NEWS about Botanical Art and for Botanical Artists

Exploring Botany - in Kraków

18/2/2021

The exhibition "Exploring Botany - Botanical Art in the 21st Century" opened at the Manggha Museum in Kraków, Poland on 2nd February and continues until 30th June 2021.

I'm sure many of you will have seen some details about this online - but for those who haven't this blog post aims to fill in the gaps. (Dates on the poster and flyers relate to the original planned dates - but the exhibition was postponed due to the pandemic)

The exhibition features

over 30 invited contemporary botanical artists from Japan and Europe producing a variety of botanical art in the 21st century
works by old masters and patrons of botanical art from Japan and the western world.

Exploring Botany. Botanical Art in the 21st Century is Poland’s first exhibition showcasing the phenomenon of today’s botanical art, both European and Japanese. We are showing works by modern-day artists in the context of the oeuvres of old masters of botanical illustration, Basilius Besler, Crispijn van de Passe the Younger, Jacob Hoefnagel, Emanuel Sweert, Elizabeth Blackwell, and above all Maria Sibylla Merian. These are complemented by Hiroshige’s and Watanabe Seitei’s ‘pictures of flowers and birds’, which engage in surprising visual and narrative dialogue with the European works.
Exploring Botany

The artwork in the poster for the exhibition is by Robert McNeill

The artists whose work has been selected for the exhibition are listed below
I made this into a bit of a test for myself to see if I could separate artists into Past Masters and Contemporary Artists - which was easy. Then I listed them by country without checking online and on this website - and I got most of them right (i.e. all the ones I knew!)

Links in their names below are to their websites or pages on this website. Those with an asterisk are featured on one of the Contemporary Artists pages on this website.

Past Masters & Patrons

GERMANY

Jacob Hoefnagel (1573-1632) - a Flemish painter, printmaker, miniaturist, draftsman, art dealer, diplomat, merchant and politician. Became a court painter to Rudolf II and to the Swedish court. Noted for his illustrations of natural history subjects
Basilius Besler (1561-1629) - strictly speaking not a botanical artist but rather an apothecary and a patron of botanical art and the man who created the first florilegium - the "Hortus Eystettensis". You can read more about him and his book on my page dedicated to him - see About Basilius Besler
Johann Theodor de Bry (1561 -1623) - an engraver based in Frankfurt (and not somebody I associate with botanical illustration- so I'm curious as to the reason for his inclusion)
Dr. Christoph Trew (1695-1769) - a wealthy German physician and botanist lived and practised medicine in Nuremberg and became the lifelong patron and friend of Georg Dionysius Ehret from whom he commissioned drawings and paintings. Author of Plantae Selectae and other publications. He also produced a second and larger edition of Elizabeth Blackwell's A Curious Herbal (see below)

JAPAN

Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) - a Japanese artist, ukiyo-e painter and printmaker of the Edo period. (See images of his large flowers and small flowers and sparrows)
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858) - a Japanese ukiyo-e artist, considered the last great master of that tradition. See also my blog post about The Art of Hiroshige
Utamaro Kitagawa (1754-1806) - a Japanese ukiyo-e artist. Although best known for his illustrations of people, he also produced kachō-e "flower-and-bird pictures"

NETHERLANDS

Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717) - a Swiss Naturalist, an Entomologist and a Botanical Illustrator who worked mostly in the Netherlands and Ditch territories eg Surinam. She is rated as being one of the greatest ever botanical artists. See About Maria Sibylla Merian on this website.
- The Manggha Museum is also hosting an exhibition of the work of Maria Sibylla Merian until 3rd May 2021 - so two great reasons to visit - if you can!
Cryspijn van de Passe the Elder (1564-1637) and Crispin Van de Passe (the Younger) (1597-1670). The latter produced most of the engravings for Hortus Floridus (1614), which was apparently the first illustrated book to apply the microscopy of magnifying lenses to botanical illustration.
Emanuel Sweert (1552-1612) - a Dutch painter and nurseryman

UNITED KINGDOM

Elisabeth Blackwell (1707-1758) - author and illustrator of A Curious Herbal - after working with plants from the Chelsea Physic Garden. About Elizabeth Blackwell on this website relates her life and the development of her Herbal.

