NEWS about Botanical Art and for Botanical Artists

Botanical Painting Courses at The Prince's School of Traditional Arts

11/12/2018

The Prince's School of Traditional Arts provides a range of workshops and short, practical courses in traditional arts and crafts as part of its Open Programme. Between March and May 2019 these will include some rather unusual courses in different kinds of botanical painting.

The art courses listed below are a variation of those normally provided to students of botanical painting. They offer an opportunity to explore how to paint plants and flowers using different media and approaches to botanical painting

All the courses are held at The Prince's School of Traditional Arts, 19-22 Charlotte Road, London EC2A 3SG (Nearest tube stations are Old Street or Liverpool Street; absolutely no parking!)

This five-day practical course will introduce you to the basics of botanical morphology so students will know what to look for when drawing and painting flowers. It will also reveal the development of botanical art through time.https://t.co/BXkMORxl3e pic.twitter.com/bYrcMlFarb
— School of Traditional Arts (@princesschool) November 19, 2018

Botanical Painting and Taxonomy
Dates: 11 March 2019 - 15 March 2019
Time: 10:30 - 17:30
Tutor Jessica Shepherd
Course Fee: £385

This five day course will

introduce the basics of botanical morphology
reveal the development of botanical art through time
demonstrate how drama can be created through thoughtful lighting,
examine the importance of composition
explore the colours and techniques needed when painting flowers and leaves.
develop a painting including the techniques learned on the course.

Jessica Shepherd trained in botany at the University of Plymouth and University of Edinburgh before she became a botanical painter

Persian Miniature Painting: Flowers and Trees
Dates: 11 March 2019 - 15 March 2019
Time: 10:30 - 17:30
Tutor: Farkhondeh Ahmadzadeh
Course fee: £385 (concessions)

This course focuses on the details of nature in Persian miniature paintings.

covers trees, rocks, and different types of flowers,
practice how to draw and paint them using Persian miniature techniques.
Through a series of practical demonstrations, including traditional paper treatments, pigment preparation, and brush techniques, students will prepare their own papers and paints to be used for their paintings.

Farkhondeh Ahmadzadeh is an Iranian artist based in London. She graduated with distinction from The Prince's School's MA programme in 2011 and was awarded the Jerwood prize for Islamic traditional art.

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Botanical Indian Miniature Painting
Dates: 6 April 2019 - 11 May 2019
Time: 10:00 - 16:30
Tutor: Samantha Buckley | £350

This course is inspired by examples of Mughal botanical paintings and focuses on

the process of creating an Indian miniature painting,
the traditional method of transferring the image to burnished wasli paper using ink and squirrel hair brushes.
the use of handmade pigments from India and how to prepare, apply and then burnish these colours in preparation for the detailed work of miniature painting.
the special technique of prataj to create the detail associated with these beautiful paintings.

Botanical Indian Miniature Painting - At The Prince's School Of Traditional Arts (Day 1) is an excellent blog post by somebody who took the miniature painting course with Sam Buckley in 2016.

Samantha Buckley completed her MA at The School in 2006, receiving a distinction for her studies in miniature painting. In 2011 she was invited to undertake a one-year apprenticeship in India to extend her knowledge and technique of miniature painting,

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Margaret Mee 1909-1988: 30th Anniversary

30/11/2018

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Today marks the 30th anniversary of the tragic death of Margaret Mee (1909 - 1988) the renowned painter of the flora of the Amazon Forest and dedicated environmental conservationist.

She and her husband had returned to England in November 1988 for a major exhibition of her paintings at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew coupled with the launch of a book Margaret Mee in Search of Flowers of the Amazon Forest (1988) based on Margaret's diaries - and discussion about the future of her paintings.

Very sadly she was killed at the age of 79 in a car crash in Leicester on 30 November 1988 a few months after her last expedition to the Amazon.

Those attending her memorial service, held at Kew on 16 January 1989, included representatives of the Duke of Edinburgh, the Brazilian government, and the world of botany.
In May 1989, her ashes were scattered in the Amazon Forest by her husband and close friends. A plaque was fixed to a tree to record her passing.

