NEWS about Botanical Art and for Botanical Artists

Kew Video: What is Botanical Art?

25/4/2019

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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The Best Botanical Art Instruction Books - UPDATED

13/9/2017

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The Best Botanical Art and Illustration Instruction Books is the section on my website which I've devoted to developing a guide to the best instruction / "how to" books available for students and practitioners of botanical art and illustration.

There's an awful lot of books out there.

Some are well known. Others are not.
There are brand new books available at a bargain and out of print books which can only be obtained second hand at a very significant cost
Some new books have overtaken old standards.
Some older books still hold up well against newer ones that challenge their reputation.
Different books will interest different folks.

I hope you'll find my guide useful. Maybe bookmark it for later - or even link to it?

There's more below explaining how this guide to the best instruction books for botanical art and illustration actually works.

A guide to the best "how to" books for creating botanical art and illustration for students of botanical art and and those wishing to develop their knowledge and skills

What does this guide have to offer?

What I've tried to do is:

identify all the main books worth taking a look at - but I've not finished yet.
group these into areas of specific interest (see below)
provide in-depth reviews for some of the books - but I've got more to do!

As a guide I've also included the average ratings out of 5 stars for each book (in the UK and USA). Plus a guide to how to interpret these ratings as they are various factors - detailed in my guide - that influence how many ratings a book has got to date.

Some of my "how to" instruction books

These are the sections on the main page

The Society of Botanical Art Books developed by Margaret Stevens for the Diploma Course students. The three main ones each also have a detailed review on a seperate page - just click the teal coloured button to access this.
Books about botanical art and illustration - using Graphite and Coloured Pencils - four books by Ann Swan, Wendy Hollander, Sue Vize and Katie Lee
Books about Scientific Illustration - and using pen and ink - including the book considered to be the scientific illustration bible; the first book about botanical illustration ever published by Kew - which sets out how to draw for Curtis's and an old but very comprehensive and authoritative handbook
Books by leading Botanical Artists and Educators - including books by Anne-Marie Evans and Coral Guest
Books by Billy Showell - see dedicated page
Books By Rosie Martin and Meriel Thurstan (the Eden Project) - see dedicated page
Books about Botanical Painting in Goauche

I've still to develop sections for books by American Artists and Australian Artists (not otherwise included above).

These are the books or groups of books with a dedicated seperate page
for more detailed reviews

The Art of Botanical Painting by Margaret Stevens
The Botanical Palette by Margaret Stevens
Botanical Sketchbook by Mary Ann Scott and Margaret Stevens
Books by Billy Showell - four very popular books of relevance to botanical artists
Books with the Eden Project (Martin & Thurstan)
Botanical Illustration (Oxley) by Valerie Oxley
Botanical Painting with Coloured Pencils by Ann Swan
Botany for the Artist by Sarah Simblet (also see note below re. botany books)

The Best Botany Books for Botanical Artists and Illustrators can be found in the Botany section of the website. These are books written specifically to help educate artists about botany and include:

Understanding the Flowering Plants: A Practical Guide for Botanical Illustrators by Anne Bebington
Botany for Artists by Lizbeth Leech
A Botanist's Vocabulary by Susan K. Pell and Bobbi Angell

Some of my 'botany for artists' and botanical illustration books

More Books

Books also relevant to those wanting to learn more about botanical art and illustration can also be found in The Best Books about Botanical Art History, Artists & Illustrators.

Besides the dedicated pages, I've also included books about botanical art and illustration - including "how to" books - with appropriate related content on various pages of my website.

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How to become a botanical illustrator

24/3/2017

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How do you become a botanical illustrator? What does the job involve?

How do you get a job in botanical illustration at one of the major botanical gardens that employ botanical illustrators?

Below is a 5 minute video created to illustrate a career in botanical illustration. It features botanical illustrator Catherine Wardrop, who is one of two botanical illustrators employed by the Royal Botanic Garden in Sydney. She works at the herbarium and prepares black and white illustrations in pen and ink for botanists and publication in of Flora of New South Wales revisions, Flora of Australia, Telopea and other scientific journals. She also curates key Margaret Flockton works.

Note: the video is old but the principles of the approach to creating a botanical illustration for a scientific publication remain the same.

