NEWS about Botanical Art and for Botanical Artists

REMINDER: Deadline for approval to exhibit at RHS

13/9/2026

The Royal Horticultural Society has started to remind international botanical artists about the DEADLINE for those hoping to exhibit at a future botanical art show in 2027 and beyond

View of three of the exhibits in the RHS Botanical Art Show 2026

For the chance to have your work featured at Saatchi Gallery alongside some of the best talent in botanical art from around the world, ensure you submit your work for pre-selection by the RHS Botanical Art Judging Panel in order to be eligible to apply to exhibit at the RHS Botanical Art and Photography Shows.

The Selection Meeting to identify and approve new botanical artists to exhibit with the RHS from 2027 onwards, will take place on Thursday 8 October 2026.

You MUST get your artwork to the RHS by Tuesday 22 September 2026.

All artists who have not previously exhibited at the RHS Botanical Art and Photography Show, must first submit a sample of four pieces of work to the RHS Botanical Art Judging Panel for assessment and approval at the Selection Meeting.

There are two places to look to find out how to submit your artwork for approval

EITHER the Exhibition of Botanical Art page on the RHS website - which is not easy to find if you don't have the link.
OR the detailed post I wrote back in July about how to exhibit in future. You can find this at How to exhibit at RHS Botanical Art Show 2027 (Part 1: How to get approved to exhibit)

SUMMARY: Note that:

ONLY PRINTS of your artwork should be submitted (Please note these will not be returned.)
Prints should be sent rolled in a poster tube
Prints should arrive at the RHS Lindley Library BY Tuesday 22 September 2026.
ALL Parcels from overseas should be marked £0 value for customs.

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Christiane Fashek wins People's Choice Award at RHS Botanical Art Show 2026

27/7/2026

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The people have voted for their favourite artwork in the RHS Botanical Art Show at the Saatchi Gallery in London.

The winner of the People's Choice Award 2026 is Christiane Fashek's "Raucous Glaucous: Lichens from Texas Hill Country".

This post covers:

the nature of the exhibit that won
about the artist - Christiane Fashek
why it won
the importance of grants - as Christiane had been awarded two separate grants on her way to winning her RHS Gold Medal and this Award
plus more about grants generally

"Raucous Glaucous: Lichens from Texas Hill Country".

"Raucous Glaucous: Lichens from Texas Hill Country" (coloured pencil) by Christiane Fashek - Winner of the People's Choice Award at RHS Botanical Art Show 2026

Raucous Glaucous comprises six artworks which are about three tree-lichen clusters enlarged sixteen times and painted in two conditions: damp/bright, and dry/muted palettes.

All Christiane's paintings are painted at a magnification of 16X their actual size in real life

Below is an Instagram reel on https://www.instagram.com/christianefashek/ of

the habitat where Christiane found her lichens (where you can see them lifesize); and
how she prepared for her paintings.

North Carolina Botanical Garden's Herbarium Associate Gary Perlmutter collaborated with her to identify the organisms she has drawn.

Her Instagram account includes a lot more posts about the process relating to this exhibit. She also has a lichen dedicated account at https://www.instagram.com/lichensinthelimelight/

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Christiane Fashek (@christianefashek)

About the Artist: Christiane Fashek ASBA SBAF CPSA

Christiane Fashek with her exhibit of lichens drawn in coloured pencil

Christiane Fashek ASBA SBAF is a member of the American Society of Botanical Artists and the Colored Pencil Society of America and a Fellow of the Society of Botanical Artists (UK). She is also a cofounder of the Central Texas Botanical Artists Circle.

She is also a member of Instagram and YouTube

She is an instructor at various botanical gardens, giving talks and workshops virtually and in person. She has also taught botanical illustration in coloured pencil for the North Carolina Botanical Garden's Botanical Art and Illustration program.

Christiane uses scale, perspective, and color to highlight lichens’ fascinating features and draw attention to their role as environmental sentinels. She also enjoys painting other subject matter and mixing media with colored pencils.

She has been awarded multiple grants - see below

Why did it win?

