NEWS about Botanical Art and for Botanical Artists

SBA's VIRTUAL Online Annual Exhibition opens

3/6/2020

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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Review: Society of Botanical Artists 2019 - Plantae

9/6/2019

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SBA Plantae 2019

The annual exhibition of the SBA - Society of Botanical Artists - has closed at the Mall Galleries in London.

It may seem odd to be doing the review now. However I have already written three blog posts connected with the exhibition! These are:

I'm going to look at:

practical matters first - and the success or otherwise of the exhibition's new venue
other changes to the exhibition
The Catalogue - and the scope for a future virtual exhibition
Private View and Demonstrations

I'll cover art I liked in another blog post.

A new home - at the Mall Galleries

The entrance to the new exhibition venue - at the Mall Galleries on The Mall in London (right next to Admiralty Arch and just up the road from Buckingham Palace)

The end wall in the Main Galleries

This is the first annual exhibition the SBA has had for two years. During which time the President, the membership arrangements and the venue for the annual exhibition have all changed.

In effect it's a reinvention of something we're very familiar with and hence it seems appropriate to focus on what's changed, what worked extremely well - and the areas where there's scope for further development and improvement in future years.

I don't see the Society of Botanical Artists leaving the Mall Galleries anytime soon. I think they've found their new "forever" home!

I asked people visiting the exhibition on my three visits what they thought of the new venue and without exception ALL were very impressed with:

the general feeling of professionalism - its purpose was an art gallery - and it felt like an art gallery
the way the artwork looked on the walls - unsurprisingly given the prior comment
the location - the feeling of being down in the basement ( at Central Hall ) had been completely lost - although interestingly all of the galleries are below ground! The white walls and the higher ceilings all made for a lighter, fresher and less claustrophobic feeling. People also very much liked the better sense of being at the centre of things - being a hop, skip and a jump from Trafalgar Square, other large art galleries, theatres and shops.
the facilities - visitors very much valued the opportunity to sit and have a cup of tea and chat in the Gallery rather than, as we used to do in Central Hall, Westminster, having to leave the exhibition and visit a not very inspiring canteen type cafe for some not very inspiring refreshments!

Bottom line - nobody wanted to go back to Central Hall, Westminster!

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Certificates - Society of Botanical Artists Annual Exhibition 2019

8/6/2019

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This is about all the botanical artwork and botanical artists and illustrators who received on of the two types of Certificates awarded at Plantae, the 2019 Annual Exhibition of the Society of Botanical Artists 2019. These were:

a Certificate of Botanical Merit
a Certificate of Exhibiting Excellence

This is the third of four posts about the Plantae exhibition - see the end for more details of the exhibiting artists and who won the main awards and prizes.

About the Certificates of Botanical Merit

Ficus carica ‘White Marseilles’ – Cardinal Pole’s White Fig by Sandra Doyle (watercolour on vellum £900)

The annual exhibition of the Society of Botanical Artists is not a "strictly botanical" show in the same way that the RHS botanical art shows are.

This is because the SBA's founder Suzanne Lucas MBE FLS HPRMS PPRMS FPSBA HonSWA HSF BMS (1915-2008) believed very strongly that the portrayal of plants need not always be highly scientific and illustrative.

“To incorporate more recent techniques and styles in a broader interpretation; combining the scientific and representational, giving a rich and varied view of the wonderful world of plants.”

Consequently the SBA created the award of a Certificate of Botanical Merit in order to:

highlight the importance of drawings and paintings which are created in a botanical style - including some which observe the very precise niceties of scientific botanical illustration
for those botanical artworks in the exhibition which are particularly noteworthy in this respect.

The recipients of a Certificate of Botanical Merit are also chosen every year by a wholly independent Judge who is well qualified in terms of their botanical / horticultural knowledge.
were selected by Kew Gardens' botanical illustrator Lucy T Smith - twice winner of the Margaret Flockton Award

In recent years that person has been Lucy T. Smith GM BVA MVA . Lucy is a very experienced and multi award-winning professional botanical illustrator who produces botanical illustrations for publication by the Royal Botanic Garden at Kew. She won the very prestigious Margaret Flockton Award in 2014 and 2017 (see Second Margaret Flockton Award win for Lucy T. Smith) and the Jill Smythies Award for Botanical Illustration, awarded by the Linnean Society of London in 2004 . Her work has been published in numerous scientific publications. She also works as a botanical art tutor at Kew (including the Certificate of Botanical Illustration at Kew) and the Chelsea School of Botanical Art.

When judging the artwork for CBMs, Lucy is not looking for a presentation along the lines of a strict scientific botanical illustration brief - but rather one she is looking for whether an image fulfils the brief of describing the plant accurately and well.

The CBMs in 2019

The artworks and their artists receiving CBMs in 2017 are listed below - followed by images of their work. The artworks also list the media and the price of the work in the image caption.

The name of the work is listed first followed by an alphabetical listing by surname of the artist - with a link to their website embedded in their name if they have one.

