NEWS about Botanical Art and for Botanical Artists

SBA Plantae 2021 Virtual Exhibition now online

4/6/2021

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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Remembering Janet Pope

20/11/2020

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Janet Pope with her medal winning exhibit at the RHS Botanical Art Show in 2019.

I learned last night that Janet Pope MA (RCA), DipAD, FLS, FSBA, CPFGS, IAPI has passed away.

Janet has been very seriously ill in recent years. When I met her with her Potatoes exhibit at the RHS Botanical Art Show in 2019 we had a very long chat. She knew full well that her condition was terminal and that she had limited time left - and she was VERY determined to make the most of it!

I remember being so very pleased for her that she could get to exhibit one of her favourite subjects at the prestigious RHS Botanical Art Show show - and win a medal. I took a photo of her to record the event - and I think both she and I knew I was very likely to use it in this sort of post.

Her extremely unusual and refreshing exhibit of Potatoes - shoots, roots, skin, flesh - Solanum tuberosum ( ‘Red Emmalie’, ‘Highland Burgundy Red’, ‘Pink Fir Apple’, ‘Violetta’, ‘Shetland Black’ and Salad Blue’. ) can be seen below - and on her website. She won an RHS Silver Medal for her exhibit

Potatoes - shoots, roots, skin, flesh - Solanum tuberosum - by Janet Pope (RHS Silver Medal 2019)

About Janet Pope

I know relatively little about Janet beyond her SBA biography, her website and what I've written about her in the past. She always seemed a very private person to me - but she was also a lovely person to get to know and talk to in the last few years.

Education and Work

Janet graduated from the Royal College of Art London in 1973, followed by a British Council Scholarship for 18 months to study traditional textile arts and crafts in Romania. Returning to England, she started a knitwear company, then a special-interest tour company, followed by a womens’ tailoring business. In 2009 Janet joined a local botanical painting class, which led to the SBA Distance Learning Diploma Course graduating in 2012, and her current interest in botanical painting.

Botanical Art and Illustration

Janet was an extremely skilled botanical artist. She had studied initially for a Diploma in Art and Design and then graduated from the Royal College of Art, London with an MA in 29173. She had also been awarded a British Council arts scholarship to to study traditional textile arts and crafts in Romania. On her return she demonstrated her entrepreneurial flair by establishing first a knitwear company, then a special-interest tour company, followed by a womens’ tailoring business.

Her interest in botanical art was stimulated by a local botanical painting class followed by the SBA's Distance Learning Diploma Course. She graduated from that in 2012

She lived and worked in rural Herefordshire where gardens, orchards and hedgerows provided her with an endless supply of plant material. Her botanical art was painted - with great attention to detail and growth habit - in watercolour.

She was also a

Fellow of the Society of Botanical Artists;
an Artist Member of the Chelsea Physic Garden Florilegium Society - which is where I saw her last
a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London (elected 2015) and
a member of the Institute for Analytical Plant Illustration.

Below I'm going to record Janet's achievements in the world of botanical art beyond her RHS Medal - and my photos of her exhibits. Janet was never ever one to boast - but I think she was secretly delighted when others recognised and publicly acknowledged her artwork and achievements - and it's in that spirit that I write this post.

Society of Botanical Art Awards and Certificates

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Plantae 2020: Selected Artists

9/6/2020

These are the 221 botanical artists - mainly from the UK but also from countries all over the world - whose work has been selected for the Plantae 2020 annual exhibition of the Society of Botanical Artists - which this year is being held as a VIRTUAL exhibition online.

Names are ordered by
- country and
- then alphabetically by the surname
If you click their name you can see their artwork. (link now removed as the exhibition closed at the end of June 2020)
â€‹â€‹The number after their name is the number of artworks they have in the exhibition.
Also listed are websites and social media sites where you can see other artwork by the artist. I do this because in these challenging times, artists need support to get their artwork seen. (If I've missed any and you'd like yours added in please leave a comment or contact me)
I'm also embedding images from Instagram where available.

As you can probably guess from my website I like to know something about the artist and what they are interested in - the stories behind the art. Hence, where I can, I've also provided a brief profile although this is often inadequate.
[TIP FOR ARTISTS: Review your online sites and check whether it's possible for you to be be summed up easily in two sentences!]