Paintings by Margaret Mee at the the "Brazil: a powerhouse of plants: Margaret Mee, pioneering artist and her legacy" Exhibition at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery (20 February 2016 to 29 August 2016)

About Margaret Mee

About Margaret Mee is my page about this remarkable and very petite woman, who was

a famous and important botanical artist, who specialised in painting the flora of the Amazon Forest. 
an ardent conservationist who highlighted the way in which the forest was being destroyed; and
a botanical painter who inspired a number of botanical artists around the world - notably a number of Brazilian botanical artists.

In Search of Flowers of the Amazon Forest

from Amazon UK

Her legacy includes

images from her 15 expeditions into the Amazon Rainforest
nine new plants - previously unknown to botanical record
400 folios of gouache illustrations, 40 sketchbooks and 15 diaries - many now archived at Kew Gardens
her diaries and three books about her work and her paintings
a heightened awareness of the importance of conservation of habitat in the Amazon rainforest.
inspiration for a number of Brazilian artists - notably the Demonte family, Marlena Baretto, Patricia Villela and Alvaro Nunes
The Margaret Mee Amazon Trust (closed 1996) followed by a Fellowship Programme which enables Brazilian artists to train at Kew Gardens
3,000 dancers paraded to a Margaret Mee theme at the Rio Carnival in 1994!

Plus a number of plants are named after her, including:

Heliconia chartacea var. meeana - which has vivid blue berries
Aechmea polyantha - a vaselike Bromeliad discovered by Margaret Mee

On About Margaret Mee you can find out about:

A Timeline of her life and work
Margaret Mee and the Amazon Flora
Margaret Mee's Paintings - and her approach to painting
Exhibitions of Margaret Mee's paintings - in the UK, USA and Brazil
The Margaret Mee Trust and Fellowship Programme

Videos and Slideshows of her work

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REVIEW: The Greenwood Trees by Christina Hart-Davies

5/10/2018

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Cover and spine of "The Greenwood Trees" by Christina Hart Davies

This is a review of 'The Greenwood Trees - History, Folklore and uses of Britain's trees' by Christina Hart-Davies - a slim volume that is essentially about the native trees of the UK.

By the time I got to the end I realised that the book she has written and illustrated reminded me a lot of many of the early Herbals - which describe and identify plants - including illustrations - and identify what they are associated with and what they are used for. Both her previous book and this one are focused on telling you what a plant/tree is good for as well as what it looked like. It goes way, way beyond a book of botanical illustrations

It is in effect a contemporary version of what we refer to in botanical literature as Herbals. It is packed full of information and illustrations about the different native trees. What's more Christina has written all the text, which references facts and beliefs from very many of the books from the past - from Dioscorides onwards - and painted all the illustrations in watercolour

Overall, the book is enormously informative, very interesting and very accessible - it and can be enjoyed by young and old, by those interested in nature and trees and by those interested in different ways of representing and painting trees.

For example it includes snippets of information e.g.

90% of a tree is dead; and
the number of acorns buried each year by birds and small mammals in the UK may total 1.5 billion!

I've been buying books about Trees for some time and I can honestly say this book has actually taught me more about UK trees - and more quickly - than many of the others.

Who knew the aspen was one of the earliest trees to re-colonise the UK after the Ice Age?

Aspen Trees in Autumn © Christina Hart-Davies

The book covers 37 different varieties of tree, of which 31 are natives of the UK i.e. they were around 6,000 years BC when the waters started to rise again after the Ice Age.

The book has five sections:

a brief history of trees in Britain - which is absolutely fascinating. I learned a LOT about how trees grew and were managed over the different periods within UK History!
people and trees - this section took me back nearly 60 years to my primary school days when I was learning about how early man lived and the sorts of tools and products he used to make from trees.
trees and beliefs - about the various tree spirits, creation myths, symbols and festivals associated with trees
things that live in trees - about the community of insects, birds and small mammals that live in and with trees - as well as the fungi and parasites also living in trees and in some cases attacking them.
The Greenwood Trees i.e. the very old trees associated with the Wildwood. This is by far the biggest section. This section also has the most botanical illustrations which are quite delightful.

