NEWS about Botanical Art and for Botanical Artists

Jessica Tcherepnine (1938-2018)

7/1/2019

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.

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The joy of a botanical art bibliography

3/1/2019

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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

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"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

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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)

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Transylvania Florilegium at the Romanian Cultural Institute

26/5/2018

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Last week, I was very pleased to be able to attend the reception for the opening of a display of 40 of the watercolour paintings included in the two volumes of the Transylvania Florilegium

Transylvania Florilegium - Exhibition and Publication Details

Venue: Romanian Cultural Institute (UK), 1 Belgrave Square, London SW1X 8PH (nearest tube is Hyde Park Corner)
Dates: 21st May - 12th June 2018
Publishers: Published for The Prince of Wales’s Charitable Foundation by Addison Publications Ltd London
Artists - see the list below
More details: Addisons Publishers page and the Highgrove website

In addition:

You can see a video of the exhibition and HRH Prince of Wales visiting to meet the artists and the publishers of the Book at the The Romanian Cultural Institute.
The Gaurdian published a lengthy article including images of the wildflower paintings last week - see Prince Charles commissions artworks of Transylvania's wild flora

from the video of the exhibition - showing the room in which the paintings are displayed

The watercolour paintings were started from studies made during visits by the artists to the wild flower meadows in the countryside around HRH The Prince of Wales’s properties at Viscri in the Saxon Villages and the more remote Zalanpatak in Transylvania. Wild flowers throve in the area due to the fact that the farming methods are still traditional.

It's invidious to choose from the paintings as they are all a very high standard. However a number caught my attention. These included

Laura Silburn's painting of Aristolochia is the first in the exhibition and it's very similar in standard to her Gold Medal winning paintings
the autumn crocus sensitively painted by Helen Allen
Heeyoung Kim's painting of an orchid (Neotmea ?) - where she enlarged the flowers so you can clearly see the construction, markings and colours of each flower very clearly
Gillian Barlow's two paintings of Helleborus - a complete story of a plant in one painting and Pulsatilla partensis which John Ackroyd also admired
One of my favourite paintings was Andrew Brown's painting of a Wrinkle-nut which has very dark purple brown flowers. He has included all the hairs on the plant in a beautifully understated way.
Adjacent is Susan Ogilvy's wonderful painting of a clump of grass (Very Albrecht Durer) featuring a plant where I can only read the first half of my note (Helianth......)
I also really liked Martin Allen's Echium maculatum - but this may bebecause I'm very taken with Echiums and could not work out how anybody could paint one - until I saw Martin's painting!
Finally, the last painting in the exhibition is Işık Güner's very crisp painting of Cirsium rivulare

Artists should feel free to contribute the correct plant names! There wasn't a listing on the night and I was scribbling on a very small piece of paper and in general stuck to species names only!

Below is a list of the 36 artists who contributed 40 paintings to the exhibition. Gillian Barlow and Jenny Phillips both have two paintings in the exhibition.

