NEWS about Botanical Art and for Botanical Artists

Drawn from Nature: Irish Botanical Art at the National Gallery of Ireland

7/3/2020

Last night was the formal opening of the Drawn from Nature: Irish Botanical Art exhibition of Irish Botanical Art in the Print Gallery, at the National Gallery of Ireland. This exhibition:

celebrates artists - past and present - who have made significant contributions to art, science, and our understanding of the natural world.
spans almost 300 years, from the 1720s to 2019
features and highlights botanical artworks by over 15 women artists
was inspired by Patricia Butler’s book Irish Botanical Illustrators and Flower Painters and celebrates three centuries of Irish botanical art
has been curated by Patricia Butler (below) assisted by Janet McLean (National Gallery of Ireland)
opened to the public today 7 March and continues until 21 June 2020.
Admission is free.

Guest Curator Patricia Butler at the Private View for Drawn from Nature: Irish Botanical Art

Many of the drawings, watercolours, prints, and books will be on display for the first time at the National Gallery of Ireland during the exhibition. Works from public and private collections include selections from the National Botanic Gardens (Glasnevin), National Museums Northern Ireland, Royal Botanic Gardens (Kew) and the V&A (London).

George Victor Du Noyer (1817-1869) Engl. King. King. Musk. Turnip. Black annat. Winter Rose, 1837 Courtesy of the National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin

Below you can find out about the exhibition and see photos of some of the artists who have work in the exhibition.

The exhibition combines the botanical artwork of celebrated Irish botanical artists of the past - many of whom were women - such as

William Kilburn (1745–1818) - an illustrator for William Curtis' Flora Londinensis. A few hundred originals of his water colour designs make up the Kilburn Album, housed at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London
Ellen Hutchins (1785–1815) - specialised in seaweeds, lichens, mosses and liverworts. She also discovered many seaweeds and mosses before her death in Cork at the age of 29.
Lydia Shackleton (1824-1914) - the first artist-in-residence at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Dublin
John Templeton (1766–1825) - an early Irish naturalist and botanist often referred to as the "Father of Irish Botany".
Lady Edith Blake (1845–1926) - an Irish botanical illustrator and writer, noted for her work on the flora and fauna of countries such as The Bahamas, Jamaica and Ceylon
Raymond Piper (1923 -2007) - his paintings of orchids were displayed in the British Museum and the Ulster Museum.
Wendy Walsh (1915-2014) - The Irish Times called her ' Ireland's finest practiotner of botanical art' when she died age 98. She worked closely with Dr E Charles Nelson, formerly taxonomist at the National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, Dublin, on two volumes of An Irish Florilegium – Wild and Garden Flowers of Ireland , which were published in 1983 and 1987. She received a number of national and international awards for her work.

alongside a number of contemporary botanical artists (see below).

Items have been lent by private collectors and public collections including the V&A, Kew, and National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin.

“While many Irish botanical artists ventured across the world, others barely stepped beyond their townlands. This exhibition highlights how they are bonded by a common curiosity in nature and a compulsion to record it. It celebrates centuries of looking closely, drawing carefully, and treasuring the complex beauty of plants.”
Janet McLean of the National Gallery of Ireland

Leading contemporary Irish botanical artists (see below for who's who)

The artists in the above photograph are leading Irish contemporary botanical artists. Most are active in organising exhibitions of botanical art by the Irish Society of Botanical Artists and/or at Bloom.

They are (left to right)

