NEWS about Botanical Art and for Botanical Artists

BISCOT 2019 & RBGE Florilegium at Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh

13/6/2019

In this post I'm sharing photos of:

BISCOT medal winning artists with their paintings - at the BISCOT Exhibition at Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh (RBGE)
paintings for the NEW RBGE Florilegium

You can see the exhibition of paintings

AT: The John Hope Gateway, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Arboretum Place, EH3 5NZ
UNTIL: 20 June 2019

About Botanical Images Scotia (BISCOT)

BISCOT is an acronym for "Botanical Images Scotia". It's an annual international exhibition in Scotland of contemporary botanical illustration which

promotes excellence in botanical painting and illustration.
gives both national and international artists an opportunity to exhibit in Edinburgh and presents new and original botanical work.

Each exhibitor creates a display of SIX artworks - and the exhibition is open to and attracts international entrants. In this respect BISCOT is the Scottish equivalent of the RHS Botanical Art Show in London - and is regarded as the top show in Scotland in terms of awards and prestige.

Below are photos of artists with their paintings after the exhibition transferred from Gardening Scotland to the RBGE John Hope Gateway last week.

Gold Medals

Fran Thomas (Scotland, UK) - Scottish Native Cladonia Lichens
Sansanee Deekrajang (Thailand) - Tropical Palm Trees
Marianne Hazlewood (Scotland, UK) - Arisaema biseasonal
Simonetta Occhipinti (Italy) - The Golden Fruits

Fran Thomas (Scotland, UK) - Scottish Native Cladonia Lichens (GOLD Medal)

Fran Thomas GM (Biscot) - Fran paints native Scottish plants. In 2017 she also won a Gold Medal at BISCOT 2017 and the Mary Mendum Medal for the Best Exhibit - for her watercolour paintings of "Native plants of the coasts and islands of the Firth of Forth". She also has two RHS Silver Gilt Medals.

0 Comments

Remembering Mally Francis FLS FEPFS FCPGFS

22/4/2019

1 Comment

Mally Francis FLS FEPFS FCPGFS, the Cornish based botanical artist, illustrator and tutor and Founder Chairman of the Eden Project Florilegium Society, died on Saturday 13th April 2019 after a short illness.

This post remembers Mally and her achievements. It contains

a timeline of her life in botanical art
a video of Mally talking about botanical painting and
references to her artwork, articles about her and a book she illustrated.

I last saw Mally at the Royal Horticultural Society Botanical Art Show last summer. She was there supporting both Laura Silburn who was taught botanical painting by Mally and the Association of British Botanical Artists' stand. Her fabulous painting of 'Babington's Leek' was displayed on the stand and attracted the attention of Shirley Sherwood who bought it - hence the red spot!

Indeed I first heard about Mally Francis at the 2013 RHS Botanical Art Show when I met Laura Silburn for the first time and interviewed her for my Gold Medal Winner Interviews. She told me what an inspiration Mally was to her and what an excellent teacher she was.

Mally Francis with her painting of Babington’s Leek (Allium ampeloprasum var.babingtonii) at the RHS Botanical Art Show 2018 (12th July 2018)

Mally Francis with her painting of Babington’s Leek (Allium ampeloprasum var.babingtonii) at the RHS Botanical Art Show 2018 (12 July 2018)

Mally Francis - a Timeline in Botanical Art

1946 - born in Yorkshire

1967 - qualified as a speech and language therapist in Edinburgh

1988 - started to learn about botanical art; studied with Anne-Marie Evans in Leicestershire - and followed her principals for all her artwork and teaching

She was a particularly lovely person and always very kind. I have known her for well over 30 years. She started botanical painting with me at the Leicester college and became a member of the LSBI. She also attended many of my Summer Schools at Market Overton. She then moved to Cornwall and started teaching but we kept in contact and I have always heard particularly flattering comments about her teaching. I am sure that all who had the privilege of knowing her will miss her
Anne-Marie Evans

1996 - moved from Leicester to Cornwall

2000 - started her botanical painting classes at her Sawpit Studio

2001 - Founded the Eden Project Florilegium Society

2012 - Made a Fellow of the Linnean Society for her contribution to botanical art.

Below is the story of what happened during those years....

Mally and her husband Charles, a photographer, moved to the Heligan Estate and embarked on their joint creative endeavour. Here they

renovated the Wagon House - eventually creating accommodation for their students
rebuilt the derelict sawpit, creating the Sawpit Studio for botanical painting and as a photographic studio.

