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This is about who was awarded what - in terms of awards and medals - at the RHS Botanical Art Show 2024 - which opened to the public at the Saatchi Gallery in London on Friday 14th July 2023. The exhibition continues until 7th July 2024 and I highly recommend you pay it a visit if you have any aspirations to being a better botanical artist.  The Three Award Winners at the RHS Botanical Art Show 2024 This is a VERY, VERY LONG post - with lots of images and lots of useful information and tips. Below is a list of all the 22 botanical artists and illustrators whose exhibits were
At the end, I highlight
My next post (this week) will focus on key themes around
Both will hopefully be helpful.
Awards for Outstanding Botanical ArtworkThere are three awards which, in the context of the show, are all of relatively recent origin. However as the numbers of exhibitors have grown and the standard of art exhibited has improved significantly, it was felt that there was a need to recognise all those who had particularly impressed the Judges. (More about the Judges at the end!) It's notable that all three Gold Medal winners - who also won an Award - are ALL First Time Exhibitors. This is VERY impressive - but it must be acknowledged that it is actually becoming more normal. That's because very many artists, after becoming approved to exhibit, do not apply to exhibit at a specific exhibition UNTIL they have an excellent exhibit to submit. Best Botanical Art Exhibit LYNNE UPTIN The Genus Richea: A Relic of Gondwana.  The Genus Richea: A Relic of Gondwana This is a classic example of an artist who chose to do a very unusual and highly scientific project - and then produced paintings which are very complex and yet explain everything and are also very attractive. A number of them were painted from herbaria specimens - and we see examples of these in the slideshow in the gallery. Lynne has been painting the Genus Richea since 2020. Richea is a genus of 11 species of flowering plants in the family Ericaceae. Nine of the species are endemic to Tasmania - where she lives - and the other two are endemic to the south-east of the Australian mainland. It's also associated with the split up of the supercontinent of Gondwana as Tasmania was the last region of the continental plates to split from Antartica. I think we can expect a second exhibit of Genus Richea from Lynne! In 2023/24 Lynne has focussed on developing a body of works for this exhibition which is a study of 6 of the species of the genus Richea, a plant with ancient and fascinating origins. The majority of the species are endemic to Tasmania’s World Heritage temperate rainforests.  Charlotte Brooks (left) presents Lynne Uptin with her Crystal Vase for Best Exhibit Lynne Uptin was the Director of Arts Tasmania for 20 years. She was awarded an Order of Australia Medal (OAM) in 2010 for her services to arts administration. Prior to that she worked as an illustrator and owned two art galleries. What's really interesting is that Lynne is relatively new to botanical art. However she has started exhibiting, became a Fellow of SBA and has won awards for her artwork.
Judge’s Special Award There's a second award for an entire exhibit called the Judges Special Award which was introduced in 2018. This was after Dr. Hye Woo Shin GM (2013,2014,2018,2022) came back for the third time to win another Gold Medal, after she had also previously won the Best Exhibit (2013 and 2014). It's not an award which automatically goes to a Gold Medal Winner. However it is an award which is often more related to new ideas or subjects for botanical art and/or the scale of the endeavour - and exhibits which the Judges really like! SUNANDA VERMA WIDEL Ornamental Bananas from Southeast Asia.  Ornamental bananas are very much associated with South East Asia and these particular bananas grow in Singapore Botanical Gardens which is a UNESCO Heritage Site. Her exhibit demonstrates the morphological diversity found in the Musaceae genus in Singapore. This was a project which clearly exemplified the scale of her endeavour to record this genus. Her aim was to demonstrate their upright habit and the variety of the flower forms, the fruit and the amazing array of colours of different species. Her artwork also includes a neat row of dissections to illustrate parts of the plant. Overall she has more than succeeded, as her exhibit has great impact within the Gallery. Her fieldwork, over several years, involved making accurate measurements, detailed drawings and colour swatches throughout the year - all while sat in the tropical heat of Singapore - and there are photographs of her doing this in the slideshow opposite her exhibit in the gallery.  