NEWS about Botanical Art and for Botanical Artists

REVIEW: The Greenwood Trees by Christina Hart-Davies

5/10/2018

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)

0 Comments

Notable Botanical Artists of the 20th Century

12/8/2018

0 Comments

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)

SUBSCRIBE TO NEWS about Botanical Art and for Botanical Artists
Blog posts are emailed to you when you
Subscribe to Botanical Art & Artists - News by Email

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:

0 Comments

Diploma and Certificate Courses in Botanical Art and Illustration

1/8/2018

0 Comments

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?

0 Comments

RHS Botanical Art Show #1 Approval to Submit

24/6/2018

0 Comments

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,

0 Comments

Exhibition by the Birmingham Society of Botanical Artists

21/4/2018

0 Comments

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.

0 Comments

List of artists exhibited in "Abundance, seed pods and autumn fruit" at Kew

9/3/2018

This post puts on record all those artists who contributed to Abundance, seed pods and autumn fruit at the The Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art in Kew Gardens before it ends on Sunday March 11th 2018.

The exhibition is open this weekend 10am to 5pm (last admission 4.45pm). It includes artwork by botanical artists and illustrators from Australia, Brazil, France, Italy, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, Thailand, UK and USA.

Left: Custard Apple by Álvaro Xavier Núñez; next Pomegranates by Ann Schweizer; Right: two paintings of the Ivy Gourd and Bitter Gourd by Phansakdi Chakkaphak

Like many of the smaller exhibitions in the side corridors of the gallery Abundance, seed pods and autumn fruit does not have a catalogue and there is also no list of artists and artworks available at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery.

However I've been given a set of the labels used for the exhibition and was able to discus the plants in the exhibition with Shirley Sherwood.

This was supposed to have been written in November last year - and here we are at the last weekend! Which will teach me not to mistake uploading images of the artists with their paintings to Facebook after the Private View with the rather longer(!) task of sorting out this type of blog post.

Explanation of the exhibition - and how dispersal occurs via wind, water, animals and explosive mechanisms

How this list of artists in the exhibition works

I did think of ordering works by methods of dispersion but that would have got very repetitive in terms of artists names!

So the way it works is like this

The list is alphabetical based on (1) the country they come from and (2) the surname of the artist.
A link to their website (if they have one) is embedded in their name. Alternatively another page has been linked to if this tells you about an artist who doesn't have a website.
an asterisk * after their name indicates they are included in my current summary of artists for the country they live in - where you can read more about them. If the artist is deceased they will be listed in 20th century Botanical Artists in the history section. Those without an asterisk will be added soon!
The name is followed by basic bio data which indicates where they were born and live
This is then followed by the title of the work. The common vernacular name is very often followed by the correct latin name in italics, (for more about naming plants see Plant Names and Botanical Latin in the Botany section on this website)
Media: All paintings are watercolour on paper unless otherwise stated.
Artwork which has been published in one of Dr Sherwood's books includes the title of the book and page number (in green) after the title
Those who have more than one artwork in the exhibition have the titles of the works bullet pointed below their names.

Some of the plants have interesting stories or names and these are also highlighted.

Names of the Artists and Titles of the Artworks

Australia

Second from left is the Idiot Fruit Idiospermum australiense painting by Betty Hinton

Betty Hinton b.1935 Gin Gin, Queensland
Betty has painted a group of 'plant dinosaurs' from the tropical forest reserve at Daintree, north of Cairns

Idiot Fruit Idiospermum australiense - gouache and watercolour on paper A Passion for Plants, pg 107 AND The Art of Plant Evolution page 74 and 75

This very ancient plant has huge and heavy seeds. It was first discovered in the nineteenth century and then "lost" again as land was cleared. The fruit is classed as very poisonous by the Aborigines. If eaten by cattle they go mad. The tree is 15 metres tall and the flowers can only be retrieved by somebody climbing the tree to the top to cut off flowering branches - which is what happened in relation to this painting.