The Studio was originally built about 250 years ago as the Sawpit for the Heligan estate when logs were dragged in by a horse and then cut into planks and beams by two men using a pit saw. One above, standing on the log (the top-dog) and the other below in the pit, covered in sweat and sawdust, (the under-dog).
When we bought The Wagon House in 1997 the Sawpit had become a ruin with only two cob walls standing and the brick piers opposite to support the roof.
In 1999 we commenced the restoration and it came into full use as our studio early in 2000. The Sawpit, thirty feet long and six feet deep still remains beneath the floor as a little piece of Heligan history.
Nowadays, the Sawpit is in full time use again, either for the Botanical Painting classes or as a Photographic Studio. A collection of old saws are attached to the roof beams.

TEACHING: Mally ran her botanical painting courses in the Sawpit Studios from 2000 - until just recently. She also taught botanical art classes at the Eden Project, the Bath Society, the South West Society, Stourhead, Ventnor on the Isle of Wight, Truro Arts, Boconnoc House and Trengwainton Gardens in Cornwall.

She tutored artists ranging from complete beginners through to advanced levels - with two artists awarded Gold Medals in recent years by the RHS. She was the sole tutor of Laura Silburn who has now won three RHS gold medals and who credits Mally Francis with her involvement in botanical art.

My teaching philosophy is to encourage all students to develop their own skills to the highest level possible. There is never any competition in my classes and everyone can work at their own pace. The courses are always enjoyable and old friends meet each other year after year as they return to continue their studies. Everyone has their own aspirations and it gives me great pleasure to help them to achieve their own goals.
Mally Francis (in Mally Francis Paints the Lost Gardens of Heligan
February 1, 2011 by Tania Marien)

a still from the video about her botanical painting classes at the Wagon House

GARDENS AND PLANTS: Their life was intertwined with two major garden projects in Cornwall largely created by Sir Tim Smit KBE

The Lost Gardens of Heligan - they lived on the Estate
The Eden Project - a 20 minute drive away

The connections were intrinsic to communicating the structures and plants in both locations.

Tim Smit asked Mally to illustrate Heligan Wild: A Year of Nature in the Lost Gardens (1999) a book about the Lost Gardens of Heligan. She also illustrated Heligan Days - A Perpetual Diary (2005)
Charles was the official photographer of the Eden Project (1997-1984) - while it was being built

EDEN PROJECT FLORILEGIUM SOCIETY: Mally founded the Eden Project Florilegium Society (EPFS) in 2000 and became its first Chairman of in 2001 - and held that position until 2012 when she retired and was made the Honorary Founder Chairman of EPFS.

She provided tuition and inspiration to two-thirds of the artists whose work features in the Eden Project Florilegium. She also organised many exhibitions of artwork by her students and members of the EPFS.

The Florilegium was the inspiration of Mally Francis FCPGFS, FEPFS who founded the Society in 2000, and was its Chairman from 2001 to 2012. Mally stepped down in January 2012, and was made Honorary Founder Chairman of the Society, and a Fellow of The Linnean Society in recognition of her contributions to world of Botanical Illustration and Botany.
Eden Project Florilegium Society

RECOGNITION: In 2012, on her retirement from being Chairman of the Eden Project Florilegium Society she was made an Honorary Founder Member of the EPFS and a Fellow of the Linnean Society for her contribution to botanical art. She was also a member of the Chelsea Physic Garden Florilegium Society.

More recently, her painting of Babington’s Leek (Allium ampeloprasum var. babingtonii) was a feature image for "In Ruskin's Footsteps" at the Peter Scott Gallery at Lancaster University in May 2018 - the UK contribution to the Worldwide Exhibition of Botanical Art organised by the Association of British Botanical Artists. Below are links to articles discussing the development of the artwork.

It was also displayed at the RHS Botanical Art Show (see my photo at the top of this post) and was bought by Shirley Sherwood for her collection.

Below is a video Mally Francis talking about the difference between flower painting and botanical painting - and why everybody can have a go at creating botanical art.

Mally Francis died on Saturday 13th April and leaves a husband Charles, two daughters and four grandsons.

She also leaves a legacy in terms of the interest and competence in botanical art she stimulated in very many of her students - in Cornwall and around the world - and her paintings in her studio, private collections and the archives of two Florilegia Societies.

Please feel free to add your own comment about and/or memories of Mally Francis via comments below.

