NEWS about Botanical Art and for Botanical Artists

Margaret Flockton Award 2024: Call for Entries

17/4/2024

This is about the newly published Call for Entries for the Margaret Flockton Award in 2024.

Named after Margaret Flockton who was the Botanic Gardens of Sydneyâ€™s first botanical illustrator, the purpose of the award is to highlight the very best of international scientific botanical illustration.

There are with five prizes:

First Prize: $5000AUD),
Second Prize: $2000AUD
and 3 Highly Commended Awards.

Below you can see the image produced by last year's winner, Gustavo Surlo.

READ MORE about the award and see who has won it in the past on my dedicated to The Margaret Flockton Award for Excellence in Scientific Botanical Illustration on this website.

Wedelia sp.nov. by Gustavo Surlo, Winner Margaret Flockton Award 2023

Summary: What you need to know

Last year 37 artists from 18 countries were selected for the 2023 exhibition. Check out the quality of the illustrations selected for the exhibition can be seen in the Margaret Flockton Award 2023 album on Flickr

For full details about the Award and Exhibition, plus updates to entry requirements, please visit Margaret Flockton Award 2024 at the Botanic Gardens of Sydney website.

Below is an abbreviated summary of what you need to know and do.

â€‹What you need to submit

All illustrations and paperwork must be submitted digitally via Dropbox.

high-resolution digital files (see below) of...
(one or two) :scientific botanical illustrations - produced after May 2022 - that
- clearly highlight all of the distinctive features of the species
- accompany the published taxonomic description of a plant
all such illustrations MUST
- be in black and white (ink, pencil or digitally rendered)
- be intended for 2D-printed output.
Only full plate illustrations will be accepted (inclusive of habit study and diagnostic features of the species).
size of the illustration submitted: 100% of the original artwork size with an image area no larger than A3 (295mm x 420mm) and no smaller than (180mm x 250 mm), excluding legend.
The illustration should include a small legend (with the plant name and all lettered components), neatly written or typed at the bottom of the artwork, outside of the image area

You also need to complete the Entry Form - which stipulates additional information you MUST also provide.

There are no entry fees.

Digital Image requirements

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Gustavo Surlo wins First Prize in Margaret Flockton Award 2023

20/8/2023

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Gustavo Surlo has won the First in the Margaret Flockton Award 2023. This award is very highly prized within the scientific botanical illustration community.

The Second Prize has been awarded to Juan Luis Castillo.

The Margaret Flockton Award is judged and hosted by the Botanic Gardens of Sydney’s botanical illustrators Catherine Wardrop and Lesley Elkan.

37 artists from 18 countries have been selected for the 2023 exhibition at the Australian Botanic Garden Mount Annan until Friday 20 October 2023. A total of 54 entries have been judged and 29 finalists will be exhibited on-site.

The images of illustrations selected for the exhibition can be seen in the Margaret Flockton Award 2023 album on Flickr

The Criteria used to judge the Award are as follows:

Accurate interpretation and portrayal of the plant characters and diagnostic features highlighted in the botanical description
Technical merit
Artistic merit
Composition
Reproducibility

First Prize: Gustavo Surlo - Wedelia sp. nov. (daisy)

Gustavo Surlo has won the AUS$5,000 First Prize in the 20th Margaret Flockton Awards (2023) for his illustration of his drawing of the newly found Wedelia species which is a member of the daisy family. Last year he was one of the artists who was Highly Commended.

Wedelia, a member of the daisy family by Gustavo Surlo

Gustavo's pieces show the Wedelia sp. nov. species with strength while capturing the delicate surface of the plant's textures. He has skilfully composed the illustration. The subtle use of lines and bars gives a sense of scale. We can understand the plant's role in its habitat and see its minute hairs and glands on the leaf surface. Lesley Elkan.