Artists who contributed paintings to the Florilegium

United Kingdom

Helen Allen FLS - Owner/Principal of the Chelsea School of Botanical Art and organiser of the artists invited to contribute to the Florilegium
Martin J Allen GM (1995, 97, 99) - an Emeritus Fellow of the Chelsea Physic Garden Florilegium Society and member of the group that won a Gold Medal when they exhibited at the RHS
Fay Ballard - also contributed to the Highgrove Florilegium
Gillian Barlow GM - Chair of the Royal Horticultural Society's Picture Panel; archivist for the Chelsea Physic Garden Florilegium Society
Christine Battle GM - Member of the Chelsea Physic Garden Florilegium Society.
Dr Andrew Brown GM - Awarded four Gold Medals by the RHS. Freelance botanical illustrator for Kew Gardens; Secretary of the Chelsea Physic Garden Florilegium Society and author of the books associated with exhibitions by the Chelsea Physic Garden Florilegium Society.
Celia Crampton GM (2004, 2010) Member of the Hampton Court Florilegium Society
Angelique de Folin - Also contributed to the Highgrove Florilegium Society
The Hon Gillian Foster - member of the American Society of Botanical Artists and the Botanical Artists' Association of Southern Africa
Sarah Gould - Member of the Leicestershire Society of Botanical Illustrators; Fellow of the Chelsea Physic Garden Florilegium Society (from 2002).
Lucinda Grant - member of The Hampton Court Palace Florilegium Society (2006-2016)
Mayumi Hashi GM - born in Japan but now lives in the UK. Two RHS gold medals plus two Silver-Gilt Medals, two Silver Medals.
Junko Iwata GM - also a contributor to The Prince of Wales's Highgrove Florilegium
Flappy Lane Fox - contributed to the Highgrove Florilegium; member of the Hampton Court Palace Florilegium Society
Chrissie Lightfoot - has exhibited in the Shirley Sherwood Gallery, Ebury and Hortus Galleries, the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation and the Chelsea Arts Society
Jill Mayhew - member of the Chelsea Physic Garden Florilegium Society and has a painting included in the Highgrove Florilegium.
Susan Ogilvy GM - She has been awarded a Gold and Silver-Gilt Medals by the RHS. She designed and illustrated Overleaf, a book on British trees published in 2013 by Kew Publishing.
Elaine Searle - a well known botanical art teacher. Former Course Director, Diploma Course, Chelsea School of Botanical Art and Fellow of the Linnean Society. Has work in included in the Highgrove Florilegium
Laura Silburn GM (2013, 2014) Her Gold Medals were for Varieties of Hardy Geranium that have received the RHS Award of Garden Merit (2013) and Aristolochia species from botanic gardens in England (2014) which also won Best in Show
Lucy T Smith GM - an Australian who at Kew Gardens as a botanical illustrator. Winner of two Gold Medals and the Margaret Flockton Award for Scientific Illustration twice (2014 and 2017). She has also been awarded the Jill Smythies Award for excellence in Scientific Illustration from the Linnean Society of London.
Sally Strawson - Member of the Florilegium Societies in Sheffield and Sydney. Contributed to the Highgrove Florilegium.
Mary Ellen Taylor - Diploma Course Manager at The English Gardening School for 7 years and now at the Chelsea Botanical Art School. Member of the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators. Commissioned to paint the six most endangered birds and their habitat in the Galagagos Islands and the butterflies of the Chelsea Physic Garden
Julia Trickey GM (2006, 2008, 2012, 2013) Fellow of the Chelsea Physic Garden Florilegium Society. She's won four RHS Gold Medals: Leaf Portraits 2006; Leaves, Celebrating Imperfection 2008; ‘Larger than Life - Fading Flowers Observed’ 2012 and 'Nature in Waiting' 2013. She has also had her artwork on Royal Mail stamps.
Amanda Ward - contributed a painting of Allium to the Highgrove Florilegium

Australia
All three artists also contributed paintings to the Highgrove Florilegium.

Beverly Allen GM (RHS 2007, NYBG 2010). Co-Founder and President of the Florilegium Society associated with the Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust in Sydney. Won an RHS Gold in 2007 for eight watercolour paintings of Epiphyllum. Won the inaugural Gold Medal for Botanical Art by the New York Botanic Gardens (2010)
John Pastoriza-Piñol GM (2005) Teaches botanical Art at the Geelong Botanic Gardens (14+ years). Member of BAS, ASBA and RBGS Florilegium Society.
Jenny Phillips GM (1993) - Founder/Director of The Botanical Art School of Melbourne, Australia. Fellow of the Linnean Society. Won the Celia Rosser Award.

Japan

Noriko Hasegawa - member of The Japanese Association of Botanical Illustration and Botanical Art of Australia

Netherlands

Anita Walsmit Sachs - Founder/President of the Dutch Society of Botanical Artists. Head of the Art Department and scientific illustrator until 2013 of the Nationaal Herbarium Nederland,

New Zealand

Susan Worthington - contributed three works to the Highgrove Florilegium and two to this Florilegium.

South Africa

Gillian Condy - SANBI's official botanical illustrator until her recent retirement. Awarded the Jill Smythies Award by the Linnean Society (1990) plus seven RHS Gold Medals and two Gold Medals at the Kirstenbosch Biennale.
Vicki Thomas - Founder member of BAASA. Gold medallist in Kirstenbosch Biennales; curator of 'PLANT' (the successor to the Kirstenbosch Biennale) in 2017. Also contributed to the Highgrove Florilegium.

Switzerland

Marie Christine Bouvier - member of The Chelsea Physic Garden Florilegium Society; contributed to the Highgrove Florilegium.

Turkey

Işık Güner (GM 2014) (BISCOT GM 2011) - Currently working on a number of projects illustrating botanical art for publication for botanists and botanic gardens - and she teaches (see her Facebook Page). Işık's painting of Gunnera Tinctoria (which you can see here) won the RHS Best Painting in Show in Spring 2014.

