NEWS about Botanical Art and for Botanical Artists

A retrospective perspective on recent exhibitions at Kew

17/3/2019

Today was the last day of four exhibitions at the Shirley Sherwood Galleru of Botanical Art at Kew Gardens.

Mark Frith: A Legacy of Ancient Oaks 
Trees: Delight in the Detail
Rankafu: Masterpieces of Japanese Woodblock Prints of Orchids
Botanical Theatre: The Art of Pandora Sellars (1936-2017)

This post reflects on my impressions and some of what I learned over what I think were seven visits to the exhibitions in total. (Note: I wrote about what they covered in Four new botanical art exhibitions at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery.)

I'm writing today essentially as a record of the exhibitions

of what was there to be seen and
about the impact that each made on me.

It's also a record of why only seeing an exhibition once doesn't always give full value - whereas multiple visits (for those fortunate to be able to do) pays dividends and enables you to realise which paintings you look forward to coming back to see.

I'm also going to confess to the fact that I've found it very difficult to write about Pandora. Multiple viewings following by viewing with other friends finally enabled me to articulate the impact of that exhibition - but verbally rather than in writing.

I'm also very grateful that Kew now allows photographs of artwork during exhibitions - and I can continue to view and review the exhibitions in the months and years to come.

Dr Shirley Sherwood at the PC with artists, curators and artists involved with the exhibition

People love trees

Four walls like this

The exhibition of the graphite drawings of heritage oaks across the UK by Mark Frith has been an enormous success. It has had lots of visitors many of whom lingered long at the different heritage oaks drawn in graphite. They also bought lots of the book about the exhibition and lots of prints (some of which sold out).

Maybe it's because trees are more accessible and people understand trees? Maybe it's because more of us live in towns and never seem to see enough trees? Maybe it's because in this instance it's rare to see trees which are so old and so big and create such a massive impact.

It reminded me in some ways of the way the public responded to the trees in David Hockney's 2012 exhibition of landscapes at the Royal Academy which also included very many paintings of trees (see my Review: David Hockney RA - A Bigger Picture).

If you wait until the end of the afternoon there are fewer people!

Looking back
This exhibition for me was all about the overall impact. Each drawing measured 1.7 m wide. I didn't spend time looking at how he drew although I did spend one visit going round looking closely at the labels as well as the trees and was fascinated to learn about their height and girth, how old they are and where each was located. It grounded what seem at times to be fantasy drawings of trees.

What I didn't quite appreciate when this exhibition opened was the extent to which this exhibition of ancient oaks without leaves would resonate more with the gardens around and about over time - as the deciduous trees outside first lost and then stood without leaves. Consequently there was a connection between the two.

I know that for me, every time I looked at the exhibition, it was the overall impact which grabbed me every time. It was almost impossible to look at each tree in the same amount of depth. I found I started to look at parts of the trees - and took a series of photos of the base of the trunk - which helped me appreciate the variation between them even better.

For those unable to see the exhibition

I can recommend the very good book about the development of the series of trees A Legacy of Ancient Oaks which has been selling strongly throughout the exhibition.
Some of the prints have sold out but are due back in stock in April and are available from the Kew Shop.
I don't think there will be another opportunity to see the stubbs of the pencils used to draw the trees.

Trees: Delight in the Detail

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Ask an expert: botanical art surgery - with Deborah Lambkin

11/2/2019

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Don't forget - next Sunday is the third and final botanical art surgery with an expert in botanical illustration at Kew Gardens.

Expert: Deborah Lambkin
Venue: Main Gallery of the Shirley Sherwood Art Gallery, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew
Date: Sunday 17th February 2019
Time: 11am - 3pm

It's a great way of being able to ask questions about your own work and also about life as a professional botanical illustrator.