Still from the video showing Catheron Wardron working on a botanical illustration created from pressed Herbarium material

It shows techniques used by botanical illustrators - including

the use of mechanical pencils and Rotring pens,
retrieval of pressed materials for the herbarium and other specimen material
discussions of the brief for the illustration with the botanists as to key features for inclusion in a plate
scanning and tracing of herbarium material
tracing of material in pencil to get dimensions correct
use of a loupe
review of drawings with the botanist to ensure the illustrator has understood what the drawing needs to display
scanning of the diagrams into Photoshop and then transferring them into Illustrator software in order to manipulate images to design a botanical plate.
inking of images on drafting film using Rotring pen
scanning of images for publication

It also illustrates how much of her work is done while sitting over a microscope!

You must love both nature and detail and have a number of drawing skills to be a professional botanical illustrator. Skills required include:

how light works on form
how forms appear as they turn
how plant material looks as it is coming at you or going away
knowing how to represent both form and articulate how it moves in space very clearly - with no ambiguity.
technically realistic in image-making
proficient in use of a technical pen
use of technology and image software.

The video finishes by explaining her educational background and how she got a job in botanical illustration. Catherine has a a first degree in printmaking and a Diploma in Plant and Wildlife Illustration from Newcastle University in New South Wales.

[Note: Newcastle University has a Degree in Natural History Illustration. This page outlines requirements and the core and optional courses for the degree.]

More about jobs in botanical illustration

Botanical Illustrator Profile - again featuring Catherine Waldron
Careers in Botanical Art and Natural Science Illustration - article by Mindy Lighthipe
For Scientific Illustrators: Finding Jobs - Gina Mikel

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Two new book reviews: 'Botany for the Artist' and 'Botanical Illustration'

21/12/2016

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Today I've created two new pages on my website for in-depth book reviews of two books relevant to those who want to learn more about botany and the botanical illustrator - and highly recommended by me.

Both reviews were written some years ago shortly after the books were published - but the books haven't changed so nor has the value of the book reviews!

However it occurred to me that it would be much more helpful to those wanting to learn about how to draw plants - or develop their skills - if the book reviews were with the rest of the information I've compiled. So today I've moved them from my review blog to this website.

I'll also be moving more in-depth reviews between now and the end of the year.

The two books are as follows (click the links below the image to go to the dedicated page for each book and read the reviews)

Book Review: Botanical Illustration

Author: Valerie Oxley

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED - This is an excellent manual for those who like their botanical art to lean towards illustration with a strong botanical slant.

This book differentiates itself by focusing on botany. It's very detailed and practical and consequently very helpful.

It provides lots of detailed facts, useful information, tips and techniques - doubtless derived from the author's many years of teaching botanical illustration and developing a diploma course.

For example, it includes

a very detailed chapter about collecting, transporting and preparing to draw plant material.
a chapter on finishing touches including tips about how to check for mistakes and tips about how to avoid making mistakes in the first place!

It's a sub-page of The Best Botanical Art Instruction Books in the Education Section.

Botany for the Artist: An Inspirational Guide to Drawing Plants

Author: Sarah Simblet

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED - This is the best rated book on the market for those who want to understand more about

botany for artists and
how to draw plants

The quality of the text and illustrations is first class and the whole book provides a fresh perspective on botany for the artist while losing none of the fundamental and enduring truths of what is required of botanical illustration.

The emphasis of this book is on:

understanding the botany of plants and their different parts - roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits, cones and seeds - and
how to draw the botanical aspects of plants.

Its focus is on finding ways to unpick and illustrate the functionality of the plant - how it is constructed / how it works.

It's a sub-page of The Best Botany Books for Botanical Artists and Illustrators in the Botany section.

Interestingly both books highlight the value of learning through studying the botanical illustrators of the past.

If you'd like to check out some of the best botanical illustrators and artists in history check out my section on Botanical Art History and in particular Past Masters of Botanical Art & Illustration (1500-1900)

Note: The links above go direct to the page which hosts the book review. The book reviews include associate links to Amazon. This site uses the pennies raised via book sales via those links to finance this website - which is not cheap to run.

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Linnean Society - Open House

31/8/2016

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The Linnean Society is participating in Open House between 10:00–17:00 on Saturday 17 September 2016. Find out more about this event on their website.