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How to exhibit at RHS Botanical Art Show 2027 (Part 1: How to get approved to exhibit)

14/7/2026

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This is for all those who want to learn about how to submit an entry to the most prestigious botanical art exhibition in the world - the RHS Botanical Art Show.
It's a summary of what you need to do - with current dates for next year's show.

Part 1 (this post) covers "how to get approved to exhibit".

Put simply, you cannot exhibit unless you have been approved as meeting at least the "silver medal standard".

I have a VERY LONG page on my website which explains everything in more detail.
See RHS Botanical Art Shows: How to Exhibit | How to Visit (or click the pic below and open in a new tab), This covers:

RHS Botanical Art Show: How to Exhibit
ESSENTIAL READING: RHS Botanical Art & Photography Show Exhibitor Factsheet 2006
MY QUICK READ SUMMARY of current information about exhibiting at the RHS Botanical Art Show.
How to Display Your Botanical Art at the RHS Botanical Art Show in 2027 & Future Years
Regulations and Guidance
- #1. How to be "approved to exhibit"
- #2 The Selection Meeting - the approval process by the RHS
- #3 What to exhibit
- #4 TRY to VISIT THE SHOW - BEFORE you decide your theme or start your project (plus how to visit the 2026 show)
- #5 How to apply for a space at a SPECIFIC RHS Exhibition of Botanical Art
- #6 How to present your botanical artwork and exhibit
- #7 How botanical artwork is judged at the RHS Show
- #8 How to win an RHS Gold Medal

RHS Botanical Art Shows - under Exhibitions Section on the Botanical Art and Artists website

There is also the RHS Botanical Art & Photography Show artists factsheet (2026) which provides guidance for those wanting to exhibit - but at the moment we only have the version for the 2026 Show.

Selection Meeting: How to be approved to exhibit

The #1 thing which makes this exhibition different is that you cannot apply for a space in the exhibition before you have been approved to exhibit by the RHS.

In other words, the standard of your artwork is assessed BEFORE you can apply to exhibit in a specific annual exhibition.

The Selection Meeting considers submissions from artists wanting to be "approved to exhibit" in the next five years
Successful applicants MAY then be able to exhibit at the exhibition in the following year
WHEN you can exhibit depends on:
- the competition for space from previously approved artists
- how many are approved to exhibit at this meeting
- how many artists are coming to the end of their five years approval period

Hence - for all new potential botanical artists wanting to exhibit with RHS - there is a Selection Meeting to determine who may exhibit with the RHS within the five years from 2027.

The Selection Meeting this year will take place on Thursday 8 October 2026.

What you need to submit to get approved

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RHS Botanical Art Show 2026: Silver Medals

8/7/2026

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This is my post in which I highlight who won the three RHS Silver medals at the RHS Botanical Art Show 2026. As I've mentioned previously, the standard to be accepted to exhibit at the RHS Botanical Art Show is "Silver Medal Standard".

This is the third of my posts about who won which medals. The two before this were

RHS Botanical Art Show 2026: View of part of Gallery 2.

Those winning a Silver medal will usually have numerous areas for improvement to reach a Gold Medal Standard. (EXTRACTED FROM: RHS Botanical Art Show #3: Medals Awards and Feedback (2018)

Artists are listed below in alphabetical order by surname. Links to websites or social media are embedded in the name

Kati Haajanen Rosacea - RHS Silver 2026

Kati Haajanen (UK) RHS Medal History: First Time Exhibitor
Rosacea

Kati lives in Cupar in Scotland and is a first time exhibitor and likes painting nature, plants and animals. She did a 2 year Diploma in Painting and Printmaking from Heatherley School of Fine Art, London and graduated in July 2012. She also took watercolour classes with Claire Dalby RWS RE (lucky girl!). Kati is also a children's illustrator.