About Deborah Lambkin

Come and see me paint in the Shirley Sherwood Gallery @kewgardens on 17 Feb. I will be there to answer questions and to chat about my favourite subject- botanical illustration! #botanicalillustration #botanicaldrawing #art pic.twitter.com/3bZfzQD48j
— Deborah Lambkin (@DeborahLambkin) February 7, 2019

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
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

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Lucy Smith filmed by BBC News

22/12/2018

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Botanical Illustrator Lucy Smith was telling me earlier in the week about how exciting it was to be filmed creating one of her botanical illustrations for the Kew Herbarium Archive by a BBC News crew who came to Kew Gardens. (This is part of a wider filming project by the BBC at Kew)>

Her item was due to run on yesterday's news.

...and so:

the good news - the title given to the piece is The woman who draws the world's plants
the good news - you can still see the video on the BBC website - just click the blue link above. In it she describes how she draws a NEW species and what she has to do to dry botanical material in order to see its features properly - and how long it takes her to produce an illustration
the bad news - the piece about her got bumped by a drone! BBC News needed extra time for the impact caused by the awful men who closed down Gatwick by flying drones with a view to causing maximum disruption!

RECOMMENDED VIEWING: Do take a look at the video - it's only short but packed full of information!

There's also an article about Lucy Smith on the Kew Gardens website
RECOMMENDED READ: Meet award-winning botanical illustrator Lucy Smith & discover her line drawings

You can also read more about Lucy and what she does on:

her website http://www.lucytsmith.com
her Facebook Page - Lucy T Smith Botanical Artist
her Twitter account - Lucy Smith at https://twitter.com/palmsmithy

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Trees, Tropical Plants & Theatre in the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art (October 2018 - March 2019)

12/10/2018

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On Monday I went to see the four new botanical art exhibitions at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery at Kew Gardens. I'll be reviewing them all individually on this blog in future but today I thought I'd give you a taster of what can be seen - so you start planning a visit!

The four new exhibitions run from 6 October 2018 – 17 March 2019 and have a couple of over-arching themes

Orchids and tropical plants

Orchids and tropical plants are featured in the first two exhibitions

Rankafu: Masterpieces of Japanese Woodblock Prints of Orchids (Galleries 1 and 2) - this is the first exhibition as you walk in through the main entrance
Botanical Theatre: The Art of Pandora Sellars (1936-2017) (Galleries 3 and 4) - This is very likely to be extremely popular with all experienced botanical artists and aspiring students. Her works features a lot of tropical plants and orchids (and cyclamens, lilies and arum) and a lot of foliage.

The Botanical Theatre of watercolour paintings by Pandora Sellars

Mark Frith: A Legacy of Ancient Oaks (Gallery 5) 7 of the 20 oaks on display

Trees

The tree theme is particularly relevant to the Charter of the Forest in its 800th anniversary year.

Mark Frith: A Legacy of Ancient Oaks (Gallery 5) - in the large square central gallery
Trees: Delight in the Detail (Gallery 6) - the first exhibition you encounter when approaching from the Marianne North Gallery.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: This is one of the best combination of exhibitions that I've seen here. There's a lot of excellent quality art to look at - I found it quite overwhelming - and it's really difficult to take it all in on one visit. So think very seriously about:

planning enough time for your visit
or maybe even planning more than one visit!

I know one artist who has already visited twice on one day and wants to go again!

PS You will need a magnifier or a loupe to properly appreciate some of the paintings in these exhibitions. If you forget yours, you can borrow one from reception.

Rankafu: Masterpieces of Japanese Woodblock Prints of Orchids

View of the exhibition of Rankafu wood block prints of orchids

These impressive and very beautiful woodblock prints of orchids are based on the watercolours of Zuigetsu Ikeda. They were first published in 1946.

Rankafu means as ‘Orchid Flower Album’. These prints are on loan from the Collection of Stephen Kirby and this is first major exhibition of the Rankafu woodblock colour prints outside of Japan.

Woodblock printing of this quality is technically demanding and the exhibition includes a display explaining how they are produced.