About "The Greenwood Trees"

Whitebeam Berries © Christina Hart-Davies

Marking the 800th anniversary of the Forest Charter, award-winning botanical artist Christina Hart-Davies celebrates our long relationship with trees. Since pre-historic times they have provided us with shelter, fuel, medicine, food and even the air we breathe. They have tanned leather, dyed cloth and made everything from cathedrals to clothes-pegs. We have told stories about them, admired their magnificent beauty and woven them into our spiritual lives. Following A Wild Plant Year, which recorded the folklore and cultural history of our native wildflowers, in The Greenwood Trees Christina looks at the history, folklore and virtues of our native trees – and a few well-known introductions too – all illustrated with her exquisitely detailed watercolour paintings.

The book was published at the end of last month by Two Rivers Press who published Christina's earlier book A Wild Plant Year: The History, Folklore and Uses of Britain’s Flora

It is naturally printed on paper which is FSC certified as coming from a responsible source!

Title: The Greenwood Trees: History, Folklore and Virtues of Britain’s Trees
Author/Artist: Christina Hart-Davies
format: paperback
size: 200 x 200 mm / 7.875 x 7.875 in (square format)
ISBN: 978‑1‑909747‑40‑1
pages: 120
price: £ 15.99
Publication date: September 2018

You can obtain the book as follows:

an ordinary copy from Two Rivers Press direct
a signed copy (with postage included) direct from Christina Hart-Davies
an unsigned copy from Amazon UK

About Christina Hart-Davies

Christina Hart-Davies with her most recent RHS Gold Medal display of "Common British Corticolous Lichens"

Christina Hart-Davies has been a professional botanical artist for 30+ years.

She has five RHS Gold Medals (4 for mosses and lichens - in 1984, 1986, 1988 and 2018 -and one for orchids - in 1992). The last two lichen Gold Medals were 20 years apart - proving (like Kathy Pickles did) that it's never too late to have another go!
She has also illustrated for a wide variety of prestigious clients and publications. Her artwork has been extensively published. Publishers she has worked with include Crowood Press; Dorling Kindersley; Elm Tree Books; Gilgamesh Publishing; Hamlyn; HarperCollins; Michael Joseph; Longman; Macmillan/RHS; New Holland; Pyramid/Octopus; Two Rivers Press; Virgin Publishing. Publications include: BBC Wildlife Magazine; British Wildlife; Kew Magazine; Successful Gardening (Eaglemoss Publications); Sunday Times
She was a Founder Member - and Honorary Secretary for its first ten years - of the Society of Botanical Artists.
Botanical artist to an expedition to the rainforests of Sumatra
She has artwork in The Hunt and The Shirley Sherwood Collections - and mine (I own two of her works)!
She is also an occasional tutor on various courses in the UK

You can see work done for this book in her current exhibition Treesome at the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens - which finishes on Sunday 7th October. (see Treesome - Harold Hillier Gardens, Hampshire)

Apple by Christina Hart-Davies (there are a number of similar illustrations in the book for different trees)

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Notable Botanical Artists of the 20th Century

12/8/2018

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The page 20th century Botanical Artists on my website is about those botanical artists who are more associated with the 20th century than either the 19th or the 21 centuries.

Some were born before 1900 and
some died after 2000
they did most of their work in the 20th century
however they are all now deceased

Below is a list of names of the artists who are highlighted on this page - with a summary of their dates and achievements. Please note: the page essentially works on the same basis as those for contemporary botanical artists on my website

If you have suggestions for other names who should be on this list please let me know.

At the end, there are links to the other pages containing listings of famous and/or notable botanical artists past and present.

Convolvulus Family by Mrs H. Isabel Adams - for Wild Flowers of the British Isles

UK

British Botanical Artists

Mrs Harriet Isabel Adams FLS (1863-1952)
Raymond Booth (1929-2015)
Elizabeth Cameron GM (1915-2009)
Arthur Harry Church (1865-1937)
Stella Ross Craig (1906 - 2006)
Sally Crosthwaite GM SBA SFP (?-2017)
Jeannie Foord (dates ? 19th/20th century)
Mary Anderson Grierson GM (1912 - 2012)
Sally Keir GM SBA (1938-2007)
Suzanne Lucas MBE GM (1915-2008)
Margaret Mee (1909-1988)
Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928) and Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh (1864-1933)
Rory McEwen (1932-1982)
John Northcote Nash CBE, RA (1893 – 1977)
Catherine Nicholson (1958-2011)
Pandora Sellars GM (1936 - 2017)
Lillian Snelling MBE VMH (1879-1972)

EUROPE

German Botanical Artists

Claus Caspari (1911–1980)

Irish Botanical Artists

Wendy Walsh (1915 - 2014)

Italian Botanical Artists

Anna Paoletto (1946–2016)

BRITTON AND ROSE, VOL. II M. E. Eaton del 1. Fruit of Hylocereus trigonus. 2. Flower of Selenicereus boeckmannii 3. Fruit of Selenicereus boeckmannii. (All natural size.)

