NEWS about Botanical Art and for Botanical Artists

VIDEO: How to paint like a botanical artist

3/5/2021

Lucy T Smith, one of the botanical artists at Kew Gardens, who both works with the botanists and also provides tuition in botanical illustration, has created a new video.

How to paint like a botanical artist is a simple introduction to the process of botanical painting using watercolour. It provides a step-by-step guide on how to paint the perfect Primula flower.

Find out what equipment you’ll need, how to highlight the important details of your flower, and tips for bringing a botanical painting to life.

The painting is on YouTube and lasts just under 30 minutes
RBG Kew has very helpfully supplied indicators as to what comes up when in the video.

Timecodes:

00:00 - 00:20 - Intro
00:20 - 00:31 - What you'll need
00:31 - 02:25 - Preparation
02:25 - 03:55 - Painting the outline
03:55 - 04:54 - Adding initial details
04:54 - 07:55 - Laying down washes
07:55 - 09:56 - Mixing & painting the yellows
09:56 - 11:07 - Mixing & adding the orange details
11:07 - 12:21 - Mixing & painting the green stigma
12:21 - 13:18 - Building the colour using a dry brush technique
13:18 - 14:16 - Adding in another wash
14:16 - 15:27 - Mixing & painting darker colours
15:27 - 18:29 - Adding fine details
18:29 - 18:51 - The finished painting
18:51 - 19:20 - Why botanical art is important
19:20 - 19:29 - Outro

More about Lucy T Smith, her artwork and videos

Lucy T Smith tlking about creating botanical art - including botanical watercolours - at the Worldwide Day of Botanical Art at Kew Gardens in May 2018

Lucy T Smith is a highly regarded botanical illustrator who has won a number of international awards.

She has been Freelance botanical illustrator at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew for the last 20 years.
She also works on commission.

You can see. more of her videos in my blog posts as follows

VIDEO: Watercolour painting of a pomegranate by Lucy T Smith (January 2021)
Kew Video: What is Botanical Art? (April 2019)
Lucy Smith filmed by BBC News (2018)

You can see more of her artwork on the following websites:

website http://www.lucytsmith.com/
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/palmsmithy/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Palmsmithy/
Kew Gardens - Meet Lucy T Smith, award-winning botanical illustrator | Kew - Lucy is one of a number of highly skilled freelance botanical illustrators working at Kew to produce line drawings for scientific plant publications.

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NEW PAGE: Talks, Lectures and Tours about Botanical Art & Illustration

25/3/2021

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Today, I've published a new page about Talks, Lectures and Tours about Botanical Art and Illustration.

You can find it in the menu of the EDUCATION section of my Botanical Art and Artists website

The New Page has two halves

Online Talks and Lectures
In Person Talks, Lectures and Tours

This is content which does NOT form part of an educational course or workshop.

I've created the new page for two reasons

First, I think not everybody is aware of the free and paid opportunities to access experts talking about botanical art and illustration. Hence I aim for this page to be a place where all alks, lectures and tours can be listed.
Second, we've seen an increase in the number of people and organisations which are now routinely delivering online content as videos by Zoom.

Online Talks and Lectures

Find out more about the online talks, lectures and demos being delivered by:

The Shirley Sherwood Collection (FREE)
Royal Horticultural Society Lindley Library Talks (FREE)
Linnean Society Talks and Tours (modest PAID)
Julia Trickey Talks (PAID)
ASBA Annual Conference (PAID)

In Person Talks, Lectures and Tours

I will be including the following in this section and provide indications of what has been provided to date

Kew Gardens "Ask the Expert" (FREE)
Kew Gardens Tours
Lectures in The Shirley Sherwood Gallery, Kew Gardens
Lectures at the Lindley Library, RHS HQ, London

NOTE: Most of the in person events are suspended at the moment due to the Pandemic (and lockdown in the UK). Some are limited to members of Kew or the RHS or other specific groups.