Botanical Theatre: The Art of Pandora Sellars

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED - This is an exhibition NOT TO BE MISSED.
It's unlikely you'll ever see its like again.

Many experienced botanical artists will need no introduction to the late Pandora Sellars. She has been described by Shirley Sherwood as “One of the most important botanical artists of all time[1]” and “the best leaf painter ever”. Others would characterise her as being one of the best botanical artists when it comes to tackling a complex composition which shows off the botanical features of a plant to best effect.

However very few will have ever seen more than a few examples of her artwork in person.

This exhibition is unique and a wonderful opportunity to

view a retrospective of c. 50 artworks and items produced from her art - just a small percentage of the artwork she produced over a period of nearly 40 years.
note how her artwork developed over the years - between 1972 and 2007
see the scope of her work - from botanical illustration commissions for Kew and other publishers to botanical artworks produced for her own pleasure.

Those who do not know about Pandora Sellars can read all about her and her botanical artwork in About Pandora Sellars (1936-2017) my dedicated page on this website.

The artwork is on loan from:

Kew Collection (17 works)
Shirley Sherwood Collection (8 works)
RHS Lindley Library (1 work)
Cyclamen Society (7 works)
Postal Museum (5 works)
Private Collections (12 works - plus her painting materials
Plus a selection of books containing botanical illustrations by Pandora Sellars

Mark Frith: A Legacy of Oaks

Six of the Veteran Oaks drawn by Mark Frith - in Gallery 5

This is an exhibition of a series of 20 highly intricate, large-scale graphite drawings of Britain’s most characterful veteran oaks, many of which are more than 1,000 years. The trees are shown in winter - devoid of all leaves and new growth.

They were drawn by Mark Frith who studied Fine Art at Bristol before becoming a BAFTA award-winning filmmaker before starting to draw his first tree in 2011.

The series were commissioned by publisher, poet, and philanthropist, Felix Dennis. After he died, ten trees were gifted to the Kew Collection and ten are now owned by the Heart of England Forest - founded by Felix Dennis.

Trees: Delight in the Detail

View of "Palms" - one small section of "Trees: Delight in Detail"

This exhibition leans very much towards looking at the details of trees rather than the tree as a whole - and different approaches used to paint the details of trees.

The artwork represents trees from all over the world - from temperate areas and the tropics - and the detail of their leaves, cones, flowers, fruits, seeds and nuts.

Sizes vary enormously according to real life but also due to enlargement employed to show the detail of a particular aspect.

The artwork comes from the Shirley Sherwood Collection - collected from artists from all over the world. Artists include:

UK: Jenny Brasier, Brigid Edwards, Annie Farrer (2 works), Flappy Lane Fox, Katherine Manisco, Rory McEwen (2 works), Margaret Mee (2 works), Barbara Oozerally, Jess Shepherd, Julie Small (2 works)
Australia: Jenny Phillips
Austria: Jakob Demus
Brazil: Maria Alice de Rezende, Alvaro Nunes (7 works)
Germany: Regine Hagedorn,
India: Arundhati Vartak
Japan: Mariko Ikeda, Mieko Ishikawa, Kimuyo Maruyama (2 works), Michiko Toyota
Philippines: Emmanuel Cordova
Russia: Olga Makrushenko
South Africa: Gill Condy, Ann Schweizer, Vicki Thomas
Thailand: Phansakdi Chakkaphak
USA: Monika de Vries Gohlke; Anne Ophelia Dowden, Ingrid Finnan, Hillary Parker,

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Botanical Art: "Ask an Expert" events at Kew

7/10/2018

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Kew Gardens has three botanical art surgeries set up over the Autumn and Winter for budding botanical artists to:

view how a professional botanical artist works - and see examples of their completed work
ask technical questions about aspects of botanical art and illustration - and
receive practical tips and advice about developing their own work.

Below are

the dates/times of the three drop-in sessions in October (starting next Sunday), December and February
profiles of the three artists who will be hosting the sessions.

