Shevaun Doherty wins Best in Show at Bloom

Best in Show was awarded to Shevaun Doherty for Teloschistes chrysophthalmus, Golden Eye lichen.

This post highlights the botanical artists who won medals at The 6th Annual Botanical Art Show at Bloom in the Park in Dublin opened yesterday and the medals were awarded. In this post you'll find a list of the botanical artists winning medals at the Botanical Art at the Bloom Show in Dublin - plus a brief profile of each artist winning a medal.

​I'll be back tomorrow to add in more award-winning images from this show. 

​The exhibition also includes paintings by floral artists which are listed at the end

Gold Medal Winner and Best in Show at Bloom 2018

Shevaun Doherty - Teloschistes chrysophthalmus, Golden Eye lichen. 

Shevaun not only won the only Gold Medal and Best in Show Award (her second Best in Show - she won in 2017 as well) - she also sold the painting to a major botanical art collector!  I can't help feeling that apart from the exquisite painting of this lichen that one of the things which appealed to the Judges was that I don't think anybody has painted a lichen before for the show - and yet lichens grow everywhere in Ireland!

I always feel some pride when Shevaun does well as it is one of my blog posts (note the first comment!)  which originally stimulated her to apply to do the SBA Diploma - for which she was awarded a Distinction. Since then she has done extremely well in terms of being awarded previous Gold Medals at Bloom (2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017) and prizes elsewhere and developing workshops and tuition for aspiring botanical artists - especially those wanting to learn how to paint on vellum.

​Shevaun Doherty - Gold Medal and Best in Show for Teloschistes chrysophthalmus, Golden Eye lichen

Silver Gilt Medal Winners at Bloom 2018

Fionnuala Broughan - Silver Gilt

Fionnuala Broughan - Davallia sp. , Hare's foot fern
Fionnuala is a relatively new recruit to botanical art and says she is inspired by Asuka Hishiki, Masumi Yamanaka, Siobhán Larkin, Patricia Newman, Sarah Simblet. I love the fact that her facebook account is named after a plant!  https://www.facebook.com/erica.cinerea

​Shevaun Doherty - Crocus vernus, Dutch crocus - watercolour on vellum 
Shevaun's other entry gained a Silver Gilt medal.

Shevaun Doherty - Silver Gilt

Siobhan Larkin - Hydrangea
Siobhan works in watercolour pencils and won Best in Show in 2016 and 2015! She has also exhibited at the 15th International Exhibition of Botanical Art & Illustration at the Hunt Institute of Botanical Documentation in Pittsburgh, PA. She is not a fan of being online - hence no website.

Siobhan Larkin - Silver Gilt

Elaine Mackey - Silver Gilt

Elaine Moore Mackey - Arisarum probiscideum, Mousetail Plant
Elaine started Botanical Illustration in 2013 and she completed a course at the Burren College of Art in 2014.  She has just graduated from the Distance Learning Diploma run by the Society of Botanical Artists (UK). 
​
Holly Somerville - Iris 'Turkish Blue'
Holly Somerville was born in Dublin and now lives in Wicklow. She is a botanical artist, illustrator and teacher. Her academic accreditation as a botanical artist comes from scientific and artistic perspectives. She has an MA in Botany from Somerville College, Oxford and a BA in Visual Communication from Edinburgh College of Art, where she specialised in illustration and photography. In the past she has worked in the herbarium of the Botany Department of Trinity College, Dublin. She has produced very many botanically correct pen and ink drawings for publications about Irish Flora and researchers at Trinity College and other universities around the world. She's also exhibited regularly and extensively in both Ireland and Ulster.

Holly Somerville - Silver Gilt

Silver Medal Winners at Bloom 2018

Jane Stark - Silver

​Jane Stark - Anthurium hybrid
Jane Stark is a botanical artist living in the west of Ireland. A graduate of the Ontario College of Art in Toronto, Canada, she has worked in graphic design and natural history illustration in Canada, the US and Ireland, specialising in high quality publication design. She is a founding member of the Irish Society of Botanical Artists (ISBA) and is currently President of ISBA. She has also been a leading light in getting the two ISBA books published Aibítir: The Irish Alphabet in Botanical Art and Plandaí Oidhreachta, Irish Heritage Plants. She is also the curator of the annual Claregalway Botanical Art Expo, held in conjunction with the Galway Garden Festival at Claregalway Castle. ​

Lynn Stringer
- ‘Douglas Fir’- painting sold
- 'Iris "Haute les voiles"’
Lynn is Chair of the Irish Society of Botanical Artists. She lives and works in County Wicklow.  She studied Fine Art at DIT College of Marketing and Design in Dublin as a mature student and graduated with a first in painting. She regularly holds botanical art classes and exhibits her work at various plant fairs in Ireland (see website for details). She won an RHS Silver Medal in 2013 when she exhibited six paintings about Kilmacurragh and the Plant Hunters from her long term project to paint plants from Kilmacurragh (part of the National Botanic Gardens). She's a member of ISBA and ASBA. See An Interview with Lynn Stringer

Lynn Stringer with one of her two Silver Medal Paintings at Bloom 2018

Bronze Medal Winners at Bloom 2018

Yanny Petters with her two Bronze Medal drawings

Yanny Petters

• ‘Hedgerow Study Ash’
• 'Hedgerow Study Spindle’

Yanny lives and works in County Wicklow, as a botanical artist and tutor. She has work in the Shirley Sherwood Collection and the Office of Public Works in Dublin. Her speciality is producing plant portraits using the rare technique of Verre Églomisé, or painting on glass. 

Soyoung Sin Bronze Medal (Botanical)
Soyoung Sin is a member of the Korea Botanical Arts Cooperative.

Floral Medal Winners at Bloom 2018

Sue Van Coppenhagen - Silver - Iris

The submissions in the Floral Category are judged seperately against different criteria. Those who were awarded medals are as follows:

Silver Gilt

• Anne McLeod - ‘Yellow flag’

Silver

• Sue Van Coppenhagen - Silver - Iris 
• Margareta Pertl - Silver - Dahlia "Univesity of Vienna"

Bronze

• Holly Somerville - ​‘Sanctuary’
• Anne McLeod -  ‘Wild bindweed’
• Katherine Geoghan - ‘Hawthorn Hedgerow’ 

How to participate in Bloom

For those wondering if they should maybe enter Bloom next year why not take a look at my blog post from earlier this year about the Call for Entries for Bloom 2018 - see Call for Entries for 6th Annual Botanical and Floral Art in Bloom Exhibition.

​There will be another one for Bloom 2019 in the early part of 2019.

I'd still like to see a show in Ireland where assessment for medals is based on a suite of work by an artist. The artwork for Bloom is assessed on a "per painting" basis and of course this system of assessment works in much the same way as most art shows. It's certainly a valid way of testing competence in botanical art. However as artwork keeps getting better and better there needs to be more of a challenge. I suspect the biggest challenge might be finding accommodation for such a show. Certainly the exhibition at Bloom is limited by the accommodation available in the Visitors' Centre.

Previous blog posts about Bloom

• Medals awarded at Bloom Botanical Art 2017 - Botanical Art & Artists
• Bloom Botanical and Floral Art 2016 - Medal Winners
• Best in Bloom 2015