NEWS about Botanical Art and for Botanical Artists

Two NEW Pages: Call for Entries & Online Exhibitions

26/10/2021

I've created two new pages about Calls for Entries for Open Exhibitions and Online Exhibitions. These are summarised below.

Call for Entries for OPEN Botanical Art Exhibitions

NEW PAGE: Call for Entries to OPEN Botanical Art Exhibitions

More and more of the major exhibitions are becoming open to entries from botanical artists and illustrators from around the world.

Accordingly I've changed my approach to listing them.

In future, I'm limiting Call for Entries (CFE) Information to all those exhibitions which are genuinely OPEN i.e. the selected artworks are NOT limited to those by specific botanical art societies.
This page will provide a timeline of calls for entries - with CFEs listed by the date of the deadline and not the geographical area or name of the society or other organisation (which left me struggling to keep up!)

This will create one page where people can see the overall timeline - and associated deadlines - for different opportunities offered by different organisations.

The rationale for this change in approach is that where entries are limited to members, the societies are more than capable of communicating with their own members. However, what's more difficult to find are those CFEs which are open to all - anywhere in the world!

Some exhibitions - open to all - will still have more details / information about their Call for Entries on their specific dedicated pages (e.g. RHS / Hunt / Margaret Flockton ) - and a link will be made to them from my new dedicated CFE page

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Online / Virtual Exhibitions

NEW PAGE: Online / Virtual Exhibitions of Botanical Art and Illustration

Of late, Societies / Groups of Botanical Artists have developed a number of ONLINE / VIRTUAL (i.e. digital) Exhibitions of Botanical Art and Illustration.

Some only exist online - while others complement exhibitions in art galleries and other exhibition spaces.
Some are online during specific dates - while others remain online for much longer periods.
Some are on dedicated gallery sites - while others are videos
Most involve selling artwork online
All are currently for societies of botanical artists - but in principle there's nothing to stop an individual artist having an online exhibition.....

This page details

CURRENT Exhibitions - which can be seen online
UPCOMING Online Exhibitions (if notified to me - using the form at the bottom of the page)
PAST Exhibitions by year (which will become an Archive Page in due course)
TIPS for organisations planning future online exhibitions - it provides information and advice about the practical and aspects and rules associated with selling botanical art online - and then getting it safely to the buyer.

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Deadline for ABBA Online Exhibition is 1st September

27/8/2021

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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

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.

'A Magical Garden' by Suzy Fasht ARWS

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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