The events are free i.e. included with the price of admission to the Gardens.

Sunday 14th October, drop in session 11am - 3pm

Masumi Yamanaka GM (2010)
Masumi was in Nara, Japan but has lived in the UK since 1987. She studied botanical art with Pandora Sellers.

She has been a freelance botanical artist based at the Herbarium at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew since 2007In 2010, she won an RHS Gold Medal for her illustrations of Aesculus indica 'Sydney Pearce'. She has exhibited at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery at Kew as follows:

‘Trees’ - Winter 2009,
‘Bulbmania’- Summer 2010
‘Kew Artists’- Spring 2011.
In 2015, her exhibition of 'Kew's Heritage Trees' was held in the Shirley Sherwood Gallery. It portrayed the oldest and iconic trees in the garden and the paintings now form part of Kew's permanent collection.
In 2016 she co-ordinated and organised the Flora Japonica exhibition (2015) at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery and was one of the authors (with Martin Rix) of the book about Flora Japonica

Masumi Yamanaka with one of the paintings she did for her exhibition of Kew's Heritage Trees at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery

Sunday 9th December, drop-in session 11am - 3pm

Lucy T Smith GM was born in Sydney but now lives and works in London. She works in pen and ink and watercolour.

Lucy has been worked as a botanical illustrator for the Palms of New Guinea project based at Kew for very many years. She also illustrates new species for Kew and is documenting a number of the waterlilies growing at Kew - including the world's largest and smallest. As well as freelancing as a botanical artist for Kew, Lucy also produces paintings for private commissions and exhibitions and teaches botanical illustration. She leads the Kew Certificate in Botanical Illustration and runs short courses in botanical illustration for Kew Gardens and Chelsea Physic Gardens

Lucy has also received a number of prestigious awards

She was won two RHS Gold Medals
In 2004, she was awarded the Jill Smythies Award for excellence in Scientific Illustration from the Linnean Society of London.
In 2014 and again in 2017, She won the Margaret Flockton Award for Scientific Illustration - against professional botanical illustrators from all over the world.

On the Kew website there are two articles about her work -

Lucy T Smith with some of her own botanical illustrations in pen and ink - in the Library at Kew Gardens (April 2018)

Sunday 17th Feb 2019, drop-in session 11am - 3pm

Deborah Lambkin GM (1999) has been the official 'Orchid Artist' to the Royal Horticultural Society Orchid Committee since 2005. In 1999 she was awarded an RHS Gold Medal for her collection of eight paintings of Nerines in 1999. To date she has contributed more than 400 orchid paintings to the Royal Horticultural Society's Orchid Painting Collection. She has also exhibited at the World Orchid Conference Botanical Art Exhibition 2014 and published in Curtis Botanical Magazine

Deborah was born in Ireland and lives in London. She trained at the National College of Art and Design (NCAD) in Dublin and is a Member of the Irish Society of Botanical Artists and the Chelsea Physic Garden Florilegium Society. . She also has work in the collection of the National Botanical Gardens. Dublin.

In 2014 she joined RHS Picture Advisory Panel which includes judging at the RHS Botanical Art shows.

Four orchid paintings by Deborah Lambkin at the RHS Spring Show 2016

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One millionth visitor to the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art!

19/9/2018

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One million visitors in 10 years!

Last week, The Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art at Kew Gardens welcomed its one millionth visitor - in its 10th anniversary year.

The winner was chosen by a prize draw which visitors participated in last week when the millionth person was predicted to be entering the gallery. Weronika Chilewska received an exquisite giclee print by botanical artist Rory McEwen to mark the occasion.

Weronika Chilewska with her prize, a giclee print of a ginkgo leaf by botanical artist Rory McEwen. Credit RBG Kew.

I had planned to visit the Gallery last week to see the exhibitions again - but caught a bug and hence missed my opportunity to be the millionth visitor!