Sunanda Verma Widel - with three of the paintings in her exhibit Sunanda, who lives in Singapore, only took up botanical art after she retired from her teaching career in international schools around the world. She has a background in art and a degree in Printmaking. On retirement from teaching, she began to study botanical art with the Society of Botanical Art's 2-year Distance Learning Diploma Course (DLDC). In 2018, she graduated with distinction. Sunanda is a Fellow of the SBA and a member of the ASBA and a founder member of the Botanical Art Society of Singapore (BASS). She has exhibited internationally and her artwork is held in the archive collections at both the RBG Edinburgh and the SBG. She will also be exhibiting in the 17th International Exhibition of Botanical Art & Illustration at the Hunt Institute in Pittsburgh this autumn. I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot more of Sunada's artwork in future! Best Botanical Artwork DALEEN ROODT Eulophia horsfallii & Dissotis princeps with carpenter bees (Xylocopa flavorufa).  Daleen Roodt with her 'Best Botanical Artwork Prize' for her watercolour painting of "Eulophia horsfallii & Dissotis princeps with carpenter bees (Xylocopa flavorufa)" There is one VERY LARGE painting in the 2024 exhibition - and this is the one which won Best Botanical Artwork. It's of an orchid in South Africa which grows to about 2 metres in the wild - so we see it in the gallery very much at the same size. Daleen found her Eulophia horsfallii growing in a muddy swamp area of KwaZulu-Natal where Daleen lives. The photo below demonstrates the scope of her endeavour! (read the caption!). Her painting is part of an exhibit which focuses on "South African Orchids: Specialised Pollination Interactions". It followed her receiving The Dawn Jolliffe Botanical Art Bursary. The purpose of this bursary is to support painting or drawing plants in their natural habitat or exhibiting work at an RHS Show. In this instance it allowed her to study orchids and their pollinators over three seasons - and she's sent me several images of the work that involved. I'm not going to say any more about the painting now - except I highly recommend you go and have a view if you can do so! That's because I have a 16 minute video of an interview with Daleen in which she describes the nature of the various challenges involved in creating this particular painting. This is going to be part of another blog post specifically devoted to this painting and Daleen's work in producing her exhibit as there are a number of aspects that are worth highlighting for botanical artists aspiring to exhibit at the RHS.  Daleen Roodt stood in her wellies on top of a bucket in a muddy swamp in Kwa-Zulu Natal - sketching Eulophia horsfallii - for five hours! Daleen Roodt is a self taught artist and lives in Hillcrest in Kwa-Zulu Natal in South Africa. She started producing scientific botanical illustrations for a Professor at Pretoria University in 2008 after he saw one of her drawings. Over the years she has been commissioned to undertake a number of projects for relating to various diverse habitats. Her work has appeared in a number of publications and field guides in South Africa.She has previously won medals at Kirstenbosch Biennale (2010, 2013) and the World Orchid Conference. (2014). She is also a member of the Grootbos Florilegium. I saw a portfolio of wild orchid paintings she's done when I was in South Africa last fall, and they are all unique and incredible! Well-earned award. Gold MedalsGold Medals are only awarded to displays of outstanding and consistent excellence The RHS Botanical Art Show - Fact Sheet for Artist Exhibitors (page 6) Eleven Gold Medals were awarded - which is a lot - but we have had more (eg 16 were awarded in 2018!). In terms of countries, gold medals were awarded as follows:
I always tell artists to be ambitious and "Go for Gold" when you enter for the first time. This means I also advise those contemplating entering to delay their actual application to exhibit until they are very sure they have developed the very necessary skills and can give it the attention an exhibit needs. There is a reason why artists are allowed five years from when they are selected as artists who can exhibit in the future to the deadline for actually appearing in an exhibition. A lot of the really good quality exhibits take a very long time to come to fruition due to the research and studies which need to be undertaken from life and in the field. If you're producing your exhibit, have a good long hard think about whether it's the very best you can possibly do. Never ever make do with second best - on ANY of the artworks - because the colour of your medal can be determined by your least good painting! Australia Anne Hayes painting a Banksia (One of the images in the screenshow playing in the Gallery)  ANNE HAYES: Banksia Serrata (First time exhibitor) Anne has always been fascinated by Banksias and in particular the seed pods and cone. Her exhibit demonstrates how climate and elevation affects the structure and morphology of the cone of the Banksia serrata. Her paintings of very large cones are impressive in their detail and how she demonstrates the variation. Speaking personally, I'd have loved to have seen a tad more colour in