NEWS about Botanical Art and for Botanical Artists

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

8/2/2021

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.

0 Comments

Dare to be Square - available to view online

26/10/2020

0 Comments

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

0 Comments

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

Field of Vision Common Spotted Orchid Verre EglomisÃ© on convex glass 46cm high incl. frame - by Yanny Petters (2020)

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

RHS Lindley Library: Digital Exhibitions of the Art Collection

14/9/2020

0 Comments

The RHS Lindley Library remains closed for the time being - but has started having exhibitions again!

The exhibitions are online and include:

two exhibitions accessible by the public:
- Enduring Beauty: Orchid Portraits of the RHS
- Healing Garden: A History of Medicinal Plants
one which is a RHS Member only exhibitions: Worth a Thousand Words. I have to say I like that idea of giving us members a bit of a perk!

Just click the links and you can view both the images and the narrative text to go with them

Enduring Beauty: Orchid Portraits of the RHS

The RHS has employed an official artist to paint beautiful life-size portraits of orchids for over 120 years.

This exhibition opened in the Library just before lockdown started. It was going to provide a spectacular display of recent RHS orchid portraits - including the latest portraits by current RHS Orchid Artist, Deborah Lambkin.

Deborah is the ninth official RHS orchid painter since the first postholder was appointed in 1897

The digital exhibition:

introduces both Deborah Lambkin and Nellie Roberts, the first of the RHS Orchid Artists who held the role for nearly 60 years and painted over 4000 of the 7000 orchid portraits now in the Lindley Library Collection.
provides large images of some of her paintings of orchids since she took on the role of Official Orchid Artist

reviews the role of the orchid breeders and RHS Orchid Committee - which has been judging and giving awards to new orchids since 1889!
reviews how the orchids get judged
then the process used by Deborah to paint the 30 or so new orchids she is given to record every year

READ MORE about Deborah Lambkin in my blog posts:

Healing Garden: A History of Medicinal Plants

This exhibition reviews:

the work of the herbalists
what is a herbal - and "simples"
what the early printed herbals contained
what the illustrations looked like in the early herbals
the role of science and superstition in relation to plants and herbals
the role of herbals in relation to modern science
the remedies associated with specific plants eg peonies, foxglove, rosemary, lemon balm, mugwort, honeysuckle, jasmine, valerian, hyacinth, dandelion, mint, lungwort, marjoram , thyme, primrose, white nettle and daffodil bulbs,

You can also READ MORE about Herbals on this website

Keep up to date with Botanical Art Exhibitions
Blog posts are emailed to you when you
Subscribe to Botanical Art & Artists - News by Email

Worth a Thousand Words

Worth a Thousand Words - for RHS members ONLY

This digital exhibition is the equivalent of the exhibition held in the Lindley Library during the RHS Botanical Art Show in 2018.

"Worth a Thousand Words" is about the RHS Gold Medal winning paintings in the botanical art collection.You can see:

artwork in a variety of media
a selection of recent acquisitions and some of the finest contemporary botanical artworks in the RHS Lindley Collections
the very different ways that contemporary artists portray plants and flowers while raising the standards and pushing the boundaries of botanical illustration.

In this instance, the digital exhibition is for RHS Members only - or rather those who have got an online RHS account (like me!)

However everybody can read more about that exhibition - and see some of the images - in my blog post Worth a Thousand Words - exhibition at the RHS.

However you can see much larger images of the work in the online exhibition.

So if you're an RHS member and have not got your online account sorted yet, now's the time to do it!

0 Comments

ABBA: Call for Entries for 'Purely Botanical'

23/6/2020

0 Comments

The Association of British Botanical Artists (ABBA) have announced their Call for Entries for their next botanical art exhibition called "Purely Botanical" - and it opens for submissions today. (I was alerted to this by ABBA after publishing my last post - and they very kindly sent me the details this morning!)