Deborah Lambkin GM - The official 'Orchid Artist' to the Royal Horticultural Society Orchid Committee since 2005. Awarded the Jill Smythies Award for excellence in botanical illustration by the Linnean Society in 2019.
Lynn Stringer - Botanical artist living and working in Co. Wicklow. Exhibits botanical art with the Watercolour Society of Ireland and is Chair of the Irish Society of Botanical Artists.
Shevaun Doherty - Won Gold Medals for her botanical artwork on vellum in the Botanical category at Bloom Botanical Art in Dublin (2014, 2015, 2016). Won Gold Medal and Best Painting in Show (Botanical category) at Bloom 2017.
Holly Somerville - A very experienced botanical illustrator with an MA in Botany from Oxford. She has extensive experience of drawing plants from herbarium specimens and was based in the herbarium of the Botany Department of Trinity College, Dublin. Commissioned to draw new illustrations for the 7th edition of David Webb’s ‘An Irish Flora’.
Yanny Petters - Wicklow based botanical artist and tutor who has work in the Shirley Sherwood Collection and the Office of Public Works in Dublin and exhibits regularly at the Olivier Cornet Gallery in Dublin. Specialises in Verre Églomisé, or painting on glass, an old and rare technique which she has developed to suit her plant portraits. Vice Chair of the Irish Society of Botanical Artists.
Jane Stark - a founding member of the Irish Society of Botanical Artists and curator of the annual Claregalway Botanical Art Expo, held in conjunction with the Galway Garden Festival at Claregalway Castle.
Susan Sex GM - One of Ireland's foremost botanical artists - based in Dublin. in 1996, she had a solo exhibition in the National Botanic Gardens which sold out. She has won three RHS gold medals (2000, 2001, 2002) for her paintings of orchids. Awarded the Jill Smythies Award for excellence in botanical illustration by the Linnean Society in 2010.
Mary Dillon - Founding Chairperson of the Irish Society of Botanical Artists 2014. Exhibits and teaches botanical art internationally. Awarded Gold Medal and Best in Show in Botanical and Floral Art at Bloom, Dublin, 2016, and a Gold at Bloom, 2017. Exhibited at the 16th International Exhibition of Botanical Art & Illustration at the Hunt Institute of Botanical Documentation in Pittsburgh, PA.
Siobhan Larkin - Won Gold Medals and "Best in Show" (Botanical Art) at both the 3rd (2015) and the 4th (2016) and 7th (2019) Botanical Art Exhibitions at Bloom in the Park in Dublin. Exhibited at the 15th International Exhibition of Botanical Art & Illustration at the Hunt Institute of Botanical Documentation in Pittsburgh, PA.
Margareta Pertl - An Austrian born artist living in Ireland for part of the year. Since 1998, she has illustrated orchids from the collections of the National Botanical Gardens, Glasnevin, and the Botanical Gardens of the University of Vienna.

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Deborah Lambkin, Shevaun Doherty, Madeline Hutchins (great great grandniece of Ellen Hutchins), Susan Sex and John Parnell, Professor of Systematic Botany at Trinity College Dublin

The group of contemporary artists participating in the exhibition also found out last night that they are all invited to exhibit in a group show at the Olivier Cornet Gallery in Dublin in July-August 2020!

Yanny Petters, Bee Orchid, Ophrys apifera, 2014, Verre Eglomisé (Back painting on glass), Private Collection

Shevaun Doherty with her watercolour painting on vellum of Golden Eye Lichen, Teloschistes chrysophthalmus.

Thanks to various of the botanical artists participating in the show and the Olivier Cornet Gallery for details and photos.

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Exhibition: Hedgerow: Stories from a linear world by Yanny Petters

31/10/2019

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HEDGEROW, stories from a linear world is a new solo exhibition of new work by Yanny Petters. Yanny is a well known botanical artist in Ireland and also a Gallery Artist at The Olivier Cornet Gallery in Dublin

“Since childhood I have loved and observed hedgerows. Whenever we kids went rambling along the lanes of our neighbourhood, to pick flowers or blackberries or just wandering to each other’s houses, we wondered at the secrets within these linear worlds...”
Hedgerow, stories from a linear world by Yanny Petters

Her work raises awareness of the wild plants of Ireland - revealing them as an evolved species living in symbiotic harmony in ancient habitats rather just a bunch of weeds.

The exhibition comprises drawings and paintings of the Hedgerow, an iconic element of the Irish countryside. These are:

a series of Verre Eglomisé paintings of hedgerow silhouettes in Gold leaf and pigment
a series of seasonal paintings in watercolour on Arches Paper (see top image)
a series of black pencil drawings of the linear nature of the hedgerow

The Black pencil drawings and the 'Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter in a Hedgerow' series are also available as Archival pigment ink prints on watercolor paper, in a limited edition of 10 each only.

Gallery: Olivier Cornet Gallery, 3 Great Denmark Street, (beside Belvedere College, off Parnell Square) Dublin 1.
Dates: 13 October - 17th November 2019
Hours: Tuesday to Friday: 11am to 6pm (till 8pm on Thursdays); Saturday and Sunday: 12 noon to 5pm. Closed on Mondays (or viewing by appointment only)

Visit the exhibition's page the gallery website for images and more information

Below is what the gallery looked like as they got ready for the opening of the exhibition.