ABOUT GUSTAVO SURLO

graduated in Biological Sciences from the Federal University of Bahia
subsequently became a Margaret Mee Scholar at Kew in 2018.
He is a botanical illustrator and intern at the plant tissue culture laboratory of the UFBA Institute of Biology.

His Instagram post about his illustrationindicates his pleasure with his win. I recommend he now get himself a website!

I am immensely grateful to the organizers of this incredible initiative, which I have followed with delight for several years. I also thank the researchers who very kindly allowed the submission of the illustration and helped to understand the structures. Today an old dream comes true with Margaret Flockton Award

Second Prize: Phoenix canariensis by Juan Luis Castillo, Spain

The second prize is awarded to Phoenix canariensis (Canary Island date palm) by Juan Luis Castillo (Spain)

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Botanic Endeavour: RBG Sydney Florilegium Society celebrates the Banks and Solander Collections

3/5/2022

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Back in 2020, one of the significant botanical exhibitions of the year was that of "Botanic Endeavour" - in Sydney. This was the second exhibition - in association with the publication of a new book (see below) - by the Florilegium Society of the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney (RBGS).

This, of course was the year, when public spaces were being locked down and then reopening and then locking down again. At the same time that people were being careful about where they travelled and how and which public spaces they visited. It really wasn't a great year for art exhibitions.

My recollection is that the planned exhibition was cancelled. Then in November 2020, a webinar was held to talk about the second project, the book and the paintings

It's really pleasing therefore to hear that there's going to be another chance to see Botanic Endeavour: The Florilegium Society celebrates the Banks and Solander Collections. This announcement feels like it provides another opportunity for all those who were playing it safe, not travelling and not going to exhibitions in 2020 - or 2021.

The Society will present an exhibition of 50 recent botanical paintings linking the historic Banks’ and Solander specimens held in the National Herbarium of NSW with the Living Collection of the three Gardens. This project was created to mark the 250th anniversary of Captain Cook’s voyage in the Endeavour in 2020.

Curated by Colleen Morris, the focus is on these historic specimens; drawing attention to the time and place of their collection, their history and inviting reflection on their significance to science, to the Indigenous peoples, to those collecting them and to the Gardens now.

Some of the newly digitised Banks’ and Solander collection images will be displayed along with more treasures from the Daniel Solander Library including some of the Banks’ Florilegium plates and his specimen cabinet.

Details of the exhibition are below:

Venue: The Lion Gate Lodge, Royal Botanic Garden Sydney
Dates: Saturday 7th – Sunday 22nd May 2022
Hours: 10am - 4pm daily
Cost: FREE

Public transport is recommended as parking is limited.

The majority of the Banks and Solander specimens represented in the new works were collected at Botany Bay and the remainder from several locations in Queensland. Fresh plant material was sourced in many ways; with the co-operation of the botanic gardens in Cambridge, Oxford and Kew in the UK and a specialist nursery in California as well as from the three Gardens of the Trust in Australia. One artist sourced seeds from Western Australia and grew them in Cambridge; another painted from plants on the Amahlongwana River in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. In Australia, some material was obtained from specialist nurseries and grown on at home; naturally, many grow in Sydney and the areas of collection in Queensland.
The Florilegium at the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney by Dianne Sutherland (one of the artists)

Botanic Endeavour - the book

The First Book by RBGS Florilegium Society (published 2016)

The second book - Botanic Endeavour - published 2020

Those visiting the exhibition will have a chance to buy the Botanic Endeavour book. Those living further afield, who would like a copy can find out more about it - and the first book - on my page about the Florilegium Societies.
Just scroll down until you get to Australasia and The Florilegium Society at The Royal Botanic Gardens & Domain Trust.

READ MORE NEWS ABOUT BOTANICAL ART AND ARTISTS

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Esmee Winkel wins Margaret Flockton Award 2021

7/6/2021

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Notoleptopus decaisnei, Esmee Winkel, The Netherlands

Esmee Somers Winkel has won the First Prize in the 17th Margaret Flockton Award 2021. The award comes with $5,000 but is most prized for its highly prestigious nature within the scientific botanical illustration community.