As an Association of Botanical Artists our focus is on reflecting accurately the natural beauty of plants that surround us, particularly native plants.

Purely Botanical - Call for Entries

This call for entries is a bit different

This is NOT an Open Exhibition. The exhibition is only open to those who are members of the Association of British Botanical Artists. However see my note about membership below.
This is a virtual exhibition - NOT an exhibition "in a place".
This is NOT a juried exhibition - except insofar as making sure all entries relate to "botanical art"

That said, the Gallery software and presentation of their last exhibition "Winter Warmer (2019)" is excellent. I really like the way that it:

provides permanent online exhibition space on the website - with hanging space for any size of picture
each image is listed WITH an artwork title, the name of the artist and a description
it's really easy to move from one artwork to the next - in the "slideshow" format
right click is disabled - meaning images cannot be downloaded
the preamble lists all the artists and where they come from PLUS a map showing where artists live. The last exhibition included artists living across the world.
the images are excellent - and upsize to a reasonable if clicked - at which point you also access a more detailed description of the artwork
it remains online until the next online exhibition.

Entry Criteria

Who can enter:

Only Members of ABBA can submit artwork. However despite the name the website makes clear that ABBA is ....

ABBA is for every one - every where - every ability

the membership fee has been reduced significantly in the current context to £25p.a. (for which I applaud ABBA!) See the membership page for more details.

What artwork can be entered:

botanical art (I'd like to see a link to a more precise definition of "botanical art" on the ABBA website)
their preference is for plants native to your location (which makes them a bit different to other art societies who allow international entries but prefer to stipulate that entries should be relevant to the location of the organisation)
Either an existing artwork or a new piece.
The exhibition is not juried other than ensuring the work is "botanical art".
A maximum of two pieces of artwork can be submitted - of which at least one will be exhibited.

Key dates: The key dates are:

Open for Submissions: 23rd June 2020
Closing Date for Submissions: 20th September 2020
Exhibition Opens: 4th October 2020

How to submit: This is the Artwork Submission Page. You need to submit the following details plus a digital image

Title
Description
Scientific name(s) if possible
Size of your image (inside mount measure - width and height in cm)
Scale - if other than life size (i.e. 2x OR you have drawn a scale bar)
Your digital image - of "publishable quality". The technical requirements for the image to display optimally are:
- scanned ( professionally preferred) or a quality photograph
- minimum resolution of 72 dpi
- a minimum of 2500 pixels on the shortest side
- format can be .tiff or .jpg (100% or Max) .png
- a maximum file size of 10MB

An "Original" Concern
I'd recommend that ABBA always stipulate that all artists confirm that...

artwork submitted is wholly ORIGINAL (i.e. not copied in whole or part)
the sole work of the artist (i.e. not created in a class taught by another artist or done as part of an exercise in a book)
any reference photos used by the artist are also their own (i.e. taken by the artist not paid for by the artist)

It helps to avoid the wholly avoidable and potentially expensive complications with third parties - for both ABBA (as publishers) and the artist - if somebody asserts that an artwork displayed in an exhibition has infringed their copyright. It's now very much a standard requirement for most art competition and open exhibitions - precisely because this problem has occurred (again and again) in the past. I've personally known of a number of examples told to me by various art societies and/or the artists who have had their copyright infringed over 15 years of writing online about open exhibitions. I've also reported infringements to art societies! (I see and know a LOT of artwork!)

A stipulation by the organisers that all work MUST be completely original - plus an immediate takedown when notified with adequate proof - almost always performs the "get out of jail free card" function for the organisation concerned. (Not so for the artist though)

However the stipulation very often avoids the really awful experience for an art society of being notified that somebody has been very naughty - and it's there for all to see!

0 Comments

SBA's VIRTUAL Online Annual Exhibition opens

3/6/2020

0 Comments

The Society of Botanical Artists's Annual Exhibition - Plantae 2020 - is now ONLINE and open for viewing. I think this virtual exhibition is probably the biggest ever exhibition of botanical artwork ever!