the greys and browns. Anne has been a professional botanical illustrator for over 10 years and she currently lives in Brisbane. She has a Diploma in Commercial Art and an Advanced Diploma in Visual Communication. She has worked as an Illustrator and has won awards. She has also exhibited widely, been included in a number of publications and won awards. She also teaches botanical art in Queensland. She is also a member of The Florilegium Society at the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney and the Botanical Art Society of Australia. LYNNE UPTIN - see Best Exhibit above  Half of the "Best Exhibit" of The Genus Richea: A Relic of Gondwana by Lynne Uptin ITALY (and AUSTRALIA) Tillandsia Daughters of the Wind - by Maria Lombardi MARIA LOMBARDI: Tillandsia Daughters of the Wind (First time exhibitor) Anybody who goes to see the exhibition needs to get up very close and personal with this exhibit in order to appreciate fully the delicacy and skill of Maria's dry brush work and her ability to make very complex structures more accessible through a very skilled use of tone and colour. I'll be commenting more about this in my next post and showing you what I mean! Quite simply, I was blown away with the excellent quality of her watercolour painting - and that's before we consider the merit of her design and composition or any of the other assessment criteria. This is also a very personal exhibit for Maria. Her mother (whose maiden name was 'Vento' - meaning 'the wind' passed away when she was young and her children are now scattered to different corners of the world - just as the seeds of Tillandsia are dependent on the wind to scatter their seeds.  Maria Lombari with her exhibit of Tillandsia Born in Australia, Maria Lombardi graduated in art education from the City Institute, NSW, Australia before moving to Italy. Maria taught English in Rome and then graduated from the SBA Distance Learning Diploma Course with Distinction in 2015. She now lives in Umbria and is a co-founder of the Committee for Botanical Art in Italy. She is also one of the current RHS Exhibitors who will be exhibiting one of their paintings in the upcoming 17th Hunt International Series Exhibition in Fall 2024. JAPAN "Three distinct Groups of Celosia Based on Their Flower Structure" by Yuko Saito YUKO SAITO: Three distinct Groups of Celosia Based on Their Flower Structure (First time exhibitor). There were a number of aspects of Yuko's exhibit which I really liked:
 Yuko Saiko's painting printed very large on the display board outside the Saatchi Gallery in Chelsea. Yuko Saito is a botanical artist and teacher who lives in Yokohama. She Graduated in oil painting in 1982. She currently works as a botanical art instructor at several culture centres in Kanagawa Prefecture. In the past, she has won
PORTUGAL TONI DADE: Magnolia grandiflora: From Bud to Desiccated Seedpod (Gold 2019 - on her first exhibit). I like magonolia seedpods a lot and go hunting for them on the tree and on the ground every year. As a result of this I've also looked for and seen a lot of paintings of magnolia seedpods - but I've never ever seen a complete series in person that portrays how the pod changes over time and I've certainly never seen them painted this big! The last two in the series are just absolutely awesome! My guess is the one on the right may well have been in the running for Best Painting. You can see all the paintings in a slideshow exhibit on her website Magnolia grandiflora from Bud to Dried Pod  This is a very small part of the final dried pod - and you can see Toni's meticulous attention to detail. I first met Toni Dade when she arrived as a First Time Exhibitor in 2019 and achieved a Gold Medal for her outstanding portrayal of a pomegranate plant. Toni lives and works in very rural part of the Algarve in Portugal. She studied a Natural History Illustration course in the 1990's. Since then, she has painted, illustrating, exhibited and sold her artwork on a regular basis. Since 2017, she has focused on botanical illustration, became a Fellow of the SBA and has taught botanical art. Her painting "Dishevelled" has also been selected for the 17th Hunt International Series Exhibition in Fall 2024. SingaporeSUNANDA VERMA WIDEL: Ornamental Bananas from Southeast Asia (First time exhibitor). More images of this exhibit of Ornamental Bananas which won the Judges Special Award. See "Judges Special Award" above for more about Sunanda and her exhibit. As you can see, this is an exhibit which has a big impact!  Ornamental bananas by Sunanda Verma Widel  Ornamental bananas by Sunanda Verma Widel Sri Lanka SANDUNMALI KULASEKARA: Medicinal Plants Native to the Desert (First time exhibitor). I think I'm right in saying that Sandunmali is the first exhibitor from Sri Lanka - for which many congratulations! Her exhibit very much adheres to the standards required of strict scientific botanical illustrations. It includes all the parts of the plant to scale and how it grows. In this instance, two of her pen and ink drawings included a host and parasite which were both clearly indicated. Her drawings are very clear, well organised and accessible.  