MAMA #2: All about Vincent Van Gogh on his birthday

The second in my series of 'Making A Mark Archive posts' is about Vincent Van Gogh. If you read all my blog posts, listed below, and follow up the links it'll keep you occupied all day!

Vincent Van Gogh was born 167 years ago today on 30 March 1853 in the Netherlands. 

In 2007 I did a very big project on Van Gogh and have written periodically about him over the years. This is a list of my Van Gogh blog posts categorised by:

• Van Gogh and Drawing
• Van Gogh's Paintings
• Van Gogh and Flowers and Gardens
• Exhibitions
• Videos
• Miscellaneous posts

They include include lots of images of wonderful drawings and paintings by Van Gogh.  Many of them are my photographs of the originals in exhibitions.

The one below is my copy - in coloured pencils - of his painting of Almond Blossom which I did as an exercise while doing my project on Van Gogh. 

A copy of Van Gogh's Almond Blossom 1890 (in the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam)
9" x 12", coloured pencils on hot press papercopyright Katherine Tyrrell

Van Gogh and Drawing

"I sometimes think there is nothing so delightful as drawing." Vincent van Gogh (1853 - 1890)

His approach to drawing was a revelation for me in terms of mark-making.

I remember learning that all those who talked about Van Gogh as if he had a manic approach to his artwork - working very quickly - had very obviously never ever tried drawing with a reed pen and ink!

Cottage Garden, 1888
Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853–1890)
Reed pen, quill, and ink over graphite on wove paper;
61 x 49 cm (24 x 19 1/4 in.)
Private Collection
Exhibited at: "Vincent Van Gogh - the Drawings" Metropolitan Museum of Art -

• Van Gogh: Drawing media and techniques (2007) - This post focuses on Van Gogh's drawing materials and how they influenced his style. This is one of the most popular blog posts on my blog. I rather think a link to this has crept into the resources of some lesson plans about teaching drawing!
• Van Gogh: More About Drawing (2007) - Links to websites which provide a very useful perspective on Van Gogh's approach to drawing
• Van Gogh: Drawing Landscapes (2007) - More about Van Gogh and Drawing - this post focuses on his landscape drawings.
• Van Gogh: Drawing Figures, Portraits and Self-Portraits (2007) - At one stage in his career, Van Gogh hoped to be a portrait painter in Paris.

Van Gogh's Paintings

Watercolour paintings of flowers sell well

Flower paintings are hugely popular with the public. Watercolour paintings of flowers also sell well - particularly when executed by experts.

I find it such a pity that leading open exhibitions of watercolour paintings (by the RWS, RI and Sunday Times Watercolour Competition) don't include more paintings of plant life in general and flowers in particular.

I'd love to know why there's a dearth of flower paintings in watercolour shows - when some of the best watercolour painters in the country paint flowers!

I can't help but think that this is down to one of three reasons

• Panels of Judges who don't like, don't understand or don't rate flower or botanical paintings - and don't care what the public like!
• Well regarded flower painters and botanical artists who don't enter open exhibitions and art competitions for watercolour paintings - because their work doesn't get a good reception. (I've heard this story so many times re experiences in the past)
• Or it just doesn't occur to artists who paint flowers to show their work outside a friendly environment - which is typically one which involves a lot of women! (I spend a lot of my time encouraging those who create artwork about plants and flowers to enter open exhibitions and competitions - and those that do generally do well, except when they come up against a panel of judges who make some very odd decisions eg STWC in 2017.)

My own view is it's probably a combination of the above.

This will never change until great flower painters who produce excellent work start entering the open exhibitions of other art societies and art competitions.

Here are two exhibitions in London this week.

Watercolour paintings by Rosie Sanders

The first is the Rosie Sanders: Secret Letters Exhibition at Jonathan Cooper's Park Walk Gallery just off the Fulham Road in Chelsea. (Prices are between £3,800 and £18,000). 16 out of the 26 paintings had sold when I visited on Tuesday this week. More will have sold before the exhibition closes on Saturday.

This is a video of my walk round the exhibition on Tuesday this week.