However as a long time visitor to the Gallery (I was there on Opening Day!) I can confirm that the Gallery has become steadily more and more popular as more people have become aware of the wonderful exhibitions it hosts and the amazing drawings and paintings of plants that you can see inside.

About the Shirley Sherwood Gallery

Currently celebrating its 10-year anniversary having opened to the public in 2008, the Gallery is the first in the world to be dedicated solely to botanical art.

Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art 10th anniversary

The 10th Anniversary spelt out in decals of flower paintings on the glass entrance hall to the Gallery

Dr Shirley Sherwood has dedicated the last 27 years to travelling extensively and amassing an astonishing collection of botanical illustrations from artists around the world - and eventually needed a gallery to be able to display it for all other botanical art enthusiasts. Hence the collaboration with Kew over the last 10 years.

The Gallery displays several different exhibitions each year, along with art from the 200,000 pieces stored in the Kew Collection archives, and works from Dr Sherwood’s own collections.

“This is an amazing achievement for Dr Sherwood and the galleries...(which) showcases just how much the world loves botanical art.”
Victoria Kew, Gallery Manager

You can read about:

upcoming exhibitions in my preview blog posts
read my blog posts reviewing each exhibition - including both details of what's on display and photos of both the botanical art and the botanical artists who created it in
the previous exhibitions in the Gallery on my ARCHIVE: Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art page

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Opening Hours - Autumn/Winter 2018-19

This autumn, the Gallery will host four new exhibitions running from 6 October 2018 – 17 March 2019:

Mark Frith: A Legacy of Ancient Oaks 
Trees: Delight in the Detail
Rankafu: Masterpieces of Japanese Woodblock Prints of Orchids
Botanical Theatre: The Art of Pandora Sellars (1936-2017)

See my blog post Four new botanical art exhibitions at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery for more details

ENTRY IS FREE. Entrance to the Shirley Sherwood Gallery is included in standard entry to the Gardens.

The times when the Gallery will be open over the Autumn and Winter months will vary with the light.

You may think it worthwhile copying the information below (or bookmarking this blog post) as a reminder of the various opening times - I know I will be!

6 Oct - 27 Oct 10am to 5pm, with last admission at 4.45.
28 Oct - 20 Nov 10am to 3.30pm, with last admission at 3.15.
21 Nov - 5 Jan 10am to 3pm, with last admission 2.45.
6 Jan - 31 Jan 10am to 3.30pm, with last admission 3.15.
February 10am to 5pm, with last admission at 4.45.

For more details, go to

The Shirley Sherwood Gallery - which includes details of gallery opening times and the exhibitions
Plan your visit to Kew Gardens
What's on at Kew Gardens
or call 0208 332 3622.

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List of artists exhibited in "Down Under II: Works from the Shirley Sherwood Collection"

27/8/2018

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View of Down Under II in the Shirley Sherwood Gallery

This post puts on record all those artists who have artwork in Down Under II: Works from the Shirley Sherwood Collection at the The Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art in Kew Gardens.

It also provides views of artwork in the exhibition for those who have been unable to attend - or need an incentive to visit before it ends on Sunday 16th September 2018!

The exhibition contains a mix of works by Australian and New Zealand artists based combined with studies of some remarkable Australasian native plants, created by artists from other parts of the world. All were collected since 1990.

All the artwork comes from the Shirley Sherwood Botanical Art Collection.

Some of the artists included in the exhibition Susannah Blaxill, Paul Jones, Celia Rosser and Margaret Stones were well established botanical artists when Dr Sherwood started collecting.