The Linnean Society of London is the world’s oldest active biological society. Founded in 1788, 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 entrance to The Linnean Society of London is located on the left inside the arch into Burlington Courtyard - at, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London, W1J 0BF, United Kingdom (better known to a lot of artists as also being home to the Royal Academy of Art)

Below is the main library - which I can highly recommend! Last time I was there it was displaying their copy of one of the three volumes of Banksias by Celia Rosser - and you don't get to see that very often!

The Library Reading Room of the Linnean Society

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RHS Botanical Art Shows in 2017 - the FAQS

3/8/2016

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This post is about how to find information about the RHS Botanical Art Shows in 2017 and the future - for all actual and aspiring future exhibitors.

In the past, many botanical artists have found it very difficult to find out about:

how to be selected for exhibition at an RHS Botanical Art Show
how to win an RHS Medal - particularly a Gold Medal.

Below you can find out about:

what facts are available from the RHS
what information is available on this websites - including tips from past Gold Medal winners!

Saturday at the RHS London Botanical Art Show in 2016

RHA Botanical Art & Photography Shows in 2017

The RHS now has a web page for information about the shows for artists and photographers. If you hope to exhibit in future or are planning to exhibit in 2017 you should bookmark this now. That's because it's not easy to find unless you know where to look!

The page has two sub-pages for:

Botanical Art
Botanical Photography (NOT to be confused with the RHS Photography competition)

Each of these provide information and links to more detailed information about

how to apply to exhibit
rules and regulations for exhibitors

Dates of RHS Botanical Art Shows in 2017

In 2017 the RHS Botanical Illustration Shows are:

RHS London 24-25 February 2017
RHS Malvern Spring Festival 11-14th May 2017

All those selected to exhibit in the future:

should have had a letter listing these dates
will get another letter in the Autumn (date unspecified!) inviting them to apply to exhibit at one of these two shows.

Applications for space for exhibits of paintings and drawings should be made on forms sent out by the RHS Shows Department. Contact details for eligible artists are automatically sent to the RHS Shows Department, following acceptance by the Picture Panel, however artists should ensure that the RHS Shows Department is kept informed of any changes to their contact details

RHS Botanical Illustration - Exhibitor Factsheet

The RHS have published their Exhibitor Fact Sheet for Botanical Illustration in 2017. Download this and save it and then print it out and start highlighting all the things you need to remember! (Note: Rather annoyingly the print is in green ink (!) which means that it does not reproduce well when printing in greyscale)

Interestingly although the shows have always been described at Botanical Art Shows in the past, the Factsheet emphasises that it is about "Botanical Illustration".

The RHS has always been very clear that these shows are for works that are primarily of botanical interest. I'm assuming the change of name is because the RHS wants to continue to emphasise the botanical emphasis of its exhibitions when compared to some of the other botanical art exhibitions around the world and the range of works that they include.

I am however going to try and find out if there is anything more behind this change in name.

The heading of the FACTSHEET for RHS Botanical Art Shows in 2017

This is what it covers:

a definition of botanical illustration - you need to make sure that what you propose to exhibit conforms to this definition.
contacts - although oddly it omits the key contact for artists which is the email address for the Picture Panel. You can find this on page 3 in the next section
Selection: New Exhibitors - describes the process used to people who want to exhibit with the RHS. You are already too late to apply to be approved to exhibit for 2017. However if you apply now you can start the process for being approved to exhibit in 2018 and beyond. The closing date for applications for approval is usually June each year - with the selection meeting of the Picture Panel being held in July. This section provides precise guidelines and criteria for approval to exhibit.

Only exhibitors that have been accepted by the Picture Panel are eligible to apply for space.

Rules and Regulations for Exhibiting - This section details all the rules for presentation and conduct while exhibiting (which I will review in a future post)
Labelling - Botanical names are sacrosanct to the RHS! This is a very big section and that's a very big clue to how important this aspect is to the judges. I've known people in the past lose out on a good medal because they did something wrong when writing out their labels. Knowing how to name your plant and when to use italics and capitals is VERY important! This page recommends the use of latest edition of The RHS Plant Finder in relation to the use of cultivar names.
Staging - As many people know new display boards were used for the RHS london Botanical Art Show in 2016. These will continue to be used in future. Note the STRONG recommendations as to the use of conservation grade polyester film such as Melinix or Mylar to protect the artwork. (I'll be writing more about these and how to get hold of them in future)
Judging and awards - this stipulates what medals are available and how they are awarded. It highlights in particular the judging criteria used which are listed within three categories: Quality of Botanical Illustration; Quality of Presentations and Overall Impression
Terms and Conditions - The normal sort of 'small print' which MUST be read thoroughly. Don't make any assumptions! Note the need for insurance.

