NEWS about Botanical Art and for Botanical Artists

Who's exhibiting at RHS Botanical Art (London) 2017?

10/2/2017

I've now got all the names of those exhibiting at the RHS Botanical Art Show which will be held in the Lindley Hall in London later this month.

TODAY - I'm going to highlight the Trade Stands - which have introduced a few new names for me. Those teaching botanical art might like to note the numbers that relate to education and learning about botanical art.

TOMORROW - I'll be detailing the names of all the artists from all over the world who have been selected to exhibit at this years RHS Botanical Art Show in London. Some of them will be winning medals later this month!

There's details at the end of this post of dates, times and how to get there.

A view of just some of the trade stands on Friday in 2016. It gets very busy!

Botanical Art Societies

Both botanical art societies will be detailing what they have to offer for their membership fee and their different approaches to membership arrangements.

NEW American Society of Botanical Art (ASBA) - this is the first time ASBA have attended the show. It boasts a number of members who live outside the USA and is always looking to increase its membership. Founded in 1994, it's now the largest botanical art organisation in the world.
NEW Association of British Botanical Artists (ABBA) - a new organisation set up to run the UK contribution to the Worldwide Exhibition of Botanical Art in 2018
The Society of Botanical Artists (SBA) - Founded in 1985, this is (I think!) the oldest botanical art society and the largest botanical art organisation in the UK

Sandra Armitage, President of the Society of Botanical Artists and Simon Williams, Director of the Diploma Course on the SBA stand - Exhibiting at the RHS Botanical Art Show last year

Botanical Organisation

NEW South London Botanical Institute - Founded in 1910 in Tulse Hill, the South London Botanical Institute has a beautiful botanical garden and herbarium and runs a wide range of courses, workshops, school visits and events for all ages.

Education - tuition, diplomas and certificates

Those exhibiting with trade stands are split between individual tutors and organisations which offer taught Diplomas in Botanical Art.

Julia Trickey on her stand - with demonstrations of her videos and helpful instructional leaflets

Tutors
The following are three Gold Medal winning botanical artists who are also botanical art tutors who have been teaching for many years. You can expect demonstrations and answers to questions you may have.

Ann Swan GM - teaches botanical art using coloured pencils
Julia Trickey GM - teaches botanical art in watercolour.
Susan Christopher-Coulson Botanical Artist GM - teaches botanical art using coloured pencils. Susan is also a Vice President of the Society of Botanical Artists.

Susan Christopher Coulson demonstrating to visitors how she develops her botanical art. Plus all the botanical art pencils she uses!

Organisations
The following all offer a Diploma Courses in Botanical Art and will be able to show you what's involved and what they have to offer - plus (probably) artwork by students

The RGBE Stand with details of their Diploma Course options and Jacqui Pestell MBE - Exhibiting at the RHS Botanical Art Show last year

Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh - offers the option of either a two year course taught at RGBE (for EU citizens entitled to reside in the UK) or a three year distance learning which employs computers i.e. the use of RBGE’s virtual learning environment and Skype. The Director of Botanical Art is Jacqui Pestell who has just been awarded an MBE for services to botanical art education in Scotland. (See Jacqui Pestell-Canavan MBE)
The Chelsea School of Botanical Art - offers a class taught diploma course based at the Chelsea Physic Garden. The classes are taught via staff and a variety of guest lecturers.
The Society of Botanical Artists - offers a distance learning diploma course via post to students living all over the world. The course is taught by practising botanical artists who are also members of the SBA. The Director of the Course is usually there both days.

For more about opportunities to learn more about botanical art see my Education section about tuition, courses, classes and workshops across the world

Elaine Searle, Helen Allen and Mary Ellen Taylor of the Chelsea School of Botanical Art - Exhibiting at the RHS Botanical Art Show (February 2016)

Various Arts and Crafts

Hannah McVicar - is a printmaker and illustrator who specialises in botanical screenprints. She also teaches courses in how to screenprint and will be demonstrating screenprinting live.