USA

Heeyoung Kim GM (2012) - won an RHS Gold Medal (Plants of the American Prairie - a series of 8 watercolour paintings). She also won the Best in the Show at the 15th International Exhibition (2012)
Kate Nessler GM - Awarded three RHS Gold Medals. Work in the collections of Highgrove Florilegium, The Shirley Sherwood Collection, The Royal Horticulture Society, The Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, Pittsburgh, PA

Florilegia and The Prince of Wales’s Charitable Foundation

The Prince of Wales’s Charitable Foundation
See also:

Florilegium - past and present

the Florilegium Page on this website goes from Historical to Contemporary.

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The Transylvania Florilegium Exhibition #1

7/4/2018

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Get your diary out! This is a very short post to say that the dates for viewing the botanical paintings in Volume 1 of the Transylvania Florilegium have now been identified.

The exhibition details are as follows:

Venue: Romanian Cultural Institute (UK), 1 Belgrave Square, London SW1X 8PH (nearest tube is Hyde Park Corner)
Dates: 21st May - 12th June 2018
Publishers: Published for The Prince of Wales’s Charitable Foundation by Addison Publications Ltd London
More details: Addisons Publishers page and the Highgrove website
Facebook: The Romanian Cultural Institute Facebook Page will doubtless also have announcements in due course - but I know some of you need to book further ahead re. trips to London!

The watercolours for Volume I have been printed and the first bound volumes will be ready in May. The last paintings for Volume II have been completed and will be printed later this year.

I'll be writing more blog posts about it - including which artists are involved and the process adopted to compile the Transylvania Florilegium - when more details are available.

At present, most of what I know from the botanical art perspective is on the Florilegium Page of my website - which goes from Historical to Contemporary.

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What's the difference between botanical art and flower painting?

31/1/2018

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Those new to botanical art are often unfamiliar with the differences between botanical illustration, botanical art and flower painting.

This post provides:

a brief introduction to an explanation of the differences and where you can find more information on this topic
how the differences between botanical illustration and botanical art developed over time

What's the difference between botanical art, botanical illustration and flower painting?

On my website I have a page called What is Botanical Art?

At the top of the page there is a summary of the differences between:

botanical illustration - where the emphasis is on the identification of species and support for the scientific perspective and publication - hence an emphasis on monochrome illustrations
botanical art - which has aesthetic appeal and is always botanically accurate in terms of scale, form, structure and colour and might include the portrayal of habitat. However it is not always as complete as a scientific botanical illustration.
flower painting - which is much more about the creation of an aesthetically pleasing painting and is much less about botanical accuracy and plant identification.

Further down the page, I expand on

The Science of Botanical Illustration
The Artistry of Botanical Art

which cites definitions used for botanical illustration and botanical art - including those used by the RHS, ASBA and BAC. I also include links to other parts of the website which provide further information to support those who want to learn more about, for example, scientific botanical illustration.

How do you describe the differences between botanical art and illustration?

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What's the History of Botanical Art?

What is Botanical Art? also provides an introduction to the history of the development of botanical art and illustration and why these differences exist. It provides:

an overview of the history of the development of botanical art
highlighting the role of Herbals; the Age of Discovery - and the work done by botanical artists on voyages of exploration and discovery over the years; the role of Gardens and the Florilegium and finally the development of Contemporary Botanical Art in the twentieth century.
summarising the role played by key individuals as patrons or painters in developing both the science and artistry of botanical art and illustration. Most of these individuals have a dedicated page on this website where you can find out more about their contribution. (just tap the link in their names to view their page).

P. sukhakulii, C. lindeniana [Paphiopedilum and Cypripedium] (Watercolour on paper, 1989) © Estate of Pandora Sellars. Courtesy of RHS Library Collections

One of the important artists who contributed to the development of contemporary botanical art is Pandora Sellars - who worked as a botanical illustrator for the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew and designed her complex compositions as a trained artist.

She excelled at developing new ways to design botanical paintings to help understand the colour and form of plants in terms of both their flowers and leaves - and has influenced many botanical artists as a result.

I'm very pleased to announce that the Estate of Pandora Sellars and the RHS have given me permission to use an image of the orchid painting which is now part of the RHS Lindley Library Collection on this website. You can see it above. I'm guessing it will be the first view of this work for many people. To my mind, it's a perfect example of how it is possible to combine botanical illustration and botanical art!

Enjoy!

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