More information

In addition, on this Botanical Art and Artists website you can find:

a whole page devoted to RHS Botanical Exhibitions - for Artists and Photographers. It's in the Exhibitions section and covers the Regulation and Guidance and dates and downloads when identified. This includes links to my past reviews of the exhibitions, interviews with Gold Medal Winners and posts about selected artists.
Tips from RHS Gold Medal winning botanical artists - culled from my interviews with many past Gold Medal Winners. These can be found on the Tips and Techniques Page in the Education section.
The Botany section of this website has a section on Plant Names and Botanical Latin which some artists may find very useful. It includes the summary of the advice the RHS provides relating to botanical names.
listings for artists who have won an RHS Gold Medal in the past in the Artists section (with pages for different countries/geographical areas) . They are identified by GM after their name (with the year where this has been indicated). Where I've met them, the listings also include images of them with their work.

As indicated I'll be writing more on this topic. Please let me know if you have any queries not otherwise answered by the Exhibition Fact Sheet.

This post was stimulated by somebody who wrote to me asking about a particular fact relating to the 2017 exhibitions. So I'd really appreciate it if you would please share this post with artists who might be interested in exhibiting at the RHS. Thanks!

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J.W. Fike's Photographic Survey of the Wild Edible Botanicals of the North American Continent

22/5/2016

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From time to time I like to feature botanical photographers who aim to follow in the tradition of botanical illustration by being both accurate and informative as well as having a visual aesthetic.

Last week I added Anna Atkins (1799-1871) to the list of Past Masters. She was an English botanist who developed photography as a medium for recording images of plants. Her use of cyanotope impressions is noteworthy.

Today I want to highlight J.W. Fike (Jimmy Fike) who I've been aware of for some time.

Fike has embarked on a major and very ambitious project to record the wild edible botanicals found on the North American continent. In doing so he is having annual exhibitions around the USA of place-specific plants related to the area in which the exhibition is held.

Recording wild edible botanicals

J.W. Fike’s Photographic Survey of the Wild Edible Botanicals of the North American Continent - images from his blog highlighting his photographic technique

Fike's approach to recording wild plants is to highlight the parts which are edible in colour while rendering the rest of the plants less emphatically. It very neatly highlights the edible parts without any need for labelling. His resulting images are also reminiscent of the cynatope impressions used by the early photographers such as Anna Atkins.

Within my system the plant is excavated, arranged in the studio, photographed, then illustrated digitally in such a way as to render the edible parts in color while the remaining parts, less emphatically, read as contact prints.

Current Exhibition in California

California Poppy, 50"x28", 2015, Photographed in Miramonte, CA. Copyright J.W. Fike

The current exhibition is of J.W. Fike’s Photographic Survey of the Wild Edible Botanicals of California. It opened last week at the Art Gallery at Soka University in Aliso Viejo, CA. The exhibition focuses on wild edible plants relevant to California.

Date: 19th May 2016 - 26th August 2016 (Monday to Friday 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m - admission free.)
Location: Founders Hall Art Gallery 2nd Floor, Soka University, 1 University Drive, Aliso Viejo, CA 92656 Map and directions

Last week his exhibition earned him coverage by the Los Angeles Times with this article Haunting flowers: The eerily beautiful California botanical art of J.W. Fike

Currently, I’ve photographed over ninety plants in seven different states and plan to continue the survey until I’ve created a collection that spans the continental United States.

You can see what his exhibitions look like in reality in this post about the past exhibition at the The University of Mary Washington Galleries in 2015.

Filaree (also known as Stork's Bill), 34"x30", 2015, Photographed in Miramonte, CA. Copyright J.W. Fike

About J W Fike

Education: BA in Art from Auburn University; MFA in Photography from the Cranbrook Academy of Art under the tutelage of Carl Toth.
Employment: taught art at Wake Forest and Ohio Universities and is currently an Art Faculty Member at Estrella Mountain College in Avondale, Arizona.
Photography: His photographic work endeavors to find creative, contemporary ways to approach landscape by incorporating place, identity, ecology, and mythology.
Exhibitions: Fike's series on wild edible plants has been exhibited in various shows across the county

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