I'll be doing

a post about the selected artists tomorrow and
a review of the exhibition on Friday - by which time I'll have viewed all the images.

Plantae 2020 comprises 426 artworks - paintings, drawings, fine art prints, and 3D work - by 221 artists. Content is very varied as always with previous SBA Exhibitions. (You can find my blog posts about previous SBA exhibitions on this page). I think it's a terrific achievement by both artists and the SBA Officers - everything works really well and I love the alternative ways of viewing the exhibition!

The Online Exhibition comprises the images submitted for the selection process. As such they were never intended for an online exhibition and we need to appreciate that not everybody is the best digital image-maker - but that doesn't mean to say they are not a good botanical artist.

Here's how to view the images ONLINE in one of the three ways you can choose to view.

If you View by Artwork - it starts a slideshow of all the 426 images in the exhibiton (+ music!)

This is Rosa 'Comte de Champagne' by Janie Pirie which was selected as the featured artwork for Plantae 2020.

If you View by Thumbnails - you can choose which artwork you want to look at. There are 11 pages of thumbnails on my screen. This is what one page of thumbnails looks like.

If you View by Artist - you can see all the entries by one artist.
Below is a great set of paintings by Julia Asenbaum from Scotland.

Blog posts are emailed to you when you
Subscribe to Botanical Art & Artists - News by Email
Your subscription is: ONLY to this blog + ONLY activated IF you verify the link you will receive.

Art is for sale

You can enquire if artwork is for sale.

If it is then you purchase direct from the artist - and all transactions should comply with all relevant ecommerce / online / distance selling law and regulations in the UK (the link is to my page on this topic)
SBA passes on the enquiry to the artist but is taking no commission on sales - which means this benefits the artist more than usual in these challenging times.

I'd have liked to see an online catalogue or basic price list on the website for the exhibition. The practical reason for this is that, for the most part, I find that no price means people don't ask whereas a price in an exhibition seems to start to stimulate the buying urges and the queries start!

DON'T FORGET - more about the exhibition tomorrow and Friday
- but you can start viewing Plantae 2020 right now
You can subscribe to this blog if you want my blog post delivered to your inbox (see above)

0 Comments

Drawn from Nature: Irish Botanical Art - Online and Reopening

30/5/2020

0 Comments

Some good news for those who thought they might miss Drawn from Nature: Irish Botanical Art at the National Gallery of Ireland - which features botanical art in Ireland spanning almost 300 years, from the 1720s to 2019.

Back in March I wrote about the opening of this new exhibition of botanical art (see link to blog post above). As luck would have it, it had hardly been open any time at all when the Pandemic started and all art galleries - and exhibition were closed around the world.

The GOOD NEWS is that:

Drawn from Nature: Irish Botanical Art will reopen on 20 July. The exhibition will then continue until 30 August 2020.
In the meantime, you can view Drawn from Nature Online - an online exhibition of a selection of watercolours, drawings and illustrations from the exhibition. This includes sections on
- Botanical Illustration
- The Botanical Portraitist
- plus a selection of artwork by Contemporary Botanical Artists on this link

Drawn from Nature celebrates three centuries of Irish botanical art. The exhibition includes drawings, watercolours, prints, and illustrated publications dating from the 1700s to the modern day. ....

While some of these artists ventured far across the world, others barely travelled beyond their townlands. Many were celebrated during their lifetimes; others (mainly women) worked diligently, anonymously, and with little recognition. In their work, art and science become one.

The Botanical Portraitist

The artworks depict a wide variety of plants - common and rare; native to Ireland and exotic; growing wild and carefully cultivated. Included are Botanical Portraits, Illustrated Flora, and the work of Botanical Illustrators. The exhibition also features work by ten contemporary artists who follow in this rich artistic tradition and forge the way ahead.

0 Comments

<<Previous