These paintings are small acts of devotion - to the seasons, to the brief beauty of flowers and berries, and to the way colour carries memory. A reminder that nothing lasts forever, and perhaps that is why it feels so precious,

My reading of her rather "romantic" statement about her exhibit and what her paintings mean to her indicated to me that this was an artist who was maybe approaching these paintings from a rather more floral perspective. She calls it "arty". I am left wondering whether the Judges felt that some aspects lacked the botanical rigour expected of exhibits in this show - and whether that might be the reason for the Silver Medal. For example, I could see no scale bars.

There is also an inconsistency in size and format within her six exhibits. This is something that can be eliminated at the outset if the exhibit is designed from the outset as a set. For me it indicates an artist who has tackled her paintings one at a time - which is not untypical - but has maybe not settled on a pictorial format before she started. I personally found the mats cut in rather too much to the painting leaving less space than I would like to see for the plants to "breathe".

Very grateful for my silver medal, and that they allowed me to use my slightly more arty, less scientific approach in my exhibit

Irina Neacsu (Romania)
RHS Medal History: Silver-Gilt 2022
Iris Pseuadacorus: Beauty and Resilience in Connecticut Wetlands

Irina lives and works in Romania. She originally trained as an architect and is currently pursuing a PhD at the Art University in Bucharest and is a researcher at the National Museum of Art in Bucharest. Her more recent studies have been about the landscape and she uses plants to explore the connections between culture and landscape. It's a very different sort of perspective for an RHS Botanical Art exhibit. I kept thinking of it as "dancing at the margins". Read on to find out why.

Irina Neacsu - Iris Pseuadacorus: Beauty and Resilience in Connecticut Wetlands

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RHS Botanical Art Show 2026: Silver Gilt Medals

30/6/2026

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Mushrooms that occur in Wakayama Prefecture, Japan by Yoyo Sasaki - RHS Silver Gilt Medal 2026

This is my post in which I highlight who won the eight RHS Silver Gilt medals at the RHS Botanical Art Show 2026

My recent post RHS Botanical Art Show 2026: Awards and Gold Medals has already covered the top awards and Gold Medals.
My next post will be about the Silver Medals.

My reason for only covering Gold, Silver Gilt and Silver is that your artwork MUST be of Silver Medal Standard for you to be approved to exhibit in the show.

I never cover those who get a Bronze Medal (two this year) or if an exhibit is not awarded any medal - which does happen.

The RHS Botanical Art and Photography Show can currently be seen at the Saatchi Gallery until 2nd August. Opening hours are Monday – Sunday 10AM – 6PM with last entry at 5.20pm.

Gallery 1: Long left hand wall with a Silver Gilt either end - bookending two Golds and a Bronze

Context for what the different medals mean

This is a brief characterisation of what each medal represents, written after a discussion about the meaning of the colour of the different medals, back in 2018.

A Gold medal exhibit has to be outstanding in all areas and really have the ‘wow’ factor.
A Silver-Gilt medal is a very high award and still an exceptional achievement. In many cases a Silver-gilt will have only been missing a couple of elements that meant it was not quite a Gold.
The Silver medal will usually have numerous areas for improvement.
A Bronze medal is rarely awarded as the standard is generally so high, but it may be awarded if the artist has really only achieved one or two elements from the criteria.
EXTRACTED FROM: RHS Botanical Art Show #3: Medals Awards and Feedback (2018)

End of Gallery 1 (facing the door)

RHS Botanical Art Show at the Saatchi Gallery - until August 2nd 2026

RHS Silver Gilt Medals 2026 x 8

What was very notable for me was how many of the Silver Gilt Medal Winners were former RHS Gold Medal Winners and Award winners. My jaw kept dropping.

The Judges are very tight lipped. They never ever comment in any specific way on the exhibits to anybody other than the artist. I always have to read between the lines. Sometimes I pick up clues from the feedback given to exhibitors which they pass on to me.

I think this is the most Silver Gilt Medals in an RHS Botanical Art exhibition for some time. As such, it proves an excellent opportunity for botanical artists - both past and present - to

check out the individual exhibits and
see if they can work out why they did not win Gold. i.e. to repeat what was said above - as judged against the criteria which was stated in my last post and summarised below.

This is an exercise which I think is very important to all those aspiring to win a Gold Medal in future.