Esmee is a a professional scientific illustrator working in the Netherlands. This First prize follows on from

the Second Prize she won in 2017,
the Jill Smythies Award (2014) awarded by the Linnean Society and
her three RHS Gold Medals (2013, 2016 and 2018).

This post covers: (in order)

About the Award - why it is prestigiousâ€‹ and what's important in a winning illustration.
â€‹About the two prizewinners and three artists whose illustrations were highly commended PLUS Judges comments
About the Exhibition at the Royal Botanic Garden in Sydney
How you can see the images online - and view the video presentation.â€‹

The Margaret Flockton Award

Margaret Flockton Award is unique amongst international art awards, focusing exclusively on contemporary scientific botanical illustration, as distinct from botanical art RBG Sydney Flickr Album Margaret Flockton Award 2021

The Margaret Flockton Award is specifically about scientific botanical illustration. It's prestigious because it is the ONLY award dedicated to the excellence and expertise demonstrated by those who produce botanical illustrations to an exactly scientific standard for botany and botanists

As a result, entries are typically:

submitted by professional botanical illustrators - or those aspiring to be one.
related to plates produced for the record and for scientific botanical publications.

This competition and exhibition is International. Scientific botanical illustrators from around the world are invited by the curators of the exhibition at the Royal Botanic Garden in Sydney to:

digitally submit scientifically accurate taxonomic illustrations
i.e. highly detailed black and white drawings primarily undertaken in pen and ink, pencil or digitally rendered.
that accompany a published taxonomic description of the plant,
with the drawing clearly highlighting all of the distinctive features of the species.

REVIEW my dedicated page for The Margaret Flockton Award for Excellence in Scientific Botanical Illustration

The Criteria used to judge the Award are listed below:

Accurate interpretation and portrayal of the plant characters and diagnostic features highlighted in the botanical description
Technical merit
Artistic merit
Composition
Reproducibility

See A Guide to Scientific Illustration (on the Margaret Flockton Award page on the RBG website - at the bottom) for more information on judging criteria.

Reproducability is extremely important, because the nature of our work is that it is reproduced so anything too delicate can be lost on reduction.
â€‹Composition will usually be the thing that wins a work. If you can make a composition sing in terms of the way it tells the story of the plant you're doing well.
Comments by Lesley Elkan from the Facebook Live Event

While other awards will look for accurate interpretation and portrayal plus technical and artistic merit, this is the only award which specifically considers illustration from the perspective of the scope for reproduction in scientific publications (i.e. the whole purpose of the illustration is to communicate to a wide community of interest via printed or digital matter).

The Judges for the 2020 Award were all from the Royal Botanic Garden in Sydney.

Catherine Wardrop - RBG&CP Botanical Illustrator and Margaret Flockton Award Curator
Lesley Elkan - Botanical Illustrator
Dr Kerry Gibbons, RBG&DT Flora Botanistâ€‹

Apparently they had 25 illustrations two days before the deadline and on the Monday morning they had 103! Next year the Judges would appreciate receiving illustrations earlier if that's at all possible! :)

About the Prizewinners

I photographed Esmee Winkel with her RHS Gold Medal scientific botanical illustrations in 2016 - just after she'd given me her best tips for cleaning Rotring technical pens!

FIRST PRIZE ($5,000) Esmee Winkel, The Netherlands - for Notoleptopus decaisnei (ink)
(see illustration at the top of this post)

Esmee's illustrated has been awarded the First Prize for its exacting skilful technique and perfectly balanced composition. The clarity of the strong line is complemented by the perfectly rendered elements, with a concise stipple techniques used only where required to convincglu describe form. Line weight is also used to describe shadows and depth. The illustration reveals the life cycle and key features of
â€‹Judge's Comments

My commentary: I'm reading that as a lot of appreciation and applause for

a "less is more" approach to botanical illustration and
demonstrable and refined expertise in the full range of available techniques!