FUNERAL DETAILS
Her funeral will be at 14:00 on Friday 3 May, at All Saints church, St Ewe, Cornwall. (Google Map)

REFERENCES

Obituary

Mally Francis FLS, FCPGFS 1946 - 2019 | ABBA

Titles, Memberships and Roles

Fellow of the Linnean Society.
Honorary Founder Chairman of the Eden Project Florilegium Society (2001-2012)
Fellow of the Chelsea Physic Garden Florilegium Society.
Eden Project Botanical Art tutor

Mall Francis Online

Website: https://mallyfrancis.com/
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/mally.botanicalartist/
Twitter https://twitter.com/mally_francis
Eden Project Florilegium Society - About Us

Paintings for the Eden Project Florilegium Society

Paintings by Mally Francis

Articles / Blog posts

How to illustrate a six-foot-tall-plant – a master class! | Eden Project Florilegium Society
Babington’s Leek – Mally Francis ABBA Blog
Mally Francis is "Remembering Heligan" BAA Blog
Mally Francis Paints the Lost Gardens of Heligan by Tania Merian | Art Plantae

Books

Heligan Wild: A Year of Nature in the Lost Gardens (1999) - by Colin Howlett (Author), Mally Francis (Illustrator), Angus Hudson (Illustrator), Tim Smit (Introduction)
Heligan Days - A Perpetual Diary (2005) - illustrated by Mally Francis

Subscribe to this news blog to find out more
about botanical art and illustration and associated exhibitions
Blog posts are emailed to you when you
Subscribe to Botanical Art & Artists - News by Email

1 Comment

A Florilegium for the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) - Call for Entries

25/2/2019

0 Comments

We've seen a number of great gardens and botanic gardens develop arrangements to create a Florilegium since the 90s.

The latest proposal comes from the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh (RBGE) which aims to establish a Florilegium Society - see RBGE Florilegium

Proposal for an RBGE Florilegium Society

The aim of the Society would be to create a permanent, visual record of RBGE’s botanical and horticultural work through the acquisition of illustrations of the plants that are grown, collected, studied and named by RBGE staff. The Society would also raise RBGE’s profile as an important centre of botanical art in relation to both our educational work and our art collection.

A number of statements have been made. My summary of the various aims of the proposal to create a Florilegium - which are still under discussion are - are:

to enhance and grow the collection of botanical art at RBGE - which is a statutory requirement
to produce a visual record of the living collection of plants at RBGE gardens - particularly those plants grown, collected, studied and named by RBGE staff
to reflect scientific and horticultural interests associated within RBGE
to raise the profile of RBGE as an important centre for botanical art
to make good use of its botanical art collection for both education and merchandising (income generation)

A debut at BISCOT

Artists worldwide are invited to submit work to be considered for a RBGE Florilegium category which will be displayed alongside the regular BISCOT exhibition at the John Hope Gateway venue.

The proposal to establish a Florilegium Society will publicly debut at the BISCOT Exhibition.

A separate RBGE Florilegium category will be included in the BISCOT Exhibition and the artwork selected from this Call for Entries (see below) which will sit alongside the regular multi-work, award giving BISCOT exhibition.

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.

Call for Entries:
How to submit art and associated documentation

The core documents are as follows:

Select a plant and access plant material

See the RBGE Florilegium Plant List for plants identified for inclusion in the Florilegium
Once you have selected a plant to illustrate you next need to contact the Artist Coordinator to express your intentions to paint a plant (see Call for Entries)
You also need to access plant material and a botanist. The Call for Entries identifies how you can access material via RBGE. If working away from Scotland you need to contact a local botanist/botanic garden for access to plant material. It's sometimes best to start with what's accessible and select from that rather than the other way around
RBGE will make regular updated information on which plants are available (e.g. plants in flower) on the RBGE Florilegium Page

Requirement for paintings - SIZE
It's not uncommon for Florilegium to have stipulated sizes for paintings. In this instance ALL paintings must conform to one of 3 window sizes, with appropriate margin, or you may wish to take your painting to the edge:

A4 (21 x 29.7cm);
A3 (29.7 x 42cm);
A2 (42 x 59.4 cm).
Paper must be at least 2 cm larger than window size all round.

Requirement for artwork - MEDIA

Only original botanical art in 2-dimensions is acceptable.
No photography, digital or 3-dimensional art.

0 Comments

Jessica Tcherepnine (1938-2018)

7/1/2019

0 Comments

Jessica Tcherepnine GM was generally regarded as an outstanding botanical artist. She passed away, age 80, after a long illness on New Year's Eve.