"In many cases a Silver-gilt will have only been missing a couple of elements that meant it was not quite a Gold.

RHS JUDGES CRITERIA summarised on a display in the Gallery. Every single word counts towards the overall assessment of an exhibit

KEY NOTES
I think maybe the big lessons from this are as follows.

If you won a Gold Medal some years ago - but not this time:

Either the overall standard (for achieving a Gold Medal) has improved - which I personally think it has.
- Past Gold Medal winners also think the same. I know a few who are very wary of coming back just in case they don't win a Gold Medal again.
- The very best way to judge is to come and see the show and observe the standards in the context of the criteria for judging!
- ANY artist should always bear in mind that producing excellent paintings as a "one off" is a VERY different proposition to producing a minimum of six exhibits of equal standard on a botanical theme.
Or your exhibit does not equate to the standard to that which impressed in previous years (and/or is "less wow")
Or you have changed media from that which impressed last time
Or maybe your time planning needs to improve because you rushed the completion of the exhibit. You have five years to complete an exhibit. Use it wisely.
Or maybe your level of "finish" is not as good as it needs to be - and you thought it was
Or maybe a little bit of all?

Now for the individual Artists and Exhibits awarded a Silver Gilt Medal.

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RHS Botanical Art Show 2026: Awards and Gold Medals

21/6/2026

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Jenny Hyde Johnson receiving her Best Exhibit Award

On Thursday night, botanical artists from a number of different countries gathered at the Saatchi Gallery to find out who had won what colour of medal and the major awards for best painting and best Exhibit in the RHS Botanical Art Show 2026

Below I have listed the names of all the winners of the major awards and the Gold Medals. Together with my photo of their exhibit - and the exhibit with the artist where possible Plus info about both the exhibit and the artist.

The short version is on the RHS Online exhibit of all 19 entries to the Botanical Art Exhibition 2026. Regular readers will recall my posts tend to be rather longer!

My tweak for this year is I am including some "zoom" pics of specific parts of some paintings.

The remaining medal winners are listed in the next post.

(Apologies for the photos - I'm going back to see if I can improve. The Saatchi Gallery where the botanical artwork is has a very odd lighting which grays everything out. It's always a struggle to get anything looking like the actual exhibit.)

The RHS Botanical Art Show 2026 - how to visit

The RHS Botanical Art and Photography Show is now opens to the public until 2nd August 2026

at the Saatchi Gallery in London
There is Free entry for RHS and Saatchi Gallery members, on production of a valid membership card (pre-booking not required).
Otherwise entry costs £6.

That's six weeks to in which you can pay it a visit and find out

WHY this is the oldest and most prestigious botanical art show in the world which has been held in various forms for nearly a 100 years; and
WHAT the standard of botanical art is which wins an RHS Gold Medal!
You can read about the shows from 2007-2025 in my dedicated page on this website. ARCHIVE: RHS Botanical Art Shows 2007-2025. I have been to every single one of the London shows.

I highly recommend you pay it a visit if you have any aspirations to

be a better botanical artist. Find out more about the artists who won medals and awards below.
enter this show - but I give you a bit more help in
- my page dedicated to RHS Botanical Art Shows: How to Exhibit
- my page about Exhibit Titles at RHS Botanical Art Shows - which categorises the titles of past gold medal winning exhibits. You may be surprised at the result....

The latter will need a major update due to one observation I have to make about this year's show

My RHS blog posts are usually VERY LONG - with

lots of images and
lots of useful information and tips for those aspiring to one day be exhibited in the RHS Botanical Art Show.

However, I'm now 71, had major shoulder surgery just over 2 months ago and, while I can now type again - I'm slower than usual and must pace myself.

NUMBER OF EXHIBITORS AND PAINTINGS IN 2026

19 botanical artists and illustrators are participating in this exhibition - compared to

15 in 2025,
22 exhibits in 2024 (which I did not see as I was recovering from surgery at the time) and
23 in 2023.

The numbers are often down to people dropping out - for various reasons - after they have received an invitation to exhibit.