Rosie is yet another female painter who ALWAYS paints what she loves and ALSO knows how to create and present work which sells (see blog posts at the end re other women who've had virtually sell out shows in the recent past)

As a result Rosie has a solo show at this gallery every 1-2 years. (Note: Jonathan also shows other artists covered on Making A Mark in the past - who have won the BP Portrait Award and the ING Discerning Eye competition)

It's simply not the case that watercolour paintings don't get shown by galleries or, alternatively, don't find buyers (see yesterday's post). The issue is the image that is created and the expertise used in creating that image....

The second exhibition is Changing Seasons - the Annual Exhibition of the Society of Botanical Artists which has its Private View today and opens to the public tomorrow until Saturday 21 October. It's open every day 11am to 5pm and I'm expecting to see some excellent work.

However most of these artists will never dream of showing outside group shows organised by those who understand their work.

I'm off to see this exhibition shortly (it's at Central Hall, Westminster - opposite Westminster Abbey) and will be highlighting prizewinners and reviewing the exhibition on my botanical art news blog on my website Botanical Art and Artists later this week.

[Note: This website is fast catching up with Making A Mark in terms of traffic - because that's how popular this sort of art is!]

Those who are smart can do both exhibitions in one day this week!

More women artists who know how to paint what they love and sell it!

Three more women artists who have organised and held their own solo shows and sold virtually all the work

• Rosa Sepple (President of the RI) - Rosa Sepple sells 50+ paintings in 4 days!
• Jessica Shepherd - Jessica Shepherd paints leaves and sells!

plus another botanical artist who has had a very successful solo show of watercolour paintings of flowers in Chelsea Fiona Strickland exhibition at Park Walk Gallery

All the artists share an ability to understand that they have to create their own future. Others can help them - but they have to make it happen!

Want to see some very big flower paintings?

I've had any number of people tell me over the years that flower painting isn't really serious art.

For example, I've come across a fair few chaps who select work for their art societies who don't seem to take it very seriously. Granted there's a rather lot of amateurs producing some not very good flower paintings. However, I think most of us could agree that it's possible to say the same thing about landscapes, still life and portraits!!

So why does flower painting get shut out of 'serious' art exhibitions?

Jacqui Pestell MBE and Sharon Tingey GM with their Corpse Flower
- technically this is an unbranched inflorescence - and it's the biggest in the world

I know

• I see more skilled use of watercolour by botanical artists than I do in some of the paintings selected for major exhibitions of watercolour art. However, art isn't all about skill is it?
• from discussions last year with the Marketing Director and Marketing Manager of Fabriano Paper (see A Meeting with Fabriano about Hot Press Paper) that 

botanical artists are very demanding when it comes to testing watercolour paper.

However, anybody who wants to see what the women and a few men who paint plants and flowers can do and have been getting up in recent years should get themselves down to Kew and view the artwork on show.

"British Artists in the Shirley Sherwood Collection" opened at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery at Kew on Saturday.

I was at the PV on Monday night, spent Tuesday processing photos and writing blog posts and will be back there back again tomorrow to take a good long hard look at all the paintings in the exhibition.

Rosie Sanders with five of her paintings

You can see more of Rosie Sanders GM's work at

• the Jonathan Cooper Gallery in Park Walk, Chelsea or 
• on her website (prices if you want to do a commission) or 
• in her new book Rosie Sanders' Flowers: A Celebration of Botanical Art (affiliate link). 

If you're visiting the Mall Galleries in the near future, her book was sat top middle of the Featured Books stand last time I was in!

The image at the top of this post is one I've now included on two Facebook Pages. One was prefaced by this comment...

Anybody out there who has any 'namby pamby' concepts about "flower painters" needs to change them!
The women of botanical art paint life-size - even if that means BIG!

This lifesize painting of the Titan Arum (Amorphophallus titanum) - painted very fast last summer as it reached peak flowering and while it was at its stinkiest (it's also known as "the Corpse Flower") - is by Jacqui Pestell MBE (on left), Sharon Tingey GM (on right) and Işık Güner GM (teaching in Morocco at present) who at the time of painting were all artists and tutors for the Diploma in Botanical Illustration at the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh.  It's been donated by Shirley Sherwood to the Kew Collection.

This is how they painted it.

Titan arum painting (Kew exhibition, 2017) from Wild Leaf Reels on Vimeo.