â€‹Plus note the smart move of illustrating an Australian plant!

Esmee Winkel is a professional scientific illustrator who specialises in botanical illustration and works as a Scientific illustrator and Botanical artist for the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden and at the Hortus Botanicus, Leiden in the Netherlands.

She has previously won second prize in the Margaret Flockton Award 2017.

Other prizes she has won include

2016: the Botanical Illustrator Award for Excellence in Scientific Botanical Art from the American Society of Botanical Artists (ASBA)
2016: a second RHS Gold Medal for her display of drawings of rare and endangered orchids in 2016 (see Interviews with RHS Botanical Art Gold Medallists - from the UK and Europe - and video below)
2014: the Jill Smythies Award for excellence in botanical illustration by the Linnean Society
2013: an RHS Gold Medal in 2013 for a set of meticulous and well-designed pen and ink drawings of Leguminosae (see Interviews with RHS Botanical Art Gold Medal Winners)
2012 - a BISCOT Gold Medal in 2012

You can read more about her in About Esmee Winkel, botanical illustrator at Naturalis

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Deborah Lambkin wins Margaret Flockton Award 2020

8/5/2020

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Irish botanical illustrator Deborah Lambkin, who works in the UK as the RHS Orchid Artist, has won the Margaret Flockton Award 2020 for the scientific botanical illustration of a new orchid.

Unusually this year the announcement of the prizewinners was made by Denise Ora, the Executive Director of the Royal Botanic Sydney via video (see below).

Below the video is:

a short narrative about the purpose of the award and how it works
an explanation of why the first two exhibitions have cancelled and details of the third which may still go ahead
narratives about the first and second prizewinners
then details of the four botanical illustrators who have been highly commended

I'll also be doing another blog post (shortly) about the botanical illustrators who had work selected for this (online) exhibition in 2020.

IMAGES
Crops of the images are included in this post. You can see much better images in the Flickr Album Margaret Flockton Award 2020 - which also contains all 63 artworks selected "for exhibition"

Margaret Flockton Award 2020
for Scientific Botanical Illustration Prizewinners

â€‹The Margaret Flockton Award is specifically about scientific botanical illustration.
Entries are typically:

submitted by professional botanical illustrators
related to plates produced for the record and for scientific botanical publications.

Scientific botanical illustrators from around the world are invited by the curators of the exhibition at the Royal Botanic Garden in Sydney to:

digitally submit scientifically accurate taxonomic illustrations
i.e. highly detailed black and white drawings primarily undertaken in pen and ink, pencil or digitally rendered.
that accompany a published taxonomic description of the plant,
with the drawing clearly highlighting all of the distinctive features of the species.

The Criteria used to judge the Award are listed below:

Accurate interpretation and portrayal of the plant characters and diagnostic features highlighted in the botanical description
Technical merit
Artistic merit
Composition
Reproducibility

See A Guide to Scientific Illustration (on the Margaret Flockton Award page on the RBG website - at the bottom) for more information on judging criteria.

The Judges for the 2020 Award were all from the Royal Botanic Garden in Sydney.

Catherine Wardrop - RBG&CP Botanical Illustrator and Margaret Flockton Award Curator
Lesley Elkan - Botanical Illustrator
Karen Wilson, Honorary Research Associate.â€‹

You can see what they were faced with below.........