Contemporary Artists

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ABBA: Beginner's Botany for Botanical Art

17/6/2020

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The Association of British Artists is developing a resource about Beginner's Botany for Botanical Art. This post highlights what is available.

It's part of a new series of articles and videos associated with promoting learning amongst those new to botanical art.

A still frame from the ABBA video "Three B's Episode 2 - Complex Flowers"

Elaine Allison, the new President, has produced two excellent videos which started off as a live streaming event - plus two blog posts. The focus of both is on The three B's.... Beginner - Botany-Botanical Art

You can find the videos on the BRAND NEW ABBA Channel called - ABBA for All. It's worth subscribing to this with your Google account if you want to follow what they produce.

I think it's an excellent idea. In my opinion, it's also something that more botanical art societies should do - although in order to emulate what ABBA is doing it does take

knowledge of both botany and botanical art
plus experience and expertise in both teaching and presenting on video.

Let's hope that there are some more botanical art societies out there prepared to develop similar resources.

Episode 1: Simple Flowers

There is something more important than knowing what parts of the plant are called and that is what does it really look like. This requires detailed anatomical observation. Where possible, it is really useful to see the plant growing in the wild. Get to know the habitat, location with respect to other plants and if it is the same species, how the form can change depending on where it grows.

The FIRST module focuses on simple flowers and provides a short introduction to basic descriptive botany

this is the blog post
this is the video - The 3 B's Episode 1- Simple Flowers (24 minutes) - which you also watch below. However you'll enjoy the big screen version on YouTube more.

Using a common native plant, the Geranium, the module considers

The botanical knowledge needed to produce an accurate botanical illustration
What you need to know about your plant specimen before you start drawing
Equipment that might be useful when studying the morphology of your plant
Examination of a single plant in terms of:
- scientific name
- environment in which it is found
- the genus of Geranium
- a diagram of the important parts of the plant
- an exploded diagram of the Inflorescence - with an analysis of what is shown

Episode 2: Complex Flowers

Understanding how the flower is put together is the first step in producing a great piece of artwork that is botanically accurate.

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The 20 Most Popular Pages about Botanical Art

31/12/2019

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Today I'm sharing the 20 most popular pages on Botanical Art and Artists (excluding specific artists) over 2018-19.

See if you can predict what will be popular.
Do tell me if you're surprised by any of the rankings. I know I was! It's made me rethink some future plans - and also identified pages I need to work on some more.

One of the ways I try to improve Botanical Art and Artists is by paying attention to what interests visitors to the site. That's why I regularly look at the website statistics. Periodically I pull a pdf file of Google Analytics and take a look at which pages which get the most traffic and which pages which get the lowest and the highest bounce rates.

I've decided to limit the timeframe for the count to 2018 and 2019 as I've introduced quite a few new pages since it started, over 4.5 years ago, in April 2015. However sorting out the ranked order based on my Google Analytics data was not at all easy and I ended up using an Excel spreadsheet and sorting on two data sets!

BELOW:

Check to see if there are any popular pages you've missed on a website which now has well over 1,000 web pages and blog posts.
Visit the pages - links are embedded in the titles of the top 20 web pages ranked below in order of popularity

1. Past Masters of Botanical Art & Illustration (1500-1900)
This one is way out in front and has been ever since I created the site. It gets more hits than the home page! This particular page is really interesting as it highlights and summarises some of the famous botanical artists and illustrators and Past Masters - between 1500 and 1900 - from the UK, France, Netherlands / Flemish, Germany & Austria, Italy, Australasia, Africa - specifically South Africa, North and Central America and South America. Plus and other notable artists working within botanical art and illustration. (Note Famous Asian Botanical Artists (600 - 1500) from China, India and Japan are on a separate page - and I probably need to create a seperate page for Europe too)

2. NEWS about Botanical Art and for Botanical Artists
My News Blog started after the main site was created but has become very popular ever since. The number of subscribers also continues to climb

3. Tips and Techniques
Extremely popular right from the beginning. A good tip for any botanical artist wanting to create traffic to their website is to provides tips and techniques - for free - on your website or blog or social media site. People love them. Next best tip is alert me to your tip and if it's good enough then I'll add it into this resource page and you'll get even more traffic!