A very international exhibition!

I'll be commenting on numbers in my review in the near future - but as you can see from the listing below around 20% of the artists came from countries outside the UK - with a number of countries being represented for the first time - which is good news.

I'm sure very many artists would be very pleased if you visited their websites or social media accounts as well as looking at the art in the exhibition.

PS Sorry this has taken so very long to do - I've been working on it every day since Thursday - but there's only so much I can do while searching for profile info and associated sites before I go cross-eyed!!â€‹

United Kingdom
â€‹

Jacqueline Allwood (1) - a glass artist who produces engraved glass Website: www.jacqueline-allwood.com
Charlotte Ambler (1) - a self-taught floral artist from Derbyshire Website: www.charlotteamblerart.co.uk | Instagram: @charlotteamblerart | Facebook: @charlotteamblerartâ€‹

Karen Bailey (2) SBA Fellow who at the RHS Botanical Art Show 2019 was awarded a Silver-Gilt for her Gentian paintings. She's displaying a Gentian on vellum and an Acanthus
â€‹â€‹Sonja Beer (1) - Has lived and worked in Wales for the last 20 years. She works from life in natural light only using in watercolour and graphite | website https://www.sonjabeer.com/ | Facebook https://www.facebook.com/sonjabeer.art
Sophie Bigmore (2) Based in London and currently studying at Central St Martin's. Produces complex hand-cut linocuts with botanical subjects using oil based ink. I'm definitely interested! Where's the prices? - Instagram @sophiebprints/

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Sophie Bigmore (@sophiebprints) on Nov 4, 2019 at 5:10am PST

View this post on Instagram

These two paintings were selected for this yearâ€™s upcoming Society of Botanical Artists exhibition, which will happily now be going ahead online from Wednesday (3rd June). Always an honour to have work in this renowned show. www.soc-botanical-artists.org

A post shared by Victoria Braithwaite (@victotororex) on Jun 1, 2020 at 9:57am PDT

Victoria Braithwaite (2) - Scottish botanical artist who exhibits with the SBA and the SSBA. Has also been selected to exhibit in the Royal Scottish Academy Open Exhibition, Edinburgh and the Sunday Times Watercolour Competition. Has a painting in the Shirley Sherwood collection. | Website https://victoriabraithwaite.co.uk/ | Facebook originalbotanicals/ | Instagram @victotororex/ (see above)
Sandra Fernandez Boys (1) - A professional natural history illustrator who includes botanical in her portfolio. Attended Royal College of Art, 1983-86 obtaining an MA in Natural History Illustration. Her painting is more of a still life than conventional botanical art but very attractive none the less. Website: http://www.sandrafernandez.co.uk/index.html
Marie Burke (1) - a watercolour artist living and working in Somerset. She licenses her paintings for commercial uses. Her peony painting is large and has some sculptural qualities | website https://www.marieburke-art.com

SBA's VIRTUAL Online Annual Exhibition opens

3/6/2020

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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.

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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)

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SBA Annual Exhibition to go online - from 3rd June

27/5/2020

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Plantae 2020 - annual exhibition of the Society of Botanical Artists

Good News! The Society of Botanical Artists announced today that ALL the artwork selected for Plantae Annual Exhibition 2020 will now be available to view in a NEW ONLINE EXHIBITION.

The original Annual Exhibition had been due to open at the Mall Galleries on 3rd June 2020. However on 19th March, the SBA were informed by the Mall Galleries that they would be closed with immediate effect - with no date for reopening in sight.

Instead Plantae will now go online on exhibition will open on 3rd June 2020 - and the exhibition will remain online until the end of June.

Hence it will be capable of being viewed - for the very first time - by anybody interested in botanical art living anywhere in the world!

Given the number of selected artworks in the show this is no small achievement - indeed I think it may well be the biggest online exhibition I'll have seen since lockdown started!!

Maybe online exhibitions will become the norm for all botanical art societies going forward? The Pandemic has certainly already changed a lot in terms of what we think of as normal going forward. At the very least, I think it's very appropriate that the oldest botanical art society in the world should be the first botanical art society to host a very large exhibition of botanical art available online.