Each artist has an exhibit of six artworks and all 19 exhibits and 114 paintings were

individually assessed by the RHS botanical art judging panel (of whom more in a later post) according to the Judging Criteria - see below
awarded an RHS medal - PLUS an RHS award for some.

The artists come from the following countries

Japan x 5
Romania x 1 (US subject)
South Africa x 2
Switzerland x 1
UK x 7
USA x 3

RHS MEDALS FOR BOTANICAL ART

This year there are:

Gold Medal x 6 (i.e. every single artwork was GM standard)
Silver Gilt x 8 (i.e. the exhibit may have been let down by one painting or one aspect repeated throughout)
Silver x 3
Bronze x 1

There are also some surprises!

MAJOR CHANGES IN 2026

The major changes I observed in 2026 are as follows:

A major emphasis on HABITAT (13 exhibits) - and hence, as well as native plants, we can see exhibits which define the influences of geology and ecology and current threats.
- 5 of the 6 Gold Medallists
- 6 of the 8 Silver Gilt Medallists
- 2 of the 3 silver Medallists
- SEE ALSO my list of Gold Medal winning Exhibit Titles at past RHS Botanical Art Shows. I would suggest this current exhibition suggests that exhibits about Plant Families and Genus names is giving way to what I call Exhibits related to a specific place or location (habitat / locality / country)
three exhibits about FUNGI - and one about common disease symptoms - both of these are not common topics for exhibits but reflect increasing interest in the non0floral
an increase in AMERICANS! At last this exhibition is becoming better known and American artists are up for the challenge! (The exhibits even included artwork about an American area by a Romanian!)
- three individuals living in New York, Connecticut and California
- as usual UK and SE Asia artists dominated
It's also nice to see South African Artists again - there have been too few of late.

Mary Crabtree and Christiane Fashek at RHS Botanical Art 2026

RHS Botanical Art 2026: Mary Crabtree and Christiane Fashek

RHS Botanical Art 2026: Gillian Condy from South Africa

RHS Botanical Art 2026:Jenny Hyde Johnson from South Africa

ASSESSMENT, CRITERIA AND STANDARDS

The standard to get "approved to exhibit" is "at least silver" and I would normally expect everybody exhibiting to endeavouring to do better than the artwork they exhibited to get "approved to exhibit". But it doesn't always work out like that - and 4 exhibits did not improve on that standard.

I ONLY write about those artists who achieve silver and above.

This is a brief characterisation of what each colour of medal represents, written after a discussion about the meaning of the colour of the different medals, back in 2018.

A Gold medal exhibit has to be outstanding in all areas and really have the ‘wow’ factor.
A Silver-Gilt medal is a very high award and still an exceptional achievement. In many cases a Silver-gilt will have only been missing a couple of elements that meant it was not quite a Gold.
The Silver medal will usually be because an exhibit has numerous areas for improvement.
A Bronze medal is rarely awarded as the standard is generally so high, but it may be awarded if the artist has really only achieved one or two elements from the criteria.

RHS Botanical Art Show #3: Medals Awards and Feedback (2018)
(Note: I have even seen exhibits not even given a medal award in the past).

Below you can read the Judging Criteria used to assess the medal status. These are excellent guidelines for developing any botanical art at any time for any reason.

RHS Botanical Art Show 2026: Judging Criteria

RHS Botanical Art Awards 2026
- for outstanding botanical artwork

Charlotte Brooks - RHS Art Curator and the RHS Botanical Art Awards

Charlotte Brooks - RHS Art Curator and Secretary of the Judging Panel - introducing the awards for the RHS Botanical Art Show 2026

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RHS Botanical Art Show 2025: Silver Gilt and Silver Medals

16/6/2025

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Every botanical artist must be "approved to exhibit" BEFORE they can even get a place to display their art in a future annual Botanical Art Show held by the Royal Horticultural Society.

