NEWS about Botanical Art and for Botanical Artists

Deadline for ABBA Online Exhibition is 1st September

27/8/2021

The deadline for entries for ‘ReflectionS’, no plants-no planet’ - the Online Exhibition by the Association of British Botanical Artists is Wednesday 1st September

BELOW is a summary of the key "need to know" points

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

The aim of the exhibition is to stimulate discussion about biodiversity and the impact of climate change using the medium of botanical art to tell a story through imagery which is visually appealing and immediately accessible to a wide audience.

This exhibition was inspired by COP26 - the United Nations Climate Change Conference due to be held in Glasgow in November 2021. COP26 has six major themes and the theme that is relevant to this exhibition is:

“ Nature - to safeguard and restore natural habitats and ecosystems to preserve the planet’s biodiversity “

The exhibition will comprise a juried and digital collection of botanical art by ABBA members that reflects the pivotal role that plants play in preserving the planet's biodiversity.

This digital exhibition will be displayed as follows:

Dates: 16th October 2021 and 27th March 2022
Viewing:
- On a large screen at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery, Kew Gardens, between - for viewing by visitors to the Gallery
- AND simultaneously exhibited in the ABBA Online Gallery on its website - for an international audience.

ABOUT THE CALL TO ENTRIES

Who can enter: Members of the Association of British Botanical Artists.

Despite the name this means entries can come from artists based anywhere in the world.
ABBA have a very reasonable subscription fee.

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EXHIBITION: Chelsea Physic Garden - A Year in the Life

26/8/2021

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At the start of 2020, Chelsea Physic Garden invited selected artists of the Royal Watercolour Society (RWS) and Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers (RE) to immerse themselves in the garden and then respond to the surroundings by recording a year in the life of this very important garden.

The resulting artworks would then be exhibited at Bankside Gallery - on the South Bank in central London.

Over the course of the last 18 months, the artists have researched, visited (when possible) and recorded the Garden throughout changing seasons and varying restrictions, documenting perhaps one of the most extraordinary years of the Garden’s life. The result is a compelling and vibrant display of creativity and a wonderful example of what can be achieved in the face of adversity. The exhibition is truly refreshing and uplifting; a reminder of the joys and healing powers of both art and nature

I've only just found out about this - and the exhibition is now on and finishes on 30th August - so not long to see it!

You can also see all the artworks online if you're unable to visit the Gallery.

Click an image to see more details and
then click the image again to see a larger version.

These are not botanical artworks (in the conventional sense) - but they are paintings (in various media) and fine art prints which relate to the plants and features of the Chelsea Physic Garden.

Some of those which I think will appeal to botanical artists and fans of the garden include those by:

PLANTS:

Emiko Aida RE - her etchings of white flowers on a very vivid orange background both echo conventional botanic art and provide a counterpoint to ideas of how flowers should be portayed
Mychael Barratt PPRE, RWS - who's produced a wonderful annotated map of the Garden as a hand coloured silkscreen/etching. He's an artist I would collect if I had more wall space!
Meg Dutton RE RBA has drawn several ink and watercolour artworks of the profusion of plants in the glasshouses. Some of you may be familiar with similar drawings she did of the plants in the glasshouses at Kew Gardens.

Part of the Glasshouse (ink and watercolour) by Meg Dutton RE

GARDEN:

Liz Butler RWS - several small paintings in her inimitable style demonstrating an expert watercolourist's grasp of the full tonal range
Claire Denny ARWS - five paintings in watercolour and acrylic ink of various very familiar views of the Chelsea Physic Garden
Wendy Jacob RWS - views of the garden and accurate but stylised portrayals of plants, bushes and trees
Annie Williams RWS - Annie normally paints very carefully constructed and beautiful still lifes so it's fascinating to see how she approaches painting a garden.

Watercolour paintings of Chelsea Physic Garden by Liz Butler

REFERENCE:

Bankside Gallery: 48 Hopton Street, London SE1 9JH (next to Tate Modern)
Exhibition Dates: 12-30th August 2021
Hours: 11am - 6pm
Admission: Free
Enquiries about acquiring an artwork can be made online.

Having now inspected the websites of the RWS, RE and the Chelsea Physic Garden I'm not surprised I didn't see it as it only gets a page on the Bankside Gallery website!