Sandunmali is a scientific botanical illustrator of plants and natural history. She worked as a Plant Tissue Culturist and trained at the Tissue culture department of plant sciences at the University of Colombo Sri Lanka. She subsequently trained at the Royal Botanical Gardens, Peradeniya on native medicinal plants, Agricultural crops and gained a specialization on Orchidacea. She next completed a Natural History illustration course at University of Newcastle, Australia in 2017. Latterly she has been a student of Diane Sutherland. She has a particular interest in the plants of Sri Lanka, particularly those with medicinal properties. She is a Member of the Botanical Art Society of Singapore where she has exhibited regularly. She has also exhibited in the Margaret Flockton Award in Australia in 2021 and 2023 and has contributed to the Florilegium Collection at RBG Edinburgh. UK - Wales Dr Amelia Grass with "Overlooked: Wild Flowers in the Restored Meadows of G;yntaff, South Wales" DR. AMELIA GRASS: Overlooked: Wildflowers in the restored meadows of Glyntaff (First time exhibitor). I was VERY impressed with this exhibit and I'll be using it a lot to provide a number of tips in my next post. It's essential to understand that none of the plants are out of the ordinary. What I liked about all her paintings was:
 Meconopsis Cambrica by Amelia Grass Dr. Amelia Grass is the Course Leader for the MSc Wildlife Conservation Management at the University of South Wales where she is also a Senior Lecturer in Natural History specialising in the taxonomy of species and wildlife conservation.
USA HYUNJIN CHO: Succulents Studied in Stippling (Silver 2022) This exhibit of succulents - drawn using extremely expert stippling in pen and ink - quite literally made my jaw drop. These images are all very complex and yet all these images are of very mature and complex succulents. I can't think of any reason why we would not want to see much more of her pen and ink artwork at a future RHS show. You can see images of her working on some of her stippled drawings on her Instagram account (link in her name). Recently, I've been obsessed with drawing old and big succulents, because of the sheer amount of time they have survived and continued to grow. I am captivated by the unique curves and patterns they make throughout their lives, a result that only time can create. This alone made these plants feelmore precious and noble to me. What especially caught my eye was the symphony between the bifurcated body, soft and glossy leaves, and the sharp spikes.  a macro view of one of the stippled drawings by Hyunchin Cho Hyunjin Cho grew up in Korea, then moved to the USA and now lives and works in California. She studied botanical art at Filoli in California and is a member of ASBA and a Fellow of SBA. She has previously won the Brooklyn Botanic Garden Award in recognition of an outstanding drawing or print at ASBA's 26th Annual International Exhibition in California. She has also exhibited widely - including in the Margaret Flockton Award as well as the ASBA International. Her work is also included in the upcoming 17th International Exhibition of Botanical Art & Illustration at the Hunt Institute of Botanical Documentation. BETSY ROGERS-KNOX: Looking Over the Overlooked - The Forest Floor . (Previously been awarded: Won the Judges Special Award in 2019 - see RHS London Botanical Art Show 2019 - Awards and Medal Winners plus Silver-gilt 2019, Silver-gilt 2016, Silver 2013. I cannot be more pleased for Betsy Rogers-Knox (USA) who has won an RHS Gold Medal for her stunning exhibit of “Looking Over the Overlooked - The Forest Floor”. It’s an original idea and her paintings reflect the different seasons in one place - telling the story of a forest at ground level. Her exhibit emphasises the importance of how the decay and recycling of the forest floor contributes to the overall biomass of the forest as a whole nourishing trees, feeding animals and preventing soil erosion. The six paintings - which each include four or five different plants and lichens - portray the changes in the forest floor over the course of a year and the four seasons. Essentially it's repetition of place without repetition of plants. She has also painted in the tradition of past masters Marianne North and Raymond Booth - portraying her plants in groups within their habitat. I have a sneaking suspicion she may well win the Public Choice Award which is voted for by the public over the course of the exhibition.  Betsy Rogers-Knox with her exhibit of the plants on the forest floor through different seasons in the year  This is "Summer Secrets" by Betsy Rogers-Knox - which includes Indian Pipe, Groundnut, Jack-in-the-pulpit, bicolor boleta mushroom and red chanterelles Betsy is also exhibiting for the fourth time, having improved her medal and award performance every time she has exhibited.