View this post on Instagram

The entries are in! Thanks to the amazing artists who have entered the 2020 Flockton Award. 63 entries from 46 artists from every corner of the globe! Good luck to all. #penandink #blackandwhiteinkdrawing #botanicalillustrationpenandink #scientificillustration #botanicalillustration #botanyart

A post shared by Catherine W & Lesley E (@rbg_illustration) on Mar 9, 2020 at 11:59pm PDT

PRIZEWINNERS

I think I'm right in saying all six botanical illustrators have been honoured with prizes or commendations by the Margaret Flockton Award for the first time (I'll be checking!)
â€‹
1st Prize ($5,000 AUS): Deborah Lambkin

Crop of part of the illustrationof crop of Gastrodia sp. nov. by Deborah Lambkin - view the full image by clicking the pic

Deborah Lambkin (Ireland / United Kingdom) has won the First Prize of AUS$5,000 for her depiction of Gastrodia sp. nov. - a new orchid species from Madagascar.

Deborah has been a Scientific Botanical illustrator over 30 years. Currently she is the RHS Orchid Artist working for the Royal Horticultural Society and the Eric Young Orchid Foundation, She also creates scientific botanical illustrations for botanists working at the Royal Botanic Garden, Kew.

Deborah was born in Ireland and lives in London. She trained at the National College of Art and Design (NCAD) in Dublin.

In 1999, she won an RHS Gold Medal for her collection of eight paintings of Nerines
In 2001, she exhibited at the 10th International Exhibition of Botanical Art and Illustration at the Hunt Institute of Botanical Documentation in Pittsburgh, USA
In 2005, she was appointed as the official 'Orchid Artist' to the Royal Horticultural Society Orchid Committee. To date she has contributed nearly 500 orchid paintings to the Royal Horticultural Society's Orchid Painting Collection.
In 2014 she joined RHS Picture Advisory Panel and is involved with judging at the RHS Botanical Art shows. She also exhibited at the World Orchid Conference Botanical Art Exhibition 2014.
In 2019 she was awarded the Jill Smythies Award for excellence in published botanical illustrations.
Her scientific illustrations have been published in Curtis Botanical Magazine and she has work in the collection of the Botanic Gardens at Glasnevin in Dublin, Ireland.

Deborah is a member of the Irish Society of Botanical Artists and the Chelsea Physic Garden Florilegium Society. "Beauty at a brush stroke" (Twitter) is an Irish Times article about Deborah and her work.

All in all, Deborah is a professional botanical illustrator who both draws and paints and has now had her work recognised by all the top exhibitions, competitions, awards and prizes for botanical art and Illustration. The Margaret Flockton Award now gives her "the full set" and she now moves into the illustrious company of those very few botanical illustrators who have achieved the same. (I'm off to count them - I know there's not a lot!)

You can follow Deborah Lambkin on Twitter and Instagram

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Call for Entries - Margaret Flockton Award 2020

19/2/2020

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Entries are now being accepted for the Margaret Flockton Award for Excellence in Scientific Botanical Illustration 2020.

Illustrators from around the world are asked to submit:

original scientifically accurate taxonomic illustrations completed since March 2018
These are highly detailed monochrome (black and white) drawings primarily undertaken in pen and ink, pencil or rendered using digital software.
They must clearly highlight all of the distinctive features of the species - as highlighted in the published taxonomic description of the plant .

All submissions must be in a digital format.
The deadline for digital online entry is Monday 2nd March 2020 (EST)

You can read more about it on:

the Margaret Flockton Award page on the RBGS website
the page about The Margaret Flockton Award for Excellence in Scientific Botanical Illustration on this website - where I break out and summarise all the important things you need to know if you want to enter - on one page

Crop of one small part (less than 25%) of the scientific botanical illustration which won first prize in 2019

The Margaret Flockton Award is unique amongst international art awards. This is because it

focuses exclusively on contemporary scientific botanical illustration (as distinct from botanical art) - which must be monochrome and 2D
commemorates the contribution Margaret Flockton made to Australian scientific botanical illustration.

The award is sponsored by The Maple Brown Family and the Foundation & Friends of the Botanic Gardens.
â€‹

Margaret Flockton Award Prizes 2020

Most taxonomic botanical illustrators enter this award competition because of the credibility "awarded" to those selected for the exhibition. This is, of course, enhanced for all those who win the award or come second or get a "highly commended"

However the cash award for this international botanical illustration competition are significant.