All is ready at the @OC_Gallery for the opening of Yanny Petters’ solo exhibition at 3 pm today. Do join us pic.twitter.com/dvf4blllbG
— OlivierCornetGallery (@OC_Gallery) October 13, 2019

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Yanny Petters, 'Elder, stile, gorse and the sheep gap', black pencil on conservation board (80x120cm). Available as an archival pigment ink print on w/c paper, in a limited edition of 10 each only (40x60cm), Unframed: 175 euro, Framed: 295 euro. @OC_Gallery is open till 5pm today pic.twitter.com/JEbnODfFVI
— OlivierCornetGallery (@OC_Gallery) October 28, 2019

About the hedgerow in Ireland

Increasing concerns about both a changing climate and the need to protect biodiversity means that hedgerows need to cherished for the health of our future generations.

The hedgerow goes back a long way in history. It both divides and holds together the rich habitat that remains after our forests were cleared. Land boundaries can be traced back to Neolithic times and the circa-12th-century Townland boundaries are the country’s longest standing land divisions.

Hedgerows also serve as windbreaks, to shelter our livestock, reduce soil erosion, aid drainage and provide homes for beneficial predators who protect our food crops from pests.

At a time when farming practices are changing in scale, many of these valuable hedgerow habitats are being removed and scrubbed out of existence. New hedges can be planted but ONLY the ancient hedgerows can support up to 3000 organisms from flowers and trees, birds and animals to insects and microscopic creatures.

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Bloom 2019 - Botanical Art Medal Winners

1/6/2019

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The medals have been awarded by the Judges for both the Botanical and Floral categories at Bloom 2019 in Dublin.

The 7th Annual Exhibition of Botanical and Floral Art in Bloom is Ireland's premier botanical art exhibition and is at the Phoenix Park Visitor Centre in Phoenix Park, Dublin until the end of June 2019.

Below you can find the list of medal winners in the Botanical Art Category.
At the bottom of the post is the pdf file of the complete listing of all medal winners at Bloom (including the floral category).

The Judges included Deborah Lambkin who is an Irish born artist who trained in Dublin but now lives in London and is the RHS Orchid Artist. She is also a member of the Panel that judges the RHS Botanical Art Show and has just been awarded the Jill Smythson Award by the Linnean Society.

Bloom 2019 Medal Winners - Botanical Art

You can

READ MORE about the individual botanical artists in my blog post about Bloom 2019: Selected Botanical Artists and exhibit titles
view the artists website by clicking the link embedded in their name

“Iris “Red Rum”” by Siobhan Larkin - Gold Medal and BEST IN SHOW (BOTANICAL)

Best in Category – Best in Show Winner

“Iris “Red Rum”” by Siobhan Larkin, Dublin 3

Gold Medal Winner

“Iris “Red Rum”” by Siobhan Larkin, Dublin 3 (Botanical)

Silver Gilt Medal Winners

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Bloom 2019: Selected Botanical Artists and exhibit titles

31/5/2019

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The 7th Annual Exhibition of Botanical and Floral Art in Bloom is at the Phoenix Park Visitor Centre in Phoenix Park, Dublin until the end of June 2019. It's part of the annual festival of Bloom in the Park (which is the Irish version of the Chelsea Flower Show).

All artwork and a selection of cards, prints and other items by the participating artists are available to buy.

It opened yesterday and this post is about those artists selected for the exhibition. For more information about how to enter the Bloom exhibition see my blog post about the Call for Entries: 7th Annual Botanical Art Exhibition - Bloom in the Park 2019

The next post will be about the prizewinners.

Drosera rotundifolia, D. anglica, D. intermedia Sundews by Jane Stark

Selected Artists

Selected artists are listed below in alphabetical order of their surnames.
Links to the artist's website is embedded in their name

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Artists exhibiting at the 16th International Exhibition of Botanical Art at the Hunt Institute

22/5/2019

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The 16th International Exhibition of Botanical Art & Illustration at the Hunt Instutute of Botanical Documentation includes 41 artworks by 41 artists who are citizens of 14 countries.

Below you can find the names of the artists organised by country

links to their websites are embedded in their names
plus a brief comment about the artist.