Betsy completed the Botanical Illustration Program at the New York Botanical Garden in 2006. She is a member of ASBA and exhibits regularly with them. Silver Gilt MedalsThere were only three Silver Gilts, which seemed unusual to me. Perhaps because there were so many Golds?
Silver Medals Ingrid Arthur and "A Shetland Garden"
 Linda Pitkin with her exhibit of Native British Woodland Flowers Bronze MedalsAll three artists receiving a Bronze Medal are First Time Exhibitors.
I have to confess, I was very, very surprised - and disappointed - to see ANY bronze medals.
My view is that all those who are approved to exhibit, need to know that in order to avoid a Bronze Medal they need to produce BETTER artwork than whatever they have submitted - because they must produce a coherent exhibit of consistent quality across SIX botanical artworks on a theme.
I'm not sure whether any of the three artists had visited a previous RHS Show for research and seen the standard of art required. However..... I HIGHLY RECOMMEND:
How artwork is assessed and medals awardedYou can find a more detailed explanation about how both artwork and medals are assessed in The RHS Botanical Art Show - Fact Sheet for Artist Exhibitors (This is better read online - it's not set up to print well) Candidates who have been approved to exhibit must submit at least six works - preferably on a theme. You get extra marks if you illustrate a plant family. The notes in italics below are mine. Key points are:
The detailed and strict criteria used to assess each individual painting and exhibit are shown in the table below. The Judges adhere to strict criteria and all decisions are reviewed by a Moderator to ensure consistency The RHS Botanical Art Show - Fact Sheet for Artist Exhibitors page 6  You can see this table in the Guidelines document if you click the image and go to the pdf document embedded in the image The Judges Three of the Judges (left to right) Deborah Lambkin, Gillian Barlow (Chair of the Panel) and Masumi Yamanaka - with Sunanda Verma Widel who won the Judges Award 2024 This year, for the first time, the RHS has very helpfully done a profile of the Judges. You can access it on this link Botanical Art Judges Biographies. This helps artists to understand the high level of achievement and expertise of those individuals who are judging their artwork. GM (below) references the RHS Gold Medals won for Botanical Art. It's usual to identify the year it relates to. Gold Veitch Memorial Medal is highly prized and is awarded annually by the RHS to persons of any nationality who have made an outstanding contribution to the advancement of the science and practice of horticulture. FLS relates to being a Fellow of the Linnean Society The Judges are:
Lucy T Smith will join the Picture Panel of Judges for next year's show and was a non-voting member of the panel this year. Lucy is a botanical illustrator for Kew Gardens. She has been awarded the
Blog posts are emailed to you when you Subscribe to Botanical Art & Artists - News by Email Your subscription is: ONLY to this blog + ONLY activated IF you verify the link you will receive. How to see the RHS Botanical Art Show 2024Venue: Saatchi Gallery Duke of York's HQ, King's Road, London, SW3 4RY Dates: Friday 14th June - 7th July 2024 Hours: open from 10am to 6pm each day (last entry 5.30pm) Admission: Tickets from £5. Terms and conditions apply
More about the RHS Botanical Art ShowI'll be commenting on the exhibition generally plus changes and themes I spotted in my next post
Plus referencing where you can find out how you can enter an RHS Exhibition in the future. You might want to take a look at my pages on this website about the RHS Botanical Art Show (these will be updated in due course)
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Botanical Art & Artists
WINTER 2023
AuthorKatherine Tyrrell writes about botanical art and artists and has followers all over the world. You can also find her at linktr.ee BAA Visitors so far....Subscribe to BAA NewsBlog posts are emailed to you when you SUBSCRIBE to "Botanical Art and Artists - News" by Email
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