Mali Moir GM b.1960

Ovuliferous Scale Bunya Pine Nut Araucaria bidwillii 2014 Watercolour on deer vellum

Jenny Phillips GM b.1949

Corymbia ficifolia 1998 Watercolour on vellum
Sausage Tree Kigelia africana 1999

Brazil

Far Left: Seed Pod, Cardiocrinum giganteum by Robert McNeill. Far right: Two works by by Alvaro E. X. Nunes - Cybistax antisyphilitica and Zeyheria montana

Álvaro Xavier Núñez b.1945 Annapolis, Brazil
One the best known of the contemporary Brazilian botanical artists, Álvaro specialises in painting plants from all the different ecosystems within Brazil - and has seven paintings in the exhibition.

Custard Apple Annona crassiflora 2003 The Art of Plant Evolution page 72 and 73
Cybistax antisyphilitica 2008 Old and New South American Botanical Art page 134 It's a popular Brazilian tonic in the treatment of syphilis and in yaws and its leaves are used to dye cloth blue.
Kapok Tree Ceiba speciosa 2003 Old and New South American Botanical Art page 126
Dioclea violacea 2009 Old and New South American Botanical Art page 135
Fruits of Savannah A Passion for Plants page 156 This might be described as a symphony in browns, the painting displays exquisite tonal control.
"Monkey Pot" Lecythis pisonis This plant is a tropical tree in the Brazil nut family and the fruit has a tight fitting lid which burst open when ready. The common name comes from the fact Monkeys put their hand into to retrieve the nuts. Adults learn that they need to be sparing in how many they take out at one time.
Zeyheria montana 2008 Old and New South American Botanical Art page 132

Selected UK artists for 'In Ruskin's Footsteps' (Botanical Art Worldwide #4)

5/2/2018

0 Comments

This is the list of the 30 selected artists who have had 40 botanical drawings/paintings of native UK plants selected for 'In Ruskin's Footsteps' - the Botanical Art Worldwide Exhibition in the UK.

This exhibition will open at the Ruskin Library at Lancaster University and will take place between Friday 18 May and Friday 15 June 2018.

Selection and statistics

The selection was made by a Jury of Experts. These were:

Helen Allen - Principal of the Chelsea School of Botanical Art
Brent Elliott - former Head Librarian at the Royal Horticultural Society Lindley Library.
Christabel King - chief botanical artist and teacher at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew and author of The Kew Book of Botanical Illustration
Martyn Rix - eminent botanist, author and editor of Curtis’s Botanical Magazine
Ann Swan GM - botanical artist, author and teacher specialising in pencil and coloured pencil with three RHS Gold Medals to her name

The selection of plants and botanical artwork was made in three stages with the process as follows:

Stage 1: Artists were asked to nominate a plant for submission. 71 artists indicated they wished to submit and selected 124 plants. These were then checked at this stage to make sure they were native plants - and if not, artists had the opportunity to nominate another plant.
Stage 2(a): Digital submission: 47 artists submitted 70 digital images of their artwork by the deadline for digital submission;
Stage 2 (b): Judges then reviewed digital images to reduce the 70 to 50 paintings to view in person. The digital signatures of the artists were removed prior to inspection by the organisers so that all artwork was reviewed on a strictly 'anonymous' basis which I understand the judges found to be very helpful (i.e. not distracted by who produced what).
Stage 3: The viewing of actual artwork by the Jury took place at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in January. 40 paintings by 30 artists were then selected from the 50 submitted.

In due course generic feedback will be provided as to the reasons why artwork was not selected.

Selected artists and native UK plants

The list below is ordered by the surname of the artist and comprises:

Name of Selected Artists - alphabetical by surname (with a link to their website or social media sites embedded if available)
Name of the plant - Genus and species then Common name
Brief profile of the artist (if available)

Allium ampeloprasum var. babingtonii Babington's Leek by Mally Francis

Please note that some artists had two artworks selected and one artist has three artworks selected.

0 Comments

<<Previous