"Fading Beauty" by Vivienne Rew - Watercolour on Fabriano Artistico Extra White HP 300lb (the old stock) ; 45cm x 45cm

Exhibition

Venue: 5th floor of the Hunt Library building at Carnegie Mellon University
Dates: 17 September–18 December 2019 with a
Reception: 17 October (6–8 pm).
Opening Hours: Monday–Friday, 9 a.m.–noon and 1–5 p.m.; Sunday, 1–4 p.m. (except 20 November and 24–27 November).
Admission: Free

Artists selected to exhibit at
16th International Exhibition of Botanical Art

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Shevaun Doherty wins Best in Show at Bloom

1/6/2018

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Best in Show was awarded to Shevaun Doherty for Teloschistes chrysophthalmus, Golden Eye lichen.

This post highlights the botanical artists who won medals at The 6th Annual Botanical Art Show at Bloom in the Park in Dublin opened yesterday and the medals were awarded. In this post you'll find a list of the botanical artists winning medals at the Botanical Art at the Bloom Show in Dublin - plus a brief profile of each artist winning a medal.

I'll be back tomorrow to add in more award-winning images from this show.

The exhibition also includes paintings by floral artists which are listed at the end

Gold Medal Winner and Best in Show at Bloom 2018

Shevaun Doherty - Teloschistes chrysophthalmus, Golden Eye lichen.

Shevaun not only won the only Gold Medal and Best in Show Award (her second Best in Show - she won in 2017 as well) - she also sold the painting to a major botanical art collector! I can't help feeling that apart from the exquisite painting of this lichen that one of the things which appealed to the Judges was that I don't think anybody has painted a lichen before for the show - and yet lichens grow everywhere in Ireland!

I always feel some pride when Shevaun does well as it is one of my blog posts (note the first comment!) which originally stimulated her to apply to do the SBA Diploma - for which she was awarded a Distinction. Since then she has done extremely well in terms of being awarded previous Gold Medals at Bloom (2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017) and prizes elsewhere and developing workshops and tuition for aspiring botanical artists - especially those wanting to learn how to paint on vellum.

Shevaun Doherty - Gold Medal and Best in Show for Teloschistes chrysophthalmus, Golden Eye lichen

Silver Gilt Medal Winners at Bloom 2018

Fionnuala Broughan - Silver Gilt

Fionnuala Broughan - Davallia sp. , Hare's foot fern
Fionnuala is a relatively new recruit to botanical art and says she is inspired by Asuka Hishiki, Masumi Yamanaka, Siobhán Larkin, Patricia Newman, Sarah Simblet. I love the fact that her facebook account is named after a plant! https://www.facebook.com/erica.cinerea

Shevaun Doherty - Crocus vernus, Dutch crocus - watercolour on vellum
Shevaun's other entry gained a Silver Gilt medal.

Shevaun Doherty - Silver Gilt

Siobhan Larkin - Hydrangea
Siobhan works in watercolour pencils and won Best in Show in 2016 and 2015! She has also exhibited at the 15th International Exhibition of Botanical Art & Illustration at the Hunt Institute of Botanical Documentation in Pittsburgh, PA. She is not a fan of being online - hence no website.

Siobhan Larkin - Silver Gilt

Elaine Mackey - Silver Gilt

Elaine Moore Mackey - Arisarum probiscideum, Mousetail Plant
Elaine started Botanical Illustration in 2013 and she completed a course at the Burren College of Art in 2014. She has just graduated from the Distance Learning Diploma run by the Society of Botanical Artists (UK).

Holly Somerville - Iris 'Turkish Blue'
Holly Somerville was born in Dublin and now lives in Wicklow. She is a botanical artist, illustrator and teacher. Her academic accreditation as a botanical artist comes from scientific and artistic perspectives. She has an MA in Botany from Somerville College, Oxford and a BA in Visual Communication from Edinburgh College of Art, where she specialised in illustration and photography. In the past she has worked in the herbarium of the Botany Department of Trinity College, Dublin. She has produced very many botanically correct pen and ink drawings for publications about Irish Flora and researchers at Trinity College and other universities around the world. She's also exhibited regularly and extensively in both Ireland and Ulster.