Ficus carica’ White Marseilles by Sandra Doyle - this is Cardinal Pole’s White Fig, which grows in the garden of Lambeth Palace. Originally planted by the last Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury, Cardinal Reginald Pole, in 1556 and still thriving today. (for image see the top of this post)
Aloe arborescent by Angie Gray SBA Fellow
Horned Melon by Agita Keiri
Winter Cardoons by Maryna Kyselyova
Iris pseudacorus by Nina Mayes
Monkey Puzzle by Michelle Eun Young Song SBA Fellow
Calypso bulbosa by Anna Suprunenko
The Hawthorn at Gilfach by Claire Ward SBA Fellow

Now for the images of the artwork which merited a CBM.....

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Plantae: SBA Annual Exhibition 2019 - Selected Artists

5/6/2019

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Plantae, the Annual Exhibition of the Society of Botanical Artists, opens to the public at a new venue - the Mall Galleries, in The Mall - today, Wednesday 5th June. (Map).

It's quite possibly the largest exhibition of botanical art in the world - even though it's reduced the number of works being exhibited in its new exhibition venue.

The Online Catalogue (which is also available to download) - sets a new standard for exhibition catalogues by including all the artwork on display. The icing on the cake would be to provide an online link to enable those unable to get to the exhibition to express an interest in buying the artwork on display!

The catalogue indicates

there are 431 artworks by c.190 artists (with a ratio for artists of approximately 50:50 re. members and open entry)
All artwork is for sale
specialist books - by member authors will also be available to buy.

During the exhibition there are two art demonstrations by two of the Course Tutors for the Distance Learning Diploma

Janie Pirie – coloured pencil on Friday 7th June and
Shevaun Doherty – watercolour on vellum Saturday 8th June.
Demonstrations times are from 10:30 until lunch then 2 – 4:30pm.

Who are the artists exhibiting with the Society of Botanical Artists?

This exhibition has always attracted a diverse and international group of botanical artists. I thought it might be interesting to share who they are, which countries they come from - and something about their backgrounds. It's proved to be an extremely fascinating - if very lengthy (an understatement!) - exercise.

I've learned an awful lot looking at the websites of the exhibiting artists - not least from those who are brand new to exhibiting at SBA.

Those coming to the exhibition and/or aspiring to exhibit in future may care to take a closer look at the sort of artists exhibiting with the Society of Botanical Artists.

BELOW is a list of all those artists exhibiting at Plantae

links embedded in their names are limited to those with websites (or Facebook Page where their work is on display)
information about an artist who hasn't got a website typically comes from another reputable source (eg the Members Page of the Society of Botanical Artists)
international artists have their country indicated in italics after their name where known

Entrance to the Mall Galleries in The Mall (in between Admiralty Arch and HorseGuards Parade)

Selected Artists

Natalia Alatortseva (Russia) - Studied Botany at Lomonosov Moscow State University. She was one of the organisers of Flora Russia exhibition in St Petersburg in 2018
Linda Alexander ROI, SBA Fellow - One of a few contemporary botanical artists who paint in oils. Linda is also a member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters and has exhibited her botanical art at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. She's won a number of prestigious awards for her art.
Jacqueline Allwood SBA Fellow - a glass artist who will be displaying glass engravings
Sandra Wall Armitage PPSBA SBA Fellow - former President of the Society of Botanical Artists
Julia Asenbaum (Austria) - Studied plant science at the University of Vienna

Hee-Soon Baik (Korea) - won the Director General's Award at the Botanical Art Worldwide Exhibition in Korea - at the Korea National Arboretum
Karen Bailey SBA Fellow - In 2013 Karen was awarded a Certificate of Botanical Merit and has been approved to exhibit at the RHS Botanical Art Show
Kathleen Baker SBA Fellow - studied Botany at Birmingham University, taught Advanced Level Biology for over 20 years and her research work led to Master and Doctorate degrees. She took up botanical art when she retired and has been awarded four gold medals by the Alpine Garden Society.
Sylvia Balch SBA Fellow
Lorraine Barraclough
Victoria Braithwaite - Exhibits with the SBA and the SSBA. Has also exhibited in the Royal Scottish Academy Open Exhibition, Edinburgh and the Sunday Times Watercolour Competition. Has work in the Shirley Sherwood Collections (exhibited Kew 2016 and 2017) see image of her work below
Pauline Brown
Penny Brown SBA Fellow professional artist and illustrator who trained as a designer for the theatre. Graduated from the SBA Diploma Course in 2011 with a distinction and won the Award for Excellence. Author of ‘Botanical Drawing – A Step-by-Step Guide to Drawing Flowers, Vegetables, Fruit and Other Plant Life’, (published January 2018). Her artwork in the exhibition is cut paper collage.
Vivien Burgess SBA Fellow - member since 1996

Polygonatum multiflorum – 'Solomon’s Seal' by Victoria Braithwaite (watercolour £2,100)

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