Rachel Dein - Rachel practices nature printing in concrete. She creates plaster cast tiles that record all the texture, pattern, and delicacy of plants and flowers

Save Me I'm Wild - this is about a concern for the loss of wild plant habitats. They produce Fine Art Prints and handmade cards

The Pressed Flower Guild - The Guild aims to raise the general standard of pressing flowers by enabling members to meet and share expertise and experiences.

Yateley Papers Ltd - will be offering block-printing taster sessions. Starting at 11am, classes are limited to 4 per session and on a first come first serve basis.

Another view of the very busy trade stand area on the Friday last year

Maybe I'll see you there?

Details are:
Location: RHS Lindley Hall, London SW1P 2QW (see map below)

Friday 23rd February 10-5pm - admission free
Saturday 24th February 10-5pm - admission free

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Botanical art tips and techniques video by Julia Trickey

11/8/2016

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Botanical artist and tutor Julia Trickey GM SBA has produced a 5 minute video which has lots of tips and techniques.

It's based on a recent commission to produce small artworks for a display board showing which plants can be found in a rockery.

More Video Tips about Botanical Art

You can find more videos relevant to botanical artists (including ones by Julia) on my website page about Video Tips for botanical art. This has additional pages about:

You can see more videos by Julia on her YouTube Channel - Julia Trickey: short adventures in botanicalart

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A Meeting with Fabriano about Hot Press Paper

15/7/2016

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Left to right: Billy Showell SBA, Sandra Armitage President of the SBA, Gael Sellwood VPSBA, Dianne Sutherland SBA, ASBA and Elaine Searle ASBA blind testing watercolour papers at R.K. Burt & Co.

On Tuesday, a number of botanical artists using watercolour and coloured pencil met with the Marketing Director and Marketing Manager of Fabriano Paper at R.K Burt & Company - the paper importer who imports Fabriano paper into the UK.

The purpose of the meeting was to:

enable Fabriano to understand better why so many artists have been experiencing issue with recent production of their hot press papers (Artistico and Classico 5) produced by Fabriano.
promote a better understanding by artists of how paper is made - and how often - and the factors in normal production runs which can cause output to vary
compare the characteristics of other papers with those of Fabriano to enable the Fabriano mill to determine whether defined desirable characteristics are achievable. This was achieved via blind testing of a number of papers using simple tests involving a range of various commonly used techniques for applying, spreading and lifting media on hot press paper. This highlighted clearly the standards for different dimensions of functionality that a hot press paper must achieve to enable the production of top quality and very precise art.

You can read a detailed write-up of the meeting in UPDATE #2: Fabriano Paper - a meeting and conclusions. There will also two more blog posts about the paper production process and the blind testing process.

Left to right: Polly O'Leary SBA, Sandrine Maugy SBA, Morryce Maddams UKCPS, Ann Swan SBA, UKCPS, Chiara Mediolo - Marketing Director, Fabriano and Giuseppe Prezioso - Head of Marketing for Fabriano

Fabriano came away with a very clear understanding that:

botanical artists are very demanding when it comes to testing watercolour paper.
the quality and performance of the watercolour paper they choose to use is vital to their production of such very high quality paintings!

We also concluded that it might be productive in future to do the blind testing in advance so that this can be more realistic in terms of the ways artists work - in terms of the number of layers of paint that can be applied and lifted and reworked.

The meeting was very positive and productive. However it's not going to produce a solution overnight. Indeed it might take quite some time. Fabriano will use the information from the meeting to start the process of addressing the issues raised by running a test at the end of July. This will use data collected from the meeting.

All parties came away feeling that it was now much more likely that Fabriano can develop improved production parameters and quality testing to ensure future production of their paper continues to be much loved by botanical artists and all other artists wanting precise control over their media of choice.

I'll be providing further updates as and when there is more information on the progress made.

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