To get some sense of what has been achieved -

Last year there were 431 artworks by c.190 botanical artists.
If you take a look at my review of last year's exhibition Review: Society of Botanical Artists 2019 - Plantae - you can see a sample of the number and standard of of artwork on view in the exhibition in my photos.

Announcement of new ONLINE exhibition opening 3rd June 2020 (Cherry Blossom painting by Billy Showell PSBA)

I'm not entirely clear about what which website the exhibition is going on or what the URL for the online exhibition will be. That will of course be announced by the SBA nearer to the time the online exhibition opens.

Sale of artwork

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The Winter Garden: Scented Sprigs and Feisty Flowers by Susan Christopher-Coulson

1/12/2019

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About the Winter Banner for 2019/20

"The Winter Garden: Scented Sprigs and Feisty Flowers" by Susan Christopher-Coulson (Shirley Sherwood Collection) coloured pencil

The Winter Garden: Scented Sprigs and Feisty Flowers by Susan Christopher-Coulson - in a cropped format - is the new banner on the homepage of my website and my Botanical Art and Artists Facebook Page.

This is the first contemporary botanical image I've used since I created my website four and half years ago. There are two reasons for this change:

the routine one - I change the banner to try and suit the season every three months on the 1st December, 1st March, 1st June and 1st September.
Winter has always been a bit of a challenge - except when using images from the Southern Hemisphere!

However, I was very pleased to spot this image of "The Winter Garden: Scented Sprigs and Feisty Flowers" by Susan Christopher-Coulson when reviewing the artwork hung in the Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art exhibition at Kew. It seemed very appropriate to me to honour the exhibition in some way over these winter months. When I saw her at the private view I asked whether I could use the image for the winter banner for my website and she very kindly agreed.

About Susan Christopher Coulson

Susan Christopher Coulson at the PV for Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery - where "The Winter Garden: Scented Sprigs and Feisty Flowers" is currently hanging

Susan Christopher Coulson GM (1999) VPSBA is a very experienced botanical artist and teacher of botanical art whose chosen medium is coloured pencils.

Susan was born in Durham and trained as a fashion and textile designer, graduating with a degree in Fashion and Textiles from Kingston Polytechnic in 1977. She then lived in London for several years while working in the fashion industry as a designer / illustrator. She returned north with a young family and the subjects she drew began to change from fashion to plants.

The Botanical Artist

She'd become interested in the plant world while on country walks with her father during her childhood - which is also when drawing with coloured pencil also started as her preferred form of artistic expression. As an adult she expanded her techniques

She focused on developing drawings based on natural subjects, including botanical, and expanding her coloured pencil techniques, which have been her preferred medium since childhood. Their potential to create rich tonal depths as well as subtle transitions and translucent colours is a constant fascination as are the infinite possibilities offered by the botanical subjects, which she prefers to draw directly from live subjects.

Awards

Her work has received a variety of awards

She was awarded two Royal Horticultural Society gold medals in 1999 and 2001.
At annual exhibitions of both the Society of Botanical Artists and the Society of Floral Painters (now defunct)

Collections and other notable information

Her artwork is in the Shirley Sherwood Collection, the RHS Lindley Library Collection and The Florilegium archive at Sheffield Botanical Gardens, as well as numerous private collections in the UK and abroad.
She has also produced commissions for a number of clients (and this is how to contact Susan if you're interested in commissioning her or asking her to teach)
Her artwork has also featured in a number of books about botanical art, notably those associated with the Society of Botanical Artists.
She was one of the two Vice Presidents of the Society of Botanical Artists between 2010 and 2018.
She continues to teach botanical art - using coloured pencils around the UK (see below)

Group of coloured pencil drawings by Susan Christopher Coulson exhibited at the Annual Exhibition of the Society of Botanical Artists in 2015. (top left) Cures from the Potager; (top right) Bean Counting: In Pursuit of Diversity; (bottom left ) Medieval Medicinals, from an Apothcary's Garden; (bottom right) Winter Greens: In pursuit of Form and Colour in the Winter Garden

The Teacher

Susan is a well known and experienced teacher of botanical art using coloured pencils.
Her Teaching page on her website details those venues in the UK where Susan will be teaching workshops. You'll also find her listed as both a teacher on my Teachers Page and her courses and workshops on my Courses Page for the UK

Susan Christopher Coulson demonstrating how to use coloured pencils for botanical art at the RHS Botanical Art Show in 2016

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Future Banners

In future, I'm minded to use more CONTEMPORARY botanical artwork for the seasonal banner image. If botanical artists want to contact me with suggestions as to appropriate images - whether their own or ones by other contemporary botanical artists - I'd be very happy to receive and consider all suggestions.