'Her work is intense as well as being decorative and scientifically accurate"
James White - Past Curator of the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation

Jessica Tcherepnine - at the Artists Reception for the 25th Anniversary Exhibition for the Shirley Sherwood Collection

Jessica Elizabeth Tcherepnine was English by birth but lived in the USA for 55 years.

She was born on 4th May 1938 in Sussex and was the daughter of William Barclay Harris and Elizabeth Milnes Coates. However she had lived and worked in New York for the last 50+ years. She met Peter Tcherepnine in New York and married him in 1973. They lived in their Manhattan apartment and their farm near Millbrook, NY, where she had her garden.

In terms of career, she started work at Christie's in London in the Furniture Department. She then moved to Christies in New York and worked with John Richardson. Latterly she worked mainly for its Oriental Department.

In 1982, she left Christies to start painting. In fact, she started painting flowers at her home in Sussex at a very young age. She was essentially self-taught, although her art education did include four months studying drawing in Florence under Signora Simi (1890-1987).

Her garden provided her with specimens for some of her watercolour paintings. Other paintings of exotic tropical plants were developed as a result of multiple visits to the island of Nevis in the West Indies.

Her artistic practice

Fortunately due to a couple of articles we have the artist's voice to speak as to her practice and approach to botanical art.

0 Comments

The joy of a botanical art bibliography

3/1/2019

3 Comments

Great Flower Books 1700-1900

My final Christmas present turned up today - Great Flower Books 1700-1900 came complete with its customs declaration as it came from the USA.

It's a comprehensive Bibliographical Record of two Centuries of finely-illustrated Flower Books by Sacheverell Sitwell & Wilfrid Blunt. It's the sort of book which will keep me occupied with more research of botanical art for YEARS! I'm guessing it's only other serious researchers who will appreciate why it gives me so much pleasure!

'Great Flowers Books 1700-1900' A Bibliographical Record of Two Centuries of Finely-Illustrated Flower Books by Sacheverell Sitwell and Wilfrid Blunt

I didn't know until just recently that there are two versions of the book.

The first edition was published by Collins in London in 1956.

The trade edition was composed of 1750 unnumbered copies printed on Gelderland white cartridge paper and bound by Mansells of London;
it was published simultaneously with a numbered limited edition of 295 specially-bound copies printed on Amstel paper.

The second edition was published by Atlantic Monthly Press in New York in 1990.
The bonus of the second one is that they very much improved the quality of the images included in the publication. However almost all copies are located in the USA - hence the need to import.

'Great Flower Books' is very much a collaborative endeavour with essays by

Handasyde Buchanan - a noted London book collector / bookseller, who wrote Nature into Art: Treasury of Great Natural History Books
Sacheverell Sitwell - an English writer and art critic who wrote Fine Bird Books 1700-1900 with Handasyde Buchanan before this book
Wilfrid Blunt - who wrote The Art of Botanical Illustration - which was published in 1950, just prior to this book - for which he was awarded the Veitch Memorial Medal by the Royal Horticultural Society

It occurred to me that he must have consulted a fair few - of not very many - of the books listed in this volume in order to write that book.

Front and back covers of the book

The Title Page - with authors and credits

The Title and Contents pages identify who did what in this collaborative endeavour with

essays by Buchanan, Sitwell and Blunt
a Bibliography compiled by William Stearn, Sabine Wilson (who she?) and Handasyde Buchanan
which was then edited by Patrick M Synge - who was a plant hunter, an Editor of the Horticultural Journal and who was awarded the Victoria Medal of the Royal Horticultural Society

So all in all, a top notch set of contributors to this book! That doesn't too often these days!

I'll be consulting and reading it with some reverence for those who put the book together.

The Contents Page

I have in fact got to the point with book-buying now where almost everything I buy is second hand -

In fact, the first thing I do when I get a 'new' book is to go straight to its bibliography to see what books it lists as resources - so as to see if I can find any new ones I've not read!

So the notion of buying a book, the bulk of which is essentially a bibliography does not strike me as too strange!

I've come across all sorts of small joys by studying the bibliographies in books and academic journals

3 Comments

"The Florilegium: The Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney" exhibition at Kew Gardens

9/7/2018

The exhibition The Florilegium: The Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney opened at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery at Kew Gardens on 31 March and continues until 16th September 2018.

