - November 17, 2019 (Thursdays to Sindays only)
Gallery Hours: Thurs–Sat 10am–4pm, Sun 12–4pm

This juried exhibition comprises 48 two-dimensional, original, botanical art. These were selected from a competitive field of 230 entries.

On the 22nd Annual International Exhibition link you can find

a tab for all the artists - those with a green link in their name go to their story about their paintings. Very much a recommended read - lots to learn about plants, artists and their approaches to creating their botanical art
a tab for thumbnails of all the artwork - click the pics to view larger versions of the artwork

You can also refer to my blog post: for links profiles of and links to the websites of the Selected Artists: ASBA 22nd Annual International

Some of the artwork selected for the Exhibition

The Jurors for the exhibition were:

Frank Almeda, Curator Emeritus, Institute for Biodiversity Science and Sustainability, California Academy of Sciences
Julie Bly DeVere, Head Curator and Collections Manager, Historic Filoli Estate
Martha Kemp, Botanical Artist

Blog posts are emailed to you when you
Subscribe to Botanical Art & Artists - News by Email

25th ANNIVERSARY - NCalSBA exhibition

2019 is the 25th anniversary of The American Society of Botanical Artists.

A full-size catalog titled “Celebrating Silver" has been published”. The art submitted echoes the silver theme with plants that either have a sliver quality or ’silver’ in the name of the plant.

The Northern California Society of Botanical Artists (NCalSBA) is exhibiting 42 images by its members who are featured in the catalog. This exhibition will run concurrently with the ASBA 22nd Annual International Exhibition.

EVENTS DURING THE EXHIBITION

The Exhibition will also include a number of events - and details of these will be posted to the MAGC venue website. All events are 10am-3pm unless otherwise stated

They include:

The History of Botanical Art - Lecture by Catherine Watters 26 September 2019 (6-8pm)
Autumn Leaves in Colored Pencil with Nina Antze 4th October 2019
Painting an Oak Branch and Oak Galls with Gouache October 5, 2019
ASBA: Pen & Ink Workshop with Kristin Jakob October 11, 2019
Painting from the Garden: An introduction to Botanical Art November 1, 2019
Exploring Plants through Sketching with Lee McCaffree November 16, 2019

0 Comments

Book Review: 'Roses' by Rosie Sanders

9/9/2019

0 Comments

I was expecting Rosie Sanders's new book about Roses to be very good - but wasn't expecting to be quite so bowled over by her watercolour paintings of roses which fill the pages of this large book.

Her botanical paintings are as as large on the page as they are on the walls of the gallery in Chelsea where her latest solo exhibition will be opening on the day it is published.

Rosie has been drawing, sketching and painting roses for this book and her latest exhibition (see the end for details) for the last three years.

She grows all her own roses and knows them all by name - even if she sometimes forgets where she has put them - until they flower!

She's also been making notes about her roses on a regular basis, what they have been getting up to and what colours they are displaying. Many artists find writing about their subjects helps to fix their image in their brains - and Rosie seems to be no exception. The notes are divided between facsimiles of her handwritten notes and typed up versions of the same. I rather assume the latter are the ones which might just have rings from her coffee mug on them as she sits in her garden in the morning with her cup of coffee surveying what has been happening to her roses in the last day or so.

This approach to the text helps make this book feel a lot more personal to Rosie and I really like it. More of the individual seems to come to the fore. Rosie's writing is graphic and excellent and I personally found it very readable. I do wonder however whether reading handwriting might make this book a little bit more of a challenge for those who don't use English as their first language.

Red Sensation

Shades of Red

What I particularly like about this book is there as a much clearer sense of the process - which should particularly appeal to those botanical artists who like her paintings.

On some double page spreads we also have preliminary drawings and colour charts of the colours used in the painting - with colours randomly noted either next to the colour boxes or in the text. She also includes some fast watercolour sketches recording habit and colour notes.

This is a timelapse video of Rosie Sanders painting a rose in watercolour.

Pierre-Joseph Redouté's book of paintings about Les roses is the pre-eminent tour de force in the "books about roses by botanical artists" category of artists' botanical art books. His roses are perfection and I doubt anybody will ever better it in terms of portraying perfect specimens.

However in terms of painting roses in reality - I think Rosie's book will also be seen as a tour de force and a standard. She paints roses as we see them in the garden - some new and fresh with both buds and blooms - while others are fading and past their best, In effect she has created a florilegium of roses growing in her garden - and has painted some on more than one occasion - notably her one yellow rose 'Celebration'.

She seems to have a particular affinity with the back of a rose and what happens behind or underneath the petals of the rose in question. It suggests an artist in love with all stages of the life cycle and the multiplicity of colours and shades they can go through from first bud to last breath.

Book cover only has the title on the front cover on the paper slip cover

The Introduction to the book provides a history of the rose in in the history of ancient times, middle ages and more recent time - as a symbol, in art, in war, in religion, as an emblem of love. It also comments on the different types of rose and where they hail from. I found it one of those introductions which is so packed full of information that it's probably best read in small chunks.

However there is no obvious connection between the Introduction and the paintings. It's almost as if we have two books in one cover.

What's missing from the book - and I do think this is worth noting - is any sort of introduction to Rosie and why she likes painting roses and what her project comprises. Instead we find bits out as we read her notes - and I do very much recommend you read all the notes!

The book has an interesting and unique index in which every rose in the book is presented by a thumbnail. Below you can see two of the tree pages which form the index.

An Index by rose (and name and size) at the end of the book

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

This is a woman who likes BIG projects and has a track record of pulling them off in spectacular fashion!

Notwithstanding the bits which don't quite work for me, I think this is an excellent book which will be much appreciated by all rose lovers - who will doubtless appreciate that many of the roses were sourced from David Austin.

I also expect that very many botanical artists will be buying this book in order to study Rosie's approach - which - in short - is grounded in much time spent in intense observation and an awful lot of effort in creating hundreds of studies, sketches and paintings - of which these are the ones which deserve a public stage.

The production qualities of this large book are also excellent. The photography of both drawings and paintings is top notch and the printing is superb with a very robust cover and binding. (For those interested in such things the reproduction was done by Rival Colour Ltd. - who are based in Greenwich - and the printing was done in China (as happens to most books these days) by 1010 Printing International Ltd and is a company associated with books which have won British Book Design & Production Awards.

ORDER THIS BOOK

Rosie Sanders' Roses: A celebration in botanical art from Amazon UK
Rosie Sanders' Roses: A Celebration of Botanical Art from Amazon.com

Hardcover: 144 pages
Publisher: Batsford Ltd - an imprint of Pavilion Books
Publication date: 26 Sept. 2019 - the date her exhibition opens in Chelsea
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1849945527
ISBN-13: 978-1849945523
Product Dimensions: 24.5 x 31.1 cm
RRP: £30

In effect, the book is the same size and format as her last book Rosie Sanders' Flowers: A Celebration of Botanical Art

The dark side of the moon

About the author and artist - Rosie Sanders

0 Comments

<<Previous