Margaret Flockton Award 2019 - Exhibiting illustrators and list of selected works

​35 contemporary scientific botanical illustrations by 23 illustrators from 16 countries were selected for the annual exhibition of the Margaret Flockton Award 2019 in Sydney Australia - and are listed below. 

These were selected from 44 works submitted by 26 illustrators from a record number of 17 countries.  Those selected included illustrations and illustrators from four new countries - Argentina, Canada, Colombia and Singapore.  The majority of the works continue to be traditionally rendered in pen and ink but now also include illustrations which are rendered digitally.

BELOW are the

• names of the exhibiting scientific botanical illustrators - organised alphabetically by country
• a list of the titles of the botanical illustrations submitted and selected. 
• a summary of what differentiates quality in scientific botanical illustration i.e. the reasons why works won prizes or were not selected for exhibition

Links in the names are to the websites or sites about the illustrator. See my previous post Edmundo Saveedra wins Margaret Flockton Award for the third time for more about the botanical illustrators who received prizes or were highly commended. 
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Links in the works are to the images of those works which won prizes or were highly commended. 

Images of the first and second prizewinners 2019

This year, 26 artists from 17 countries submitted 44 works.
A selection of 35 illustrations are exhibited here.
- 5 works are entirely or partially digitally rendered;
- graphite elements are on 10 of the plates;
​- the remaining 29 illustrations are in the traditional form of ink on paper or board.

You can now see ALL of the scientific botanical illustrations SUBMITTED for the Margaret Flockton Award Exhibition 2019 on Flickr. 

• Note the album contains ALL submissions - not just those selected for the exhibition.
• If you review the illustrations before you look at the list below - see if you can detect what media was used for an illustration and which were selected for the exhibition.

I highly recommend that all those thinking about applying next year review the images of scientific botanical illustrations in terms of the standards achieved - and the criteria used to assess each plate (see end for more about those criteria).
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List of exhibiting illustrators and selected works
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AUSTRALIA

• Henrietta Mooney - Actinotus helianthi
• Alastair Robinson  - Cephalotus follicularis - WON SECOND PRIZE

ARGENTINA

• Marcelo Moreno - (1) Duranta steyermarkii; (2) Paspalum corcovadense

BRAZIL

• Susana Ferreira de Souza - (1) Araeococcus montanus, A.sessiliflorus, A. sp. nov. ined; (2) Gaylussacia angulata
• Joelcio Freitas - Aristolochia sp. nov.

CANADA

• Rob Tuckerman - Orchis militaris

COLOMBIA

• Benjamín Cárdenas - (1) Passiflora quimbayensis; (2) Vasconcellea cundinamarcensis
• Juan Vergara Galvis - Elaeagia pastoensis

GERMANY

• Asisa Madian - Hippeastrum sp.

GREAT BRITAIN

• Deborah Lambkin - (1) Nicotiana burbidgeae; (2) Pterostylis tenuicauda
• Joanna Langhorne  (1) Fritillaria ayakoana; (2) Fritillaria raddeana

INDONESIA

• Anne Kusuma - Psydrax undulatifolius
• Wahyudi Santoso - (1) Lasianthus macrobracteatus sp. nov. (2) Santoso Wahyudi IDN Trichotosia gabriel-asemiana sp. nov.
• Ichsan Suwandhi - Inocarpus fagifer

JAPAN

• Mariko Aikawa - Tillandsia seleriana

MEXICO

• Edmundo Saavedra - (1) Scaevola sp. (2) Monstera deliciosa - WON FIRST PRIZE

POLAND

• Jolanta Urbanik​ - (1) Orobanche kurdica, O. grossheimii, O. schelkovnikovii habits (2) Orobanche kurdica, O. grossheimii, O. schelkovnikovii details

PORTUGAL

• Luísa Crisóstomo - Arbutus unedo HIGHLY COMMENDED - and my personal favourite - I do love anybody who can illustrate a tree!

SINGAPORE

• Xiang Yun Loh - (1) Wrightia laevis - HIGHLY COMMENDED; (2) Urceola brachysepala 

SPAIN

• Juan Luis Castillo - (1) Lotus pyranthus; (2) Solanum vespertilio subsp. doramae

TURKEY

• Fatma Sen - (1) Eminium intortum; (2) Eminium spiculatum
• Golshan Zare - Pedicularis munzurdaghensis

​USA

• Alice Tangerini ​- (1) Piper calvarii; (2) Piper sotobosquense HIGHLY COMMENDED

What differentiates quality in scientific botanical illustration?
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Many plates could have been grouped in the top 5, showing excellent scientific accuracy, technical and artistic merit and composition. 

The range of works submitted demonstrated  great diversity in style. There is no one way of illustrating botanical subject matter!  However the judging criteria used means it's essential for works submitted to be much more than aesthetically interesting.  They must also demonstrate scientific vigour - and rigour.

All botanical illustrations were marked according to the following criteria

1. Scientific accuracy
2. Technical merit
3. Artistic merit
4. Composition
5. Reproducibility

Illustrations received prizes or commendations because of

• Extraordinary attention to detail
• highly sensitive rendering skills
• little or no editing to reproduce successfully at journal size (67%)
• fulfilled the primary requirements of scientific illustration and were greatly
  enhanced by the elegant qualities of each artists’ individual style.

Illustrations were well regarded if

• elements were stylistically rendered and logically arranged

Illustrations were marked down because of:

• overcrowded or unbalanced illustrations
• inconsistent botanical accuracy
• an absence of scale bars
• confusing scale references

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The Margaret Flockton Award Exhibition 2019
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The exhibition comprises high quality giclée prints of the original illustrations, which were submitted digitally and edited to publication standard.

The exhibition can be seen, in Australia, at The Royal Botanic Garden sites at:
SYDNEY

• Venue: Joseph Maiden Theatre, Royal Botanic Garden Sydney - enter via Woolloomooloo Gate on Mrs Macquaries Road. This is the original National Herbarium on the Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney site where Margaret Flockton worked closely with J.H. Maiden to illustrate thousands of species of plants.
• Dates:  Sat 30 March – Sun 14 April 2019 daily 10 am - 4 pm.
• Cost: Entry to the exhibition is free
• Works for sale - selected works will be available for sale direct from the artist

MOUNT ANNAN 

• Venue: The Australian PlantBank at The Australian Botanic Garden Mount Annan
• Dates:  June/July 2019

MOUNT TOMAH 

• Venue: Visitor Centre at The Blue Mountains Botanic Garden Mount Tomah
• Dates: August/September 2019

REFERENCE:
You can read more about the exhibition on:

• this website - see The Margaret Flockton Award for Excellence in Scientific Botanical Illustration - which includes listings of previous winners and where you can see the work.
• the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney website - The Margaret Flockton Award

Finally my appreciative thanks to Catherine Wardrop and the RBGDT SC Botanical Illustration Section for help with this blog post.