This is the second exhibition of this very impressive collection of watercolour paintings by members of The Florilegium: The Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney.
Click here for the list of Florilegium paintings and artists

It's a companion exhibition to Down Under II: Works from the Shirley Sherwood Collection which is a smaller exhibition of drawings and paintings of native Australian and New Zealand plants created by local and international artists - also on until 16th September - and also recommended by me.

Both are related to the reopening of The Temperate House in Kew Gardens - and a number of the paintings have an icon to indicate that the plants can be found in the Temperate House.

All the images in this post are of The Florilegium: The Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney exhibition - and contributing artists.

This week, there's an opportunity on Saturday 14 July, 10.30am-12.30pm to meet/greet Angela Lober, whose work is in the Shirley Sherwood Collection and on display as part of The Florilegium: Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney. (Angela is also exhibiting at the RHS Botanical Art Show this week)

Her very impressive Video: Painting a Norfolk Island Pine for the RBG Sydney Florilegium (made for the original exhibition) is also playing in the Gallery as part of the exhibition.

Angela Lober (Araucaria heterophylla) and the video

This post covers:

the exhibition
videos related to the exhibition
the artists
related news posts

The Exhibition

This is a first class exhibition and one very definitely one not to be missed.
It sets a very high international standard for a large exhibition of a Florilegium.

Below are some views of the exhibition and how it was hung - for those Florilegium artists unable to travel to London for the exhibition - and for those of you who have not visited!

I hope they indicate the quality of the exhibition and why it should be viewed as essential viewing for those who are able.

Volume 1 of the Transylvania Florilegium published

3/7/2018

2 Comments

Volume I of the Transylvania Florilegium is published today by Addison Publications in association with The Prince of Wales’s Charitable Foundation and The Romanian Cultural Institute. Volume II will be published in May 2019.

The Florilegium is published to coincide with Romania’s centennial anniversary.

Volume I of the Transylvania Florilegium - displaying Dactylorhiza sambucina by Beverley Allen. Published by Addison Publications Ltd © A.G.Carrick 2018

The Transylvania Florilegium is a celebration of the indigenous wild flowers growing around Viscri in The Saxon Villages and the more remote Zalanpata as well as being a valuable record of the rare flora of Transylvania. This area of Romania is famous for the richness and diversity of its plant life but is also under threat from changes in farming practice that could see the landscape changed forever.

The two‐volume edition contains paintings of 124 plants from a list compiled by the botanist Dr John Akeroyd FLS, an authority on European plants who has been working on Transylvanian flora for over fifteen years.

Helleborus purpurascens by Gillian Barlow. Published by Addison Publications Ltd © A.G.Carrick 2018

The project to paint the flowers was headed up by Helen Allen FLS, artist and Principal of The Chelsea School of Botanical Art based at The Chelsea Physic Garden. It took seven years to complete.

thirty‐six of the finest contemporary artists from all over the world participated in the project
groups of eight artists visited the region for a two‐week period each year for five years

Rather surprisingly (from a marketing perspective) there are absolutely no details of the artists participating in the Florilegium on the Addison Publications website!

However, you can find the names of the botanical artists, where they come from and brief details about them (and a link to their personal websites) in my blog post about the exhibition - see Transylvania Florilegium at the Romanian Cultural Institute. It would be really nice to see the Addison Publications's website recognise the efforts of ALL those who contributed to this publication (as indeed it used to do for the Highgrove publication - until recently). If the Prince of Wales can take time to meet and thank each artist individually (at a recent event to celebrate its publication) then it seems to me entirely appropriate and proper for the website to acknowledge their role if for no other reason than it validates an artist's claim to have participated in the project. After all, we're no longer in the age of the wholly anonymous "Company Artists" of India who worked for patrons in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

In addition to the prints of the watercolours there are

introductions to The Transylvania Florilegium by Christopher Mills, formerly Librarian at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Dr John Akeroyd FLS.
Dr Akeroyd has also written an informative text for each plant including scientific botanical details as well as recording where and when the illustrated material was found.

The pre-publication price of the Volumes is £10,950, full price £12,950 for the two volumes. Royalties from the sale of the florilegium will be donated to The Prince of Wales's Charitable Foundation which was set up by His Royal Highness in 1979 and now features The Prince of Wales's Foundation Romania among its subsidiaries.

An exhibition of the original watercolour paintings and a display of some of the featured plants was held at the Romanian Cultural Institute in Belgrave Square from 21st May until 12th June 2018. (See above blog post re. botanical artists)

2 Comments

<<Previous