Holly Somerville - Silver Gilt

Silver Medal Winners at Bloom 2018

Jane Stark - Silver

Jane Stark - Anthurium hybrid
Jane Stark is a botanical artist living in the west of Ireland. A graduate of the Ontario College of Art in Toronto, Canada, she has worked in graphic design and natural history illustration in Canada, the US and Ireland, specialising in high quality publication design. She is a founding member of the Irish Society of Botanical Artists (ISBA) and is currently President of ISBA. She has also been a leading light in getting the two ISBA books published Aibítir: The Irish Alphabet in Botanical Art and Plandaí Oidhreachta, Irish Heritage Plants. She is also the curator of the annual Claregalway Botanical Art Expo, held in conjunction with the Galway Garden Festival at Claregalway Castle.

Lynn Stringer
- ‘Douglas Fir’- painting sold
- 'Iris "Haute les voiles"’
Lynn is Chair of the Irish Society of Botanical Artists. She lives and works in County Wicklow. She studied Fine Art at DIT College of Marketing and Design in Dublin as a mature student and graduated with a first in painting. She regularly holds botanical art classes and exhibits her work at various plant fairs in Ireland (see website for details). She won an RHS Silver Medal in 2013 when she exhibited six paintings about Kilmacurragh and the Plant Hunters from her long term project to paint plants from Kilmacurragh (part of the National Botanic Gardens). She's a member of ISBA and ASBA. See An Interview with Lynn Stringer

Lynn Stringer with one of her two Silver Medal Paintings at Bloom 2018

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Book Review: 'Éireannach - Celebrating Native Plants of Ireland'

30/5/2018

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The Irish Society of Botanical Artists organised the Irish exhibition Botanical Art Worldwide – Éireannach - Celebrating Native Plants of Ireland. This was held at the National Botanic Gardens, 9 Glasnevin Hill in Dublin between 6-27 May 2018.

However the exhibition lives on in its catalogue and for all of us who were unable to get to the exhibition, this is a wonderful document to have for all sorts of reasons.

This is a review of that book Éireannach – Celebrating Native Plants of Ireland in which I endeavour the count the ways in which it is VERY IMPRESSIVE!

I don't often rave about a book - but this is one of those occasions!

No small achievement

I've been impressed with the way that the Irish Society of Botanical Artists - which was formed just over four years ago, in March 2014, has produced a book for every one of its three exhibitions to date.

Maybe that's because they have regarded each exhibition and each book as the outcome of a very specific project. What is even more laudable is that every project has focused on Irish plants

Aibítir: The Irish Alphabet in Botanical Art - focused on illustrating the variety of plant forms and habitats in native plants on the whole island of Ireland. The project used the Celtic uncial script as a structure on which to 'hang' the plants. The first book was small - but perfectly formed - and it sits on my bookshelves!
Plandaí Oidhreachta - Heritage Irish Plants - the second project celebrated the the wealth of good Irish Garden Plants within the context of botanical illustration.
Éireannach – Celebrating Native Plants of Ireland - the third project is intended as a celebration of Irish Native Plants

The Plants and the Botanical Art

One of the double page spreads in the book - and one of my favourites. The plant is Pinguicula gradiflora and the painting is by Holly Somerville

Every single plant in the exhibition has:

at least a single (large) page to itself - while some enjoy a double page spread
the latin name, the common name, the Celtic name and the Genus and family
the name of the artist
the story of the plant - which includes where the plant was found, what the name means - in terms for example of history or habitat or growth features. Plus a detailed description of the botanical features of importance and finally any interesting facts or stories associated with the plant
the image of the botanical art. Some also have a photo of the plant and/or an enlargement of part of the plant of interest - such as the flowers of the Sundew.

What impresses me about the ISBA projects is that they are "rooted" literally and metaphorically in the plants and the botany and getting to know the plant each artist is painting. It's a marvellous practice and an excellent standard for a botanical art society to set as a challenge to members wanting to participate in its projects.

I'd go so far as to say it is a practice I'd commend to other botanical art societies. From a standing start in 2014 ISBA have well and truly demonstrated what can be accomplished - and this book is the evidence of that.

In terms of the botanical art - the standard is excellent and I think some excellent decisions were made as to which merited a double page spread.

Not just about Ireland!

The aspect I was really surprised about is that every other exhibition has also contributed to the book. That means for me it's much more like a celebration of the complete initiative and global excellence in terms of botanical art.

One full page is devoted to each country and includes an image from the exhibition - all of which are excellent and some of which are simply STUNNING!

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