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SBA Plantae 2021 Virtual Exhibition now online

4/6/2021

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The Society of Botanical Artists decided that this year's Annual Plantae Exhibition would be:

limited to artwork by Fellows & Foundation members. Plus a selection of work from students on the SBA’s DLDC.
a virtual exhibition - which is online only.

The exhibition opened today (4th June 2021) and continues ONLINE ONLY until 18th June 2021. You can view the exhibition:

by artwork
by thumbnails
by artist

I'll be reviewing the exhibition on the blog, when I've had a chance to look at all the artwork. I will also belting and identifying all the exhibiting artists.

Artwork is for sale (however some artworks has already been sold). Note that

all prices exclude packing and postage and
any purchases are contracted with the artist direct.

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The next RHS Botanical Art Show

19/4/2021

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I've had various people asking me about what I know about the next RHS Botanical Art Show. As we move gradually out of lockdown I've now contacted Charlotte Brooks who is the Secretary of the Picture Committee which organises the show (with the assistance of the Show Department)

So this is what I know. Some of this is Charlotte and some of this is me. So

(CB) means Charlotte is the source for what's said before this suffix
(RHS) means it's on the RHS website
(KT) means I'm the source - and for the most part my comments are complete speculation - grounded in some knowledge of how things work.

This blog post covers:

What's the date of the next RHS Botanical Art Show?
What's the date of the next Selection Meeting?
What else is happening?
More about the RHS Botanical Art Shows and how to exhibit

What's the date of the next RHS Botanical Art Show?

We are working to secure a venue and date for the 2021 London Botanical Art Show and we will publish information as soon as we can. Thank you for your patience and understanding. Exhibition of Botanical Art | RHS

There is no date set at the moment - for various reasons.

The RHS Lindley Hall is currently in use as a Vaccination Centre for the population of Westminster - and hence not available (CB).
- If this keeps going until all vaccinations are one this means that it's definitely not available before July (target for the vaccination of adults). (KT)
- It may be in use again in the early Autumn if they go for a booster vaccine for older people as has been discussed. (KT)
It's very unlikely that the Show will be held at the same time as any of the other RHS Shows (just because they NEVER seem to parallel run RHS Shows at different locations - and the RHS website tells you about planned dates for any RHS Shows (KT)
- there are gardens opening and RHS Shows planned for May, June, July, August and September (RHS) - and of course, any of these might need to be rescheduled if there were any further outbreaks....
- which suggests to me that October is probably the earliest a Botanical Art / Photography Show could be held in the Lindley Hall - if it is available (KT - pure speculation)
- one option might be to go back to its original timing of February (which was very popular) - in which case the earliest show would be in February 2022 (KT)
- I'm a big fan of the notion it goes back to including a Saturday as one of its days - as that always used to generate a LOT of visitors (see below) (KT)

RHS Botanical Art Show in February 2016

Controls on travel are likely to be very important to the success of the show. The RHS Botanical Art Show has always had a large number of international artists participating. The problem at the moment is there are very strict controls on who can go where - and this varies across the world (KT)

What's the date of the next Selection Meeting?

The Selection Meeting is when representatives of the Picture Committee review the applications to exhibit and decide who should get approval to exhibit at some point in the next five years.

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"New Growth": Online Exhibition by Edinburgh Society of Botanical Artists

8/2/2021

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Edinburgh Society of Botanical Artists's very FIRST ONLINE EXHIBITION called, very aptly, New Growth launched today, Monday 8th February and continues online (on their website) until Monday 22nd March 2021

It looks like this on their website - but also opens up to reveal more!

The exhibition includes artwork developed during pandemic lockdown by the following artists:

VIEW THE EXHIBITION (note not all artwork is for sale but much is)
To view the artwork by individual artists: click the link in their name above.
The artists indicate whether the artwork is:

an original or print
what media is used
what size it is
how it is available (eg framed or matted)

Very good effort - but scope to improve

I think the presentation of the artwork is very good. The vertical scroll through the artwork very much suits those used to viewing art online via their tablets and smartphones.

It's good to see all proper information about the artwork supplied. Organising it so that sales are via the artist and not the society makes life a lot simpler for the art society given the need to observe ecommerce regulations and guidelines etc. when selling artwork online.

However whenever you do something new as there's always something you could do better. What follow are comments offered with the intention of

helping to improve the online exhibition with a view to providing more successful outcomes for artists in terms of sales.
highlighting for other societies some of the things to think about when selling online.

