Transylvania Florilegium at the Romanian Cultural Institute

Last week, I was very pleased to be able to attend the reception for the opening of a display of 40 of the watercolour paintings included in the two volumes of the Transylvania Florilegium

Transylvania Florilegium - Exhibition and Publication Details

• Venue: Romanian Cultural Institute (UK), 1 Belgrave Square, London SW1X 8PH (nearest tube is Hyde Park Corner)
• Dates: 21st May - 12th June 2018
• Publishers: Published for The Prince of Wales’s Charitable Foundation by Addison Publications Ltd London
• Artists - see the list below
• More details: Addisons Publishers page and the Highgrove website

In addition:

• You can see a video of the exhibition and HRH Prince of Wales visiting to meet the artists and the publishers of the Book at the The Romanian Cultural Institute.
• The Gaurdian published a lengthy article including images of the wildflower paintings last week - see Prince Charles commissions artworks of Transylvania's wild flora

from the video of the exhibition - showing the room in which the paintings are displayed

The watercolour paintings were started from studies made during visits by the artists to the wild flower meadows in the countryside around HRH The Prince of Wales’s properties at Viscri in the Saxon Villages and the more remote Zalanpatak in Transylvania. Wild flowers throve in the area due to the fact that the farming methods are still traditional.

It's invidious to choose from the paintings as they are all a very high standard. However a number caught my attention.  These included

• Laura Silburn's painting of Aristolochia is the first in the exhibition and it's very similar in standard to her Gold Medal winning paintings
• the autumn crocus sensitively painted by Helen Allen
• Heeyoung Kim's painting of an orchid (Neotmea ?) - where she enlarged the flowers so you can clearly see the construction, markings and colours of each flower very clearly
• Gillian Barlow's two paintings of Helleborus - a complete story of a plant in one painting and Pulsatilla partensis which John Ackroyd also admired
• One of my favourite paintings was Andrew Brown's painting of a Wrinkle-nut which has very dark purple brown flowers. He has included all the hairs on the plant in a beautifully understated way.
• Adjacent is Susan Ogilvy's wonderful painting of a clump of grass (Very Albrecht Durer) featuring a plant where I can only read the first half of my note (Helianth......)
• I also really liked Martin Allen's Echium maculatum - but this may bebecause I'm very taken with Echiums and could not work out how anybody could paint one - until I saw Martin's painting!
• Finally, the last painting in the exhibition is Işık Güner's very crisp painting of Cirsium rivulare

Artists should feel free to contribute the correct plant names! There wasn't a listing on the night and I was scribbling on a very small piece of paper and in general stuck to species names only!

Below is a list of the 36 artists who contributed 40 paintings to the exhibition. Gillian Barlow and Jenny Phillips both have two paintings in the exhibition.

Artists who contributed paintings to the Florilegium
​

United Kingdom 

• Helen Allen FLS - Owner/Principal of the Chelsea School of Botanical Art and organiser of the artists invited to contribute to the Florilegium
• Martin J Allen GM (1995, 97, 99) - an Emeritus Fellow of the Chelsea Physic Garden Florilegium Society and member of the group that won a Gold Medal when they exhibited at the RHS
• Fay Ballard - also contributed to the Highgrove Florilegium
• Gillian Barlow GM - Chair of the Royal Horticultural Society's Picture Panel; archivist for the Chelsea Physic Garden Florilegium Society 
• Christine Battle GM - Member of the Chelsea Physic Garden Florilegium Society. 
• Dr Andrew Brown GM - Awarded four Gold Medals by the RHS. Freelance botanical illustrator for Kew Gardens; Secretary of the Chelsea Physic Garden Florilegium Society and author of the books associated with exhibitions by the Chelsea Physic Garden Florilegium Society.
• Celia Crampton GM (2004, 2010) Member of the Hampton Court Florilegium Society
• Angelique de Folin - Also contributed to the Highgrove Florilegium Society
• The Hon Gillian Foster - member of the American Society of Botanical Artists and the Botanical Artists' Association of Southern Africa
• ​Sarah Gould - Member of the Leicestershire Society of Botanical Illustrators; Fellow of the Chelsea Physic Garden Florilegium Society (from 2002). 
• Lucinda Grant - member of The Hampton Court Palace Florilegium Society (2006-2016)
• Mayumi Hashi GM - ​born in Japan but now lives in the UK. Two RHS gold medals plus two Silver-Gilt Medals, two Silver Medals.
• Junko Iwata GM - also a contributor to The Prince of Wales's Highgrove Florilegium
• Flappy Lane Fox - contributed to the Highgrove Florilegium; member of the Hampton Court Palace Florilegium Society
• Chrissie Lightfoot - has exhibited in the Shirley Sherwood Gallery, Ebury and Hortus Galleries, the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation and the Chelsea Arts Society
• Jill Mayhew - member of the Chelsea Physic Garden Florilegium Society and has a painting included in the Highgrove Florilegium.
• Susan Ogilvy GM - She has been awarded a Gold and Silver-Gilt Medals by the RHS. She designed and illustrated Overleaf, a book on British trees published in 2013 by Kew Publishing.
• Elaine Searle - a well known botanical art teacher. Former Course Director, Diploma Course, Chelsea School of Botanical Art and Fellow of the Linnean Society. Has work in included in the Highgrove Florilegium
• ​​​Laura Silburn GM (2013, 2014) Her Gold Medals were for Varieties of Hardy Geranium that have received the RHS Award of Garden Merit (2013) and Aristolochia species from botanic gardens in England​ (2014) which also won Best in Show
• Lucy T Smith GM - an Australian who at Kew Gardens as a botanical illustrator. Winner of two Gold Medals and the Margaret Flockton Award for Scientific Illustration twice (2014 and 2017). She has also been awarded the Jill Smythies Award for excellence in Scientific Illustration from the Linnean Society of London.
• Sally Strawson - Member of the Florilegium Societies in Sheffield and Sydney. Contributed to the Highgrove Florilegium.
• Mary Ellen Taylor - Diploma Course Manager at The English Gardening School for 7 years and now at the Chelsea Botanical Art School. Member of the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators. Commissioned to paint the six most endangered birds and their habitat in the Galagagos Islands and the butterflies of the Chelsea Physic Garden
• Julia Trickey GM (2006, 2008, 2012, 2013) Fellow of the Chelsea Physic Garden Florilegium Society. She's won four RHS Gold Medals: Leaf Portraits 2006; Leaves, Celebrating Imperfection 2008; ‘Larger than Life - Fading Flowers Observed’ 2012 and 'Nature in Waiting' 2013. She has also had her artwork on Royal Mail stamps.
• Amanda Ward - contributed a painting of Allium to the Highgrove Florilegium