First prize: AU$5,000;
Second prize: AU$2,000;
3 x Highly Commended.

In addition this Award brings additional benefits. First it is low cost

entry is free and
there are no costs involved in submitting your illustrations because it is all digital!

Plus you can also sell a print of your illustration direct to interested parties with no commission deducted. Those selected for the exhibition can sell prints of their work direct from their websites or email addresses to the public and collectors (meaning no commission is deducted by RBGS).

Overall it's a "win win" award for all concerned!

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Margaret Flockton Award 2020 - Exhibitions

The exhibition will be held in the three different gardens which make up the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney.

Royal Botanic Garden Sydney - Joseph Maiden Theatre (Saturday 9 May - Sunday 24 May 2020, daily 10am - 4pm) enter via Woolloomooloo Gate on Mrs Macquaries Road
The Australian Botanic Garden Mount Annan - The Australian PlantBank (Tuesday 2 June - Friday 31 July 2020, weekdays 10am - 4pm)
The Blue Mountains Botanic Garden Mount Tomah - Visitor Centre (Tuesday 3 November - Sunday 13 December 2020, daily 10am - 4pm)

I'll be doing further blog posts about the artists selected for the exhibition and the prizewinners.

You can follow the two botanical illustrators who administer this Award on their Instagram Page https://www.instagram.com/rbg_illustration/

View this post on Instagram

Last stop for the 2019 Margaret Flockton Award Exhibition @bluemountainsbotanicgarden, Mount Tomah. 9 August to 15 September. Enjoying the view whilst bumping in, but not the tangled nylon cords!! #scientificillustration #bluemountainsbotanicgarden #margaretflocktonaward #botanicalillustrationpenandink #botanicalillustration

A post shared by Catherine W & Lesley E (@rbg_illustration) on Aug 7, 2019 at 9:03pm PDT

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20th Botanica annual exhibition at the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney

31/3/2019

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Botanica: The 20th Anniversary Exhibition - the annual exhibition of botanical art at the Royal Botanic Garden in Sydney is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year - and opened to the public yesterday.

Venue: Lion Gate Lodge Garden, The Royal Botanic Garden, Mrs Macquaries Road, Sydney
Dates: Saturday 30 March - Sunday 14 April (10 am - 4 pm daily)
Entry: FREE
Exhibiting artists: listed below.
[UPDATE: Virtual Exhibition of all 120 artworks on Flickr ]

This leading contemporary botanical art exhibition in Australia is also on at the same time as annual exhibition of the Margaret Flockton Award. So two jolly good reasons to pay a visit to the RBG Sydney!

Exploring the complex and remarkable relationship between humans and plants, the annual showcase features work by some of the best Australian and international established and emerging botanic and natural history artists.

Artists with selected artwork

Artwork selected for the exhibition has been created by Australian botanical artists. They range from some who are recognised leaders in the world of botanical art to others who are emerging as botanical artists producing high quality artwork.

Links in names below are to the website of the artist. If you an artist listed below and your website is not included please contact me or leave a comment with the URL.

You can find out more about the leading artists on my page about Botanical Artists in Australia and New Zealand

Tulipa 'Orange Princess' by Beverly Allen 620mm x 780mm Watercolour $14,500

Nilavan Adams,
Beverly Allen
Sue Anderson

Janette Barlow,
Sylvia Beresford,
Samantha Blanks,
Susannah Blaxill

Linda Catchlove,
Yvonne Chan,
Deb Chirnside,
Elizabeth Cooper

Pauline Dewar

Ros Earp,
Melinda Edstein,
Dianne Emery

Helen Fitzgerald
Ros Franklin

Lindsey Goff,
Stephanie Goss

Anne Hayes,
Rosy Hewitt,
Cheryl Hodges,
Tanya Hoolihan,
Annie Hughes,

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