NORTH AMERICA

USA

Mary Emily Eaton (1873-1961)
Lee Adams (1922-1971)
Anne Ophelia Todd Dowden (1907–2007)
Priscilla K S Fawcett (1932-2012)
Janice Glimn Lacy (1935-2013)
Maud Purdy (1873 - 1965)

SOUTH AMERICA

Brazil

Etienne Demonte (1931-2004)

AUSTRALASIA

Australian Botanical Artists

Margaret Flockton (1861-1953)
Paul Jones OBE (1921 - 1997)
Emily Pelloe (1878 – 1941)

Artwork by Paul Jones - Magnolia grandiflora; Sunflower: Helianthus annuus; and the book "Flora Magnifica" paintings by Paul Jones; text by Wilfrid Blunt

AFRICA

South African Botanical Artists

Dr Auriol Batten (1918-2015)
Barbara Jeppe (1921-1999)
Cythna Letty (1895 - 1985)
Ann Schweizer (1930-2014)

Zimbabwean Botanical Artists

Margaret Tredgold (1910 - 2012)

ASIA

Chinese Botanical Artists

Chengru Feng (1896–1968)

Japanese Botanical Artists

Yoshio Futakushi (1900-1997)

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More about Botanical Artists

BOTANICAL ARTISTS IN HISTORY

Past Masters of Botanical Art (1500-1900) - organised by countries and timeline plus individual pages for leading botanical artists of the past
Famous Asian Botanical Artists (600-1900)

CONTEMPORARY BOTANICAL ARTISTS
Criteria for inclusion on this website are listed on Contemporary botanical artists and illustrators around the world.

The links below are to lists of the top contemporary botanical artists and illustrators:

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Diploma and Certificate Courses in Botanical Art and Illustration

1/8/2018

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This morning I updated the page on my website devoted to Diploma and Certificate Courses in Botanical Art and Illustration. This covers:

Guidelines on how to assess and choose a course from available options; and
Listings of Diploma and Certificate courses

This year I've developed the listings and am now including information relating to:

scope of the course - in terms of topics covered - with links to where more information is supplied by the course provider
teaching staff / tutors - with links to the course page about teaching staff and/or their personal websites PLUS mentions for any prestigious awards they have received
method of assessment
course fees - which is, of course, a topic of much interest to prospective students.

BELOW you can find out about:

info. about the course listings - and how to help me update them
what Diploma and Certificate Courses cost in the UK
what sort of guidance is available e.g. what questions you should ask before handing over the money! Ideally - this is available on the website or via downloads provided!

Course Listings

The course listings currently cover the UK and USA - but the listings can easily be extended to other continents and countries if such courses exist elsewhere - and have a website which allows me to check the content and the tutors. (I use Chrome's translate function to check listings in other languages)

There is a form at the bottom of the page to notify me of any Diploma or Certificate Courses (i.e. NOT short courses - which are on other pages)

I also note that more and more education providers are looking to provide tuition suitable for those who would like to pursue a diploma course but do not have the knowledge or basic skills required.

For example, the Society of Botanical Artists will be delivering a Distance Learning Foundation Certificate as from March 2019 - with information available about content, tuition and course fees from this September.

SBA DLDC student work at the Annual Exhibition in 2012

How much do Courses cost - in the UK?

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RHS Botanical Art Show #1 Approval to Submit

24/6/2018

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A little while ago I asked the RHS whether they could provide some detailed answers to questions about various aspects of assessment relating to the RHS Botanical Art Show which are of interest to

those wanting to submit to a future RHS Botanical Art Show
those exhibiting this year or in future - and
all those wanting to know how to win a Gold Medal AND maybe a Best Exhibit or Best Painting Award.

The RHS have very kindly responded with some very informative answers to my questions via Charlotte Brooks, the Secretary to the Picture Panel.