4. Best Botanical Art Instruction Books
A very popular page because I only list the books I rate and I also provide lots of reviews - and some of them are in-depth. This is a VERY long page with LOTS links to sub-pages which review books by specific people

5. What is Botanical Art?
The perennial question - hence the ranking. I try to provide an answer by quoting others on this topic. I add to it when I find a great new comment or insight.

6. Scientific Botanical Illustration
How to draw plants to scientific standards. This page includes basic instruction on what to do and what not to do when illustrating plants to scientific standards; drawing aids which promote accuracy in measurement and rendering in scientific illustration links to practical tips and techniques for botanical illustration from leading scientific botanical illustrators and organisations providing support for scientific illustration. Plus articles about the history of scientific botanical illustration and the development of contemporary Flora.

7. Botanical Artists and Illustrators UK
This page highlights artists and illustrators creating contemporary botanical art and illustration of distinction who are based on or born in the UK - England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. This page which has way more artists than any other continent or country in terms of people who qualify for the listing.

8. Plant Names and Botanical Latin
When recording a plant name wrong can affect the colour of medal you receive at an RHS Botanical Art Show it's worth making an effort to understand how plant names are constructed and how to write them. (There's a few artists who wish growers made the same effort!). Plus it's a topic which does not get a lot of coverage online!

9. How to draw and paint leaves and trees
I've been saying for a long time, botanical art is not just about painting flowers! The second thing I've remarked on more than a few times is there is a major market for the author who writes the definitive book on how to paint plants and trees. I get asked by publishers for names of artists I'd recommend for specific topics. If you're interested contact me.

This page is the "top tips" page dedicated to tips and techniques for how to draw and paint botanically correct trees and leaves. Drawing and watercolour painting instruction includes step by step demonstrations, videos and books. I'm currently working my way through an analysis of every instruction book in terms of how good it is in providing instruction for leaves and/or trees.

10. Contemporary Botanical Artists and Illustrators
This is the gateway to all the pages about the contemporary botanical artists and illustrators listed on this website who draw, paint and print plants and flowers AND have been recognised for their excellence and mastery of their individual approach to botanical art and illustration [Note Continent / country listings are not definitive. They're being updated all the time]

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How RHS medals for Botanical Art are assessed

23/7/2019

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For those coming to the RHS London Botanical Art Show this week - and those watching social media and reading online - you may be interested in how a botanical art exhibit at an RHS Botanical Art Show is assessed for

whether it should receive a medal and
what sort of medal it should get.

Gold Medals are only given for exhibits of outstanding quality, whatever their diversity of approach, or visual impact
Gillian Barlow, Chair of the RHS Picture Panel (in RHS Botanical Illustration - the Gold Medal Winners)

Candidates who have been approved to exhibit must submit at least six works - preferably on a theme.

You can earn extra marks if you illustrate a plant family.

ASSESSMENT: KEY POINTS are:

very high standards are essential
the emphasis should be on botanical accuracy with aesthetic appeal

The Picture Panel Judges always:

assess as botanical illustration
review botanical content and accuracy
review artistic and aesthetic effect
assess overall impression and how this has been achieved
assess the whole exhibit; marks are awarded for presentation of the exhibit as well as accuracy and quality of the artwork

The best botanical illustration successfully combines scientific accuracy with visual appeal. It must portray a plant with the precision and level of detail for it to be recognised and distinguished from another species.

Two of the botanical illustrations by Hye Woo Shin (RHS Botanical Art Show 2018) - which resulted in a Judges’ Special Award 2018 for ‘ Plants in Dokdo Island’

As a technical discipline, botanical illustration emphasizes the depiction of accurate information, documenting the anatomical and functional aspect of a plant throughout its life cycle.

Judges want to see.....

My suggestions of things you need to do to deliver on what judges are looking for are indicated in bullet points below.

This summary is based on discussions over time with both Judges and artists who have had feedback from Judges - and highlights some of the frequent problem areas which I hear about again and again. (I'll be updating and amending after this week's show!)

All quotes in green (except for the first above) are drawn from the Exhibitor Fact Sheet

Artwork should be life size and if not, a scale must be evident.

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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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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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