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VIDEO: "Paradise Lost" exhibition by Jan Hendrix

14/11/2020

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Today a video and virtual tour of the exhibition Paradise Lost by Jan Hendrix at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art in Kew Gardens was made available to view on the Facebook Page of the Shirley Sherwood Collection.

You can view that video below

I saw this video - which is very impressive - at a Virtual Private View for the Exhibition and have been waiting for this video to be made more widely available - but forgot to check when it finally reached YouTube!!

If you prefer to watch FULL SCREEN via YouTube (in 1080HD), this is the link to the same video

Below are links to the website page for the exhibition plus my previous post about this exhibition - which I've not yet seen (due to the fact I'm having to be careful and prefer my journeys on the London Underground to be as short as possible at the moment).

Exhibition: https://www.kew.org/kew-gardens/whats-on/paradise-lost-jan-hendrix-exhibition
My blog post: Banks 2020: Jan Hendrix at Shirley Sherwood Gallery Kew

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James Sherwood (1933-2020)

19/5/2020

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Other people will be writing about the amazing business career of James Sherwood who passed away peacefully last night.

I want instead to pay tribute to the man who supported his wife, Shirley Sherwood in her interest in and passion for botanical art - and who, with his family's support, gave us the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art.

Without the support of James Sherwood, we might not have had:

the patronage and support for the very many botanical artists around the world whose artwork is now part of The Shirley Sherwood Collection
the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art at Kew Gardens - which opened in April 2008
numerous fabulous exhibitions of botanical art - from all over the world - in the gallery as a result
the renaissance of botanical art around the world. That renaissance was greatly accelerated and promoted through the help and support offered by the Sherwood family.

The last time I saw him - in late November at the opening of Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art at Kew - I made a point of thanking him for everything he had done to support botanical art. He seemed somewhat surprised at the time - but I emphasised that I knew that his support had been absolutely vital to what has been achieved in the last 30 years.

James Sherwood attended all the Private Views for exhibitions of botanical art at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art - this is the one for the British Artists in the Collection in 2017

I learned of his passing on the Facebook Page dedicated to the Shirley Sherwood Collection.

We're so sad to say that Shirley's husband James B. Sherwood passed away peacefully last night. He'd been in hospital for the past few months after a major operation and we hoped he'd pull through but it was all just too much of a fight, even for someone as mighty as Jim.

You might have known him as the founder of shipping empire Sea Containers. Or the man who brought the Orient Express train back to life and built an entire luxury hotel brand around it. Or perhaps the consummate entrepreneur who always had projects in the pipeline. We just knew him as Jim - always on the move with a razor-sharp mind, a passion for Bridge, a loyal group of friends and colleagues all over the world and a family who loved and admired him.

James Blair Sherwood was an American who was based in Britain. He was

the founder of Belmond Ltd. (formerly Orient-Express Hotels Ltd) and
the founder and former president and CEO of Sea Containers Ltd.

Jim understood the passion of the true collector. He liked to collect classic trains and luxury hotels while Shirley preferred collecting botanical art.

However, many of the stories I have heard Shirley tell of how she found an artist or acquired a painting arose because of her travels with Jim to different parts of the world while he collected more hotels and oversaw those already in the portfolio. He went about his business while she found about the botanical artists in the area and met them and saw their art.

I'm very sure the Orient-Express Hotels company he founded and developed was one of the main reasons why the Shirley Sherwood Collection of Botanical Art is now a truly great international art collection which includes so much art (1000+ artworks) from over 300 botanical artists from 36 countries around the world.

This is a family legacy - it was a joint effort.