A very high standard of work (equivalent to at least a Silver RHS medal) is required to be selected to display botanical illustration, judged by the RHS. Emphasis is placed on botanical accuracy in combination with aesthetic appeal. Artists should present their work that is of the very highest quality and has been completed recently (and at least within 5 years
Botanical Art and Photography Show Artists Factsheet

As a result, I always expect to see artwork of a very high standard at the show. However, different artists's concepts of a "very high standard" can vary a lot - which is why the accreditation process exists. The RHS want to exhibit the best.

This year I got the very strong impression that some exhibitors had heard about the exhibition - but had NOT actually seen the exhibition before.

Maybe information from artists wanting to exhibit needs a very clear statement as to whether or not the applicant has seen one of the RHS Botanical Art Shows?

When the show was only two days in the RHS Lindley Hall, it could be impossible for people to visit.
Now it is held at the Saatchi Gallery over a number of weeks (13th June - 27th July in 2025), it's very much easier to visit.
Most aspiring botanical artists would find it extremely educational to visit the show and study all the artwork on display. Every aspiring botanical artist can and should use their eyes and brain and the stated criteria to work out why some exhibits got a Gold and some got a Silver. It's something I try to do every single year.

I always HIGHLY RECOMMEND that all those wanting to exhibit with the RHS in future should make a point of trying to see a show first. It's really, really important that people:

understand the nature of the exhibition - and its very high standards
appreciate the standard of the best artwork - and WHY it varies between medals
come away with a very good sense of what they might be able to achieve OR what they need to work on

Note: If you cannot get to the show you can review all the information on this website about the RHS Botanical Art Shows - which includes lots of images of Gold Medal artwork in past shows! Applications to exhibit and the numbers exhibiting have hugely increased since I first started writing about the RHS Botanical Art Show back in 2006. I've now been writing for 18 years - since RHS Gold Medal Botanical Art on February 23rd, 2007 and there's a LOT of info on this website!

Surjit Ghaley Riyait with two paintings from her exhibit of The Life Cycle Aesculus hippocastum Out of the six silver exhibits, the only one I really liked was this one.

Some context

This is a brief characterisation of what each medal represents, written after a discussion about the meaning of the colour of the different medals, back in 2018.

A Gold medal exhibit has to be outstanding in all areas and really have the ‘wow’ factor.
A Silver-Gilt medal is a very high award and still an exceptional achievement. In many cases a Silver-gilt will have only been missing a couple of elements that meant it was not quite a Gold.
The Silver medal will usually have numerous areas for improvement.
A Bronze medal is rarely awarded as the standard is generally so high, but it may be awarded if the artist has really only achieved one or two elements from the criteria.
RHS Botanical Art Show #3: Medals Awards and Feedback (2018)

ALLOCATION OF MEDALS

My post on Friday RHS Botanical Art Show 2025: Awards and Gold Medals has already covered the top awards and Gold Medals. This post is about the remaining medals.

Two Silver Gilt and six Silver Medals were awarded last week at the RHS Botanical Art Show at the Saatchi Gallery in Chelsea. As a result

13% of exhibitors received Silver Gilts
40% of exhibitors received Silver Medals

There were no exhibits classed as either Bronze or "no award".

It's very unusual to have so few silver gilts. I'm wondering whether it's maybe a function of

either a significant reduction in the number of exhibits i.e. 22 in 2024; 15 in 2025
and/or the number of first time exhibitors (eg 5 of the 7 medallists covered by this post were first time exhibitors)
and/or people who have previously exhibited with RHS but not in London and/or not recently and/or never visited a London show

Last year I wrote a post about RHS Botanical Art 2024: Strengths & Scope for Improvement - and I'll be doing so again this year later this week in a similar post. It's particularly relevant to all those hoping to exhibit in the future and/or improve the colour of their medal.

Silver Gilt Medals

First Time Exhibitor Juliet Rowse with her Silver Gilt exhibit of Helleborus orientalis

Two artists received Silver Gilt Medals in order of country

JAPAN

Hideko Kamoshita (previous exhibitor in 2017 and 2019 - receiving a Silver Gilt on both occasions) - Flowering Cherries in Japan

Juliet Rowse (First Time Exhibitor) - Helleborus orientalis from The National Collection at Hadlow College, Kent

Silver Medals

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