I have two constraints:

the artist must be listed on my website (or eligible to list on my website)
The image needs to lend itself to a panoramic format for the banner - via cropping if required - whatever format it is created in. So verticals in a portrait format with wide empty spaces either side won't work - but a landscape or square format with horizontals (such as in Winter Flowers) does work.

Obviously all contemporary botanical artwork is subject to copyright when used in this way and the artist must agree to the use of the image for a banner.

By way of credit I always create a link on the home page to the source of the image e.g. the artist's own website. (Try clicking the small image on the home page to see what I mean)

Do leave a comment below if you're interested in providing an image and/or would like to suggest a suitable image for future banners.

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Janie Pirie's Life in Roses - book and exhibition

3/11/2019

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Next week, gold-medal winning botanical artist Janie Pirie is having a solo exhibition at the Mall Galleries of illustrations of roses - which has taken three years to develop - and launching her new book.

Rosa is an exhibition of roses illustrated by RHS gold medallist Janie Pirie. This is a new body of botanical art to coincide with the launch of a book of the same name. "Rosa - a Life in Roses" | Mall Galleries

Exhibition: Rosa - a life in Roses

Rosa - A Life in Roses - the exhibition - comprises 36 drawings in coloured pencils of different varieties of roses. It's on display at the Mall Galleries in London and I'll be visiting later this week. It's taken three years to develop.

Venue: the North Gallery, the Mall Galleries, The Mall, London, SW1
Dates: between Tuesday 5th and Sunday 10th November 2019
Hours: 10 am to 5pm daily except 10th November when the exhibition closes at 1pm.
Sales: All work is for sale (unless previously purchased. Copies of the book will be on sale as well as the originals.

Janie Pirie or a colleague will be on hand during the exhibition to answer the questions of any visitors or purchasers.

"Rosa - A Life In Roses": some of the images by Janie Pirie - in the exhibition AND in the book

Book: 'Rosa - A Life in Roses'

Only 1,000 copies of Janie Pirie's new book are being printed.

I've not seen it yet but understand that

it's a limited edition coffee-table book measuring approx. 29cm / 11 inches square with a "lay flat" binding.
The linen-bound hardback book is presented in a slipcase with the same linen covering as the book and finished to a high quality.
almost all the roses are shown one to a double page spread.

The first edition of ROSA is a limited edition of 500 copies, priced at £100.00.
The Special Collectors' Edition will be numbered and signed by the artist and comprise the first 250 copies of the First Edition. It's priced at £120.00 however it also includes an A4 print of one of Janie's favourite rose portraits; 'Comte de Champagne'.
You can find out more here
It will be on sale at the exhibition.

About Janie Pirie

Janie Pirie has two RHS Gold Medals for her botanical illustrations.

In 2009, at RHS Malvern Show, she was awarded the accolade of ‘Best Botanical Artist in Show' and a Gold Medal for her series of paintings of orchard fruits.
She was awarded a second Gold Medal, also at Malvern, in 2014.
Janie has also exhibited at the 13th International Exhibition of the Hunt Institute of Botanical Documentation in Pittsburgh, USA.

Janie is:

a member of the Society of Botanical Artists and is also a tutor on their Distance Learning Course.
a member of the UK Coloured Pencil Society and shows her work at their annual exhibitions where she has been awarded "Best In Show", "Runner-up Best in Show" and "Best Botanical".

She studied illustration at the Colchester School of Art before combining a career in illustration with one involved with public relations and marketing for a leading seed company. She has worked as a professional artist for some years and also runs art workshops in her garden studio at her home in the Dedham Vale on the Essex/Suffolk borders and at other venues around the UK.

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