James Sherwood (with stick) in discussion with Bryan Poole a fine art printmaker of botanical art - at the Private View for British Botanical Artists in the Shirley Sherwood Collection

James Sherwood was born in New Castle, Pennsylvania in 1933 and grew up in Lexington, Kentucky. He studied at Yale University and earned a degree in economics in 1955, before starting his career in marine transport, trains and hotels and founding and running two major businesses. He has also been

a Trustee of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation;
a Member of the Executive Committee of the Advisory Board of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection;
Vice President of the Transport Trust;
a Member of the Advisory Committee of the Museum of Modern Art in Oxford, England;
a Member of the Board of Save Venice, Inc.;
a Member of the International Council of Yale University;
a Trustee of the World Monuments Fund in Britain; and
a Trustee of Oxford Philomusica.

In 1994, James was made the 15th honorary citizen of Venice since the founding of the Italian Republic in 1867, in recognition of his support of the arts and culture of Venice.

REFERENCE:

James Sherwood interview: the man who relaunched the Orient-Express | The Telegraph
Belmond’s founder deserves his place in its history | The Financial Times
James Sherwood talks trains, hotels, ships, and true luxury | Octavian Report
James Sherwood | The British Travel and Hospitality Hall of Fame

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Ask an expert: botanical art surgery - with Deborah Lambkin at Kew Gardens on 1st March

23/2/2020

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Next Sunday there's another Botanical Art Surgery with an expert at Kew Gardens - and the expert this time is Deborah Lambkin - winner of the prestigious Jill Smythies Award in 2019.

Expert: Deborah Lambkin
Venue: Main Gallery of the Shirley Sherwood Art Gallery, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew
Date: Sunday 1st March 2020
Time: 11am - 3pm

I’m doing the next Botanical Art Surgery in the Shirley Sherwood Gallery @kewgardens next Sunday 1st March. I’ll be painting a bit and chatting about botanical art mostly. Will show a few bits and pieces that I am working on too. 11 til 3. pic.twitter.com/uvymD9HoU2
— Deborah Lambkin (@DeborahLambkin) February 22, 2020

About Deborah Lambkin

Deborah Lambkin after being presented with the Jill Smythies Award 2019 | Permission of The Linnean Society of London

Some facts about Deborah Lambkin:

born in Ireland but now lives in London
trained at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin
official orchid artist for the RHS Orchid Committee since 2005 - and has painted over 200 different orchids
winner of the Linnean Society's Jill Smythies Award in 2019
an artist member of the RHS Picture Panel which judges exhibits at the RHS Botanical Art Shows
One of only two Irish artists (to date) to win a gold medal at the RHS exhibition, the other being Wendy F. Walsh.
She won an RHS Gold Medal for her collection of eight paintings of nerines in 1999.
Contributes paintings to Curtis's Botanical Magazine regularly.
This is an article she wrote about Dealing with plant specimens – Deborah Lambkin

Social Media Accounts

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Francis Bauer: the first botanical illustrator at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew

11/12/2019

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Today is the anniversary of the death of Francis (Franz) Bauer FRS FLS at the age of 82, on 11th December 1840.

Francis Bauer was born an Austrian. He was born in in Feldsberg in Lower Austria (now Valtice in the Czech Republic) on 14 March 1758. However he spent 50 years at Kew Gardens - illustrating plants.

He visited London in 1788 when he was 30 and met Sir Joseph Banks who had a passion for botany and was extremely pleased to meet Bauer - probably at his home at 32 Soho Square. He has by this time realised that finding a competent botanical painter was far more difficult than finding an engraver.

In 1789, Bank appointed Bauer as a natural history illustrator with an annual annuity for life of £300. Bauer subsequently settled permanently in Kew and became the first resident plant illustrator at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew.

His title was the 'Botanick Painter to His Majesty' for his work at Kew Gardens. A subsequent complication was that his paintings were owned by the crown which gave them to the British Museum! They're now in the Natural History Museum - with just one orchid painting at Kew! However the Natural History Museum has an excellent website where you can see many of them.