However, her first exhibition of botanical art in Sydney in 1998 triggered an interest in botanical art which led to

the first Down Under II exhibition ten years ago at Kew and
the formation of the Florilegium Group at the Royal Botanic Garden in Sydney and the current major exhibition in the Shirley Sherwood Gallery - see "The Florilegium: The Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney" exhibition at Kew Gardens

The Banksia Corner in the Down Underr II exhibition

The list of artists and the 43 artworks included in the exhibition works as follows:

The list is alphabetical based on (1) the country they come from and (2) the surname of the artist.
A link to their website (if they have one) is embedded in their name. Alternatively another page has been linked to if this tells you about an artist who doesn't have a website.
an asterisk * after their name indicates they are included in my current summary of artists for the country they live in - where you can read more about them. If the artist is deceased they will be listed in 20th century Botanical Artists in the history section. Those without an asterisk will be added soon!
The name is followed by basic bio data which indicates where they were born and live
This is then followed by the title of the work. The common vernacular name is very often followed by the correct latin name in italics, (for more about naming plants see Plant Names and Botanical Latin in the Botany section on this website)
Media: All paintings are watercolour on paper unless otherwise stated.
Artwork which has been published in one of Dr Sherwood's books includes the title of the book and page number (in green) after the title
Those who have more than one artwork in the exhibition have the titles of the works bullet pointed below their names.

Some of the plants have interesting stories or names and these are also highlighted

Paintings by Noboru Isogai. Betty Hinton, Bronwyn Van de Graaff and Gill Condy

Names of the Artists / Titles of the Artwork

Australia

Beverly Allen* GM (RHS 2007, NYBG 2010) - b. 1945 in Sydney, Australia.

Strelitzia nicolai 2003 Watercolour on paper

Laurie Andrews born Melbourne, Australia 1936

Maidenhair Fern: Adiantum aethiopicum (2001) Watercolour on paper - the plant can be found over a wide area including Australia
Strap Water Fern: Blechnum patersonii (2001) Watercolour on paper - an Australian native

Susannah Blaxill * b. 1954 in Armidale, New South Wales.This artist is featured in Contemporary Botanical Artists

Seaweed: Laminaria sp. (2002) Watercolour on paper - Kelp found on a Sydney beach
Agapanthus africanus (2012) Watercolour on vellum - Her first painting on vellum.

I've spend a long time with a magnifier looking at her brushstrokes in the agapanthus. It's almost unbelievable that this is her FIRST painting on vellum. I seem to recall she had the additional stress of painting on a sheet of vellum from the Hunt which had belonged to Rory McEwen

Agapanthus africanus and Laminaria by Susannah Blaxill

Betty Hinton born Gin Gin, Queensland, Australia 1935. This artist is featured in A Passion for Plants

Idiot Fruit: Idiospermum australiense 2000 Watercolour on paper - also known as Also known as the 'Green Dinosaur' A Passion for Plants page 107

This very ancient and primitive plant has huge and heavy seeds. It's endemic in the Daintree National Park, NE Queensland, Australia. It was first discovered in the nineteenth century and then "lost" again as land was cleared. The fruit is classed as very poisonous by the Aborigines. If eaten by cattle they go mad. The tree is 15 metres tall and the flowers can only be retrieved by somebody climbing the tree to the top to cut off flowering branches - which is what happened in relation to this painting.

Annie Hughes * GM (RHS: 2011, 2012, 2013, 2017) born Australia 1948

Camellia japonica ‘Elegance champagne’ 2011/2012 Watercolour on paper - The camellia flower has been dramatically enlarged

Paul Jones * OBE (1921 - 1997) Australia. This artist is featured in Contemporary Botanical Artists and A Passion for Plants

Camellia ‘Paul Jones Supreme’ 1977 - Acrylic on paper Contemporary Botanical Artists page 105
Sunflower: Helianthus annuus Acrylic on paper A New Flowering page 155
Magnolia grandiflora Acrylic on paper A New Flowering page 101; A Passion for Plants page 131

Sydney became the centre of Australian camellia breeding led by Prof E. G. Waterhouse at Eryldene House in the 1970s. Paul Jones had this camellia named after him in 1958 in recognition of his iconic camellia portraits. There are 5 camellia studies in the 16 paintings in the Shirley Sherwood Collection, mostly acquired from the artist in Sydney before 1997. He used a graded background for some paintings after a visit to Japan

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