Australia
All three artists also contributed paintings to the Highgrove Florilegium.

• Beverly Allen GM (RHS 2007, NYBG 2010). Co-Founder and President of the Florilegium Society associated with the Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust in Sydney. Won an RHS Gold in 2007 for eight watercolour paintings of Epiphyllum. Won the inaugural Gold Medal for Botanical Art by the New York Botanic Gardens (2010)
• ​​John Pastoriza-Piñol GM (2005) Teaches botanical Art at the Geelong Botanic Gardens (14+ years). Member of BAS, ASBA and RBGS Florilegium Society.
• Jenny Phillips GM (1993) - Founder/Director of The Botanical Art School of Melbourne, Australia. Fellow of the Linnean Society. Won the Celia Rosser Award.

Japan

• Noriko Hasegawa - member of The Japanese Association of Botanical Illustration and Botanical Art of Australia

Netherlands

• Anita Walsmit Sachs - ​Founder/President of the Dutch Society of Botanical Artists. Head of the Art Department and scientific illustrator until 2013 of the Nationaal Herbarium Nederland,

New Zealand

• Susan Worthington - contributed three works to the Highgrove Florilegium and two to this Florilegium.

South Africa

• Gillian Condy - ​SANBI's official botanical illustrator until her recent retirement. Awarded the Jill Smythies Award by the Linnean Society (1990) plus seven RHS Gold Medals and two Gold Medals at the Kirstenbosch Biennale. 
• Vicki Thomas - Founder member of BAASA. Gold medallist in Kirstenbosch Biennales; curator of 'PLANT' (the successor to the Kirstenbosch Biennale) in 2017. Also contributed to the Highgrove Florilegium.

Switzerland

• Marie Christine Bouvier - member of The Chelsea Physic Garden Florilegium Society; contributed to the Highgrove Florilegium.

Turkey

• Işık Güner (GM 2014) (BISCOT GM 2011) - Currently working on a number of projects illustrating botanical art for publication for botanists and botanic gardens - and she teaches (see her Facebook Page). Işık's painting of Gunnera Tinctoria (which you can see here) won the RHS Best Painting in Show in Spring 2014. 

USA

• Heeyoung Kim GM (2012) - won an RHS Gold Medal (Plants of the American Prairie - a series of 8 watercolour paintings). She also won the Best in the Show at the 15th International Exhibition (2012)
• Kate Nessler GM - Awarded three RHS Gold Medals. Work in the collections of Highgrove Florilegium, The Shirley Sherwood Collection, The Royal Horticulture Society, The Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, Pittsburgh, PA

Florilegia and The Prince of Wales’s Charitable Foundation
​

The Prince of Wales’s Charitable Foundation
See also:

• The Transylvania Florilegium Exhibition #1
• Volume 1 of The Highgrove Florilegium is published (2008)
• Exhibition Review: The Highgrove Florilegium at the Garden Museum (2009)

Florilegium - past and present

• the Florilegium Page on this website goes from Historical to Contemporary.

---

Subscribe to BAA News
Blog posts are emailed to you when you Subscribe to Botanical Art & Artists - News by Email
 Your subscription is ONLY activated IF you verify the link in the email you will receive 
and you can unsubscribe at any time