Thumbnails of works by Francis Bauer in the Natural History Museum

He is very well known for

his use of the microscope to study and make meticulous and very impressive studies of dissections and pollen grains. He observed nuclei in plant cells in 1802 and began to study pollen diversity
painting a number of illustrations of plants of the genus Strelitzia from South Africa between 1818 - 1820
his studies of orchids while working with John Lindley. He starts to publish Illustrations of Orchidaceous Plants in 1830.
his painted record of "Drawings of Plants Cultivated in the Royal Garden at Kew" (1790-1820) - which is now kept in four different institutions but with very little at Kew!

If you want to see very good reproductions of his paintings, I highly recommend The Bauers Joseph, Franz & Ferdinand: An Illustrated Biography by Hans Walter Lack (see end) which has excellent and large reproductions of his work in what is a very large, comprehensive and heavy book! I got my copy from the Bodleian bookshop when I went to see the exhibit of Ferdinand Bauer's colour scheme.

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Australasian Exhibit in 'Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art' at Kew

10/12/2019

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The Australasian exhibit within Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art is the first one you come to as you go through the double doors from the reception area of the Shirley Sherwood Gallery. into Gallery 1.

It covers contemporary botanical art by both Australian and New Zealand artists past and present. You can read more about the artists in my earlier blog post Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art #6: Australasian Artists

Below you can see photos of the paintings in the exhibition - with names of the plants, credits for the artists and explanations of and/or any stories I know about the plants and/or artists!

Australia and New Zealand have strong artists traditions with flourishing art and conservation societies. We had a botanical exhibition here... of a Florilegium of contemporary plant portraits demo Sydney's three botanical gardens, as well as two smaller 'Down Under' shows with paintings by Australian and New Zealand.
Introduction to the Australasian Gallery

Paintings by Paul Jones, Susannah Blaxill, Annie Hughes and Julie Nettleton

The first paintings you see on your left as you walk through the door contain some stunners.

The small gem-like painting of Agapanthus is by Susannah Blaxill. It's painted in watercolour and gouache on (if I recall correctly) some Rory McEwen vellum which she painted for the Rory McEwen exhibition in the gallery in 2013. I seem to recall there's a story that she had never painted on vellum before and was petrified of making a mistake. As you can clearly see she didn't - and if you take a very big magnifier and look very carefully you can see the tiny hatching strokes she used. It's an absolutely beautiful painting - a real gem!
Above it is a small painting of Violas, painted in acrylic by Paul Jones. It's been in quite a few exhibitions including "A new Flowering" exhibition at the Ashmolean in 2005
The large painting of an enlarged white Camellia japonica 'Elegans champagne' on white paper (800mm x 760mm) is by Annie Hughes GM (RHS: 2011, 2012, 2013, 2017). Annie won her first RHS Gold Medal for a suite of eight paintings of Camellias in 2011 and the painting was acquired from the exhibition at the Royal Botanical Garden in Sydney in March 2012.
The painting on the right is of Styphelia triflora by Julie Nettleton who won an RHS Gold Medal and 'Best Painting in Show' for an exhibit of Grass Trees in 2016. It has an amazing full page image in the book which allows you to see properly all the paintings of parts.

Paintings by Bronwyn van de Graaff , Celia Rosser and Beverly Allen.

The next three paintings speak Australia to me.

The Xanthorrhoea johnsonii Grass Tree is by Bronwyn van de Graaff which has a great composition.
The Banksia serrata Saw Banksia (1995) is by Celia Rosser OAM PhD (Hon.) who one is of the world's finest living botanical artists. She dedicated herself to producing watercolour paintings of every Banksia species every known Banksiaover 25 years. These were published as The Banksias, a three-volume series of monographs (1981, 1988 and 2000). This banksia requires you to take a magnifier with you if you want to see the level of detail she has achieved. It gets a full page in the book - but you need to get up close and personal with this painting! (You can see why in this blog post)
The Strelitzia nicolai by Beverly Allen GM (RHS 2007, NYBG 2010) is amazing and is the feature image of the exhibition. It's also used on the cover of the book produced in association with the exhibition.

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