I asked an awful lot of questions and the answers run to five A4 pages!
So I'm going to post all the questions and answers over three days as follows:

Seeking approval to exhibit (today - see below)
The Judges and the Judging Process (tomorrow Monday 25th June)
How the colour of the medal and additional awards are decided + Feedback (Tuesday 26th June)

I'll also be including images from past Botanical Art Shows and the information will also be included on my website page about the RHS Botanical Art Shows.

Every artist must be able to present six artworks forming a high quality, unified and consistent exhibit of botanical art. This photo of the RHS Botanical Art Show in 2016 includes three Gold Medal winning exhibits.

Assessment: Approval to Submit

Before you can exhibit at the RHS Botanical Art Show you must be approved to exhibit.

How this works:

the next section provides the RHS response to my question about what those assessing your application to exhibit are looking for
followed by my summary explanation of how you can submit an application for approval to exhibit.
More information about the RHS Botanical Art Shows on the RHS and Botanical Art and Artists websites - for those who want to find out more.

How does assessment work at the initial "approval to submit" stage?
What are you looking for?

What follows is what the RHS told me (i.e. their words).

The Selection criteria are similar to the judging criteria, but at this stage the judges are principally looking at the artist’s technical skill and the quality of their botanical illustration. Although the judges will also offer feedback on other areas if there is something that stands out as being particularly well executed, or if there are things that should be avoided.

The criteria are summarised as follows:
• Quality of botanical illustration
• Quality of the presentation
• Overall impression

The pieces that are submitted should demonstrate good draughtsmanship and the artist’s ability to handle form, texture, colour, tonal range.

The horticultural and botanical content in the pictures is also important (e.g. life-cycle stages / magnifications / habit), as it distinguishes a work as being a piece of botanical illustration.

Although artists do not have to submit the work they intend to exhibit, the submission should be representative of the overall quality of their work.

Artists are encouraged to send in examples of their best and most recent work.

If an artist works in more than one medium, for example graphite and watercolour, but is unsure which to exhibit, the judges may offer feedback on which of the examples they consider to be stronger.
The exhibit should be consistent, not a mix of pictures executed in watercolour, graphite, coloured-pencil or gouache.
However, if an artist chooses to create their work in a combination of graphite and watercolour, this is permissible.
The overall exhibit must be unified.

RHS Botanical Art Show February 2015 - BEFORE the new white Exhibit Boards were introduced. The number and size of artwork exhibited remained the same!

The feedback given at Selection stage is intended to help guide artists with any further planning and work they may wish to undertake.

We see a range of artists submitting

some are already very experienced with a high level of skill;
other artists are very much at the beginning of their journey and may need more tuition before exhibiting with the RHS.
In some cases artists are self-taught and so may be seeking support in their work but are not ready yet to exhibit.

The judges are looking to see whether the works submitted would reach a minimum standard of a Silver Medal.

If you've not yet submitted an application for approval to exhibit, you should also read the next section - based on guidance from the RHS,

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Exhibition by the Birmingham Society of Botanical Artists

21/4/2018

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The Birmingham Society of Botanical Artists are hosting an exhibition of botanical art in 2018 - which opened last week. This is their first exhibition since 2013 - because of the lack of a suitable venue.

The 2018 exhibition is being held in The Core, Courtyard Gallery, Solihull B91 3RG and the dates are 18th April – 5th May 2018. (This is how to get there)

The exhibition includes 60 artworks by 22 artists. 43% are executed using coloured pencils and 36% are watercolour paintings. The rest (20%) are graphite or mixed media.

Around 10 artists will be providing demonstrations during the course of the exhibition.

Below are some gallery views of the exhibition.

You can find a list of exhibiting artists in this exhibition in the file below - together with titles and media.

bsba_exhibition_list.pdf
File Size:	24 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

You can also see artwork by some of the members in the gallery on the BSBA website

Birmingham Society of Botanical Artists was founded in 1999 by graduates of the University of Birmingham’s Certificate of Higher Education in Botanical Illustration.

Members are drawn from an area bounded by Shrewsbury to the north, Worcester to the west, Nottingham to the east and Rugby, Nuneaton and Leicester to the south.

The aims of the Society are that

members should continue to develop skills in botanical drawing and painting;
the Society to encourage and support such development through the provision of a monthly programme of talks, workshops and practical sessions.

Details of the BSBA one year botanical illustration course can be found on the website.

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