Both of my comments relate to the fact this is an ONLINE exhibition and not a normal one in an art gallery.

FRAMED ARTWORK
Artists might want to consider supplying original work matted to a standard size and not framed.

The reason for this are as follows:

The frame is part of what a buyer would pay for (in some instances) but the frame is not on view
The choice of frame is also a very individual choice -(e.g. I detest black frames for botanical artwork and would move on rather than buy an artwork in a black frame. By way of contrast, other people of course love black frames!)
Framed artwork can increase the cost of shipping (i.e. frames increase both size and weight) - and more information about shipping would be helpful.

For more about framing art, see Do frames help to sell art? and today's Framing your artwork - a summary on my Making A Mark blog.

My personal choice would always be to buy matted artwork properly packaged (to professional standards) - and use the money I save on not buying frames from the artist to buy more artwork!

ARTISTS EMAIL
[UPDATE: Problem now fixed - and the email link for every single picture is now very evident! I hope it bears fruit!]

Where is this? I'm puzzled by the instruction to "click on the email link" to contact the artist - but I'm unclear where this is.

Is it the "contact us" link on the website - or was each artist supposed to provide an email - or a link to an online site where they can be contacted? I note that a lot of the artists don't provide any link to their websites or any email information.

This is something that can be remedied easily - and might make a lot of difference to the number of sales.

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Dare to be Square - available to view online

26/10/2020

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Dare to be Square - the non-juried virtual exhibition of small works of botanical art by members of the American Society of Botanical Artists attending ASBA's virtual conference is now available for all to see online on YouTube (see below)

The Small Works Online Exhibition Premiere slideshow premiere of "Dare to be Square" occurred at the Welcome Reception on Wednesday, October 14th

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A Major Exhibitions UPDATE - in art galleries and online

6/10/2020

After a very long time when it seemed like there might not be another botanical art exhibition, suddenly there are a lot all at once.

I'm going to be writing more about some of those listed below but felt the need to alert you all to what's on to look at right now.

I'm differentiating between

those exhibitions which are in galleries i.e. you can actually visit and
those which are online - which continues to be a popular option for many!

BELOW You can find summary details of exhibitions between now and the end of 2020:

13 botanical art exhibitions in art galleries (and one postponed until 2021)
6 virtual art exhibitions online

If I've left any exhibition out please do not hesitate to leave a comment below with details or contact me

â€‹You can find details of exhibitions all year round in my EXHIBITION section on this website - where you can also provide details for exhibitions you'd like to have listed at the bottom on https://www.botanicalartandartists.com/exhibitions.html

Botanical Art Exhibitions in Galleries

The Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art has finally reopened after being closed for six months - after lots of risk assessments and with controlled entry and a one way system - with two NEW exhibitions - which both opened on Saturday 3rd October and run until Sunday 14 March 2021.â€‹

Paradise Lost
2020 marks the 200th anniversary of the death of Sir Joseph Banks on 19 June 1820. See my blog post last year about the anniversary and this exhibition - Banks 2020: Jan Hendrix at Shirley Sherwood Gallery Kew.

Flowers Delight in the Detail
This exhibition of paintings from the collection of Shirley Sherwood comprises the work of botanical artists and illustrators who focus on the detailed aspects of plants from around the world. It includes artwork resulting from magnification and dissection. Exhibiting artists include: Brigid Edwards (see below), Denise Ramsay and Liz Fraser.

crop of a King Protea by Brigid Ewards

Exhibition: Birr Castle Demesne through the Artists eye
Venue: Birr Castle - which includes award-winning gardens
Dates: Sunday 13 September to Saturday 24 October 2020
Hours: 9am - 6pm
Admission: FREE
All art is for sale

Plants & Co. - Plants and Insects by Asuka Hisihiki and Maria Sibylla Merian
An exhibition in collaboration with the Kunstkabinett Strehler from Sindelfingen
Venue: Forum Botanische Kunst (Forum Botanical Art)
Obere Hauptstrasse 18, D-97291 Thungersheim (near Wurzburg in northern Bavaria)
Original dates cancelled due to Pandemic
RESCHEDULED Dates: October 3 to December 6, 2020
Participating artists: Asuka Hishiki and Maria Sibylla Merian
This exhibition presents:

over twenty original copper engravings and watercolors by Maria Sibylla Merian in very good condition.
original watercolors and prints by Asuka Hishiki

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