Finally, Coral Guest GM who describes herself as "just a flower painter" who got an awful lot of other women painting large watercolours of plants with her book about Painting Flowers in Watercolour: A Naturalistic Approach (Art Practical) (affiliate link)

She paints large plants from bulbs at their actual full grown lifesize - and some of them are pretty big! At the same time some of the detail is absolutely delicate and exquisite. Check it out and see for yourself!

Coral Guest with five of her paintings in the Shirley Sherwood Collection

The exhibition is on at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art in Kew Gardens until 17th September 2017. It's open every day until 10am to 5.30pm

There's a lot more very fine art by very fine artists in the show - of which more later.... [UPDATE - see British Artists in the Shirley Sherwood Collection - a review and a timeline ]

More of my blog posts about this exhibition

• British Artists in the Shirley Sherwood Collection - an exhibition at Kew
• British Botanical Artists - photographed with their paintings

13th Florum Exhibition in Sevenoaks - a review of art and artists

Artwork at Florum 2016

I thoroughly enjoyed myself at the Private View for the 2016 Florum Exhibition on Friday evening. It's not just that it has some wonderful artwork and the best ever hors d'oeuvres (better than professional caterers!) - but the people who organise and the artists who participate in it are such nice people!

It's therefore very sad to report there will be no Florum in 2017. This is prompted by

• the fact that the Society of Botanical Artists are having to change their exhibition to the autumn next year and that means two exhibitions involving too many of the same people too close together.
• the decision by a number of members who have been running it for many years to take a break. Will they be back or will there be a new set of members on the organising committee? - we'll just have to wait and see!

So we shall wait and see whether Florum resurrects itself and if so whether it's at a new time of year and maybe at a new venue with new organisers. Who knows?

I sincerely hope it will keep going as it's a delightful exhibition and sales are always very brisk!

Review of Florum 2016

The aim of the exhibition is to create artwork inspired by plant life. It's emphatically not a "strictly botanical" exhibition but that makes it all the more appealing to a wider range of visitors.

The exhibition maintains its normal high standards although I think I might be right in saying there are fewer works being exhibited this year. I do know that last year there was a surge in larger works creating a complete nightmare for those designing the hanging - and this might be the reason.

The strength of the exhibition lies in its diversity

• one room places an emphasis on botanical art in all its different forms 
• the other room includes artwork which is stimulated by flowers, gardens and the landscape - anything which involves plant life. Work includes diverse media from miniatures to jewellery to fine art prints, textile art and paintings in various media

I'll be putting a slideshow together of the exhibition. However this takes a little time to prepare so below you'll see some of the images from the exhibition. You can see more photos of the artists with their artwork on my Botanical Art and Artists Facebook Page (which you can see irrespective of whether you have a Facebook account - however you can only comment if you are on Facebook).

Exhibition details

Venue: Kent Wildlife Trust Sevenoaks Reserve,
Bradbourne Vale Road, Sevenoaks, Kent TN13 3DH

Dates: 10th - 17th September 2016 (daily)

Times: 10.00 - 5.00

List of exhibiting artists

The exhibition includes a number of new artists. Each artist's name contains a link to their website or a site related to the artist. The list is interspersed with artwork by the artists - and photos of the artists with their artwork!

Fiona Strickland wins The Hort's "Best in Show" Award at 18th Annual International

Last night, at the Awards ceremony for the 18th Annual International Exhibition of the American Society of Botanical Artists and The Horticultural Society of New York, Fiona Strickland was presented with the The Hort’s Best in Show Award.

The award was for her wonderful watercolour painting of Rhododendron 'Horizon Monarch'.

Rhododendron 'Horizon Monarch' by Fiona Strickland

Watercolour 77 x 91 cm

© Fiona Strickland

You can read the story behind the painting on the ASBA website.

I do very much appreciate the trouble that both artists and the ASBA go to, to provide both illustrations and the 'backstory' explanations of the artwork in the show - especially for all those of us who will not be able to see it in person.

Here's a short extract from what Fiona had to say which explains why very many botanical artists will be very keen to see this painting.

I was fascinated by the thought of using the technique of negative painting to paint the ‘white’ hairs on the bud scales (painting the background between the hairs leaving the white paper to describe the hairs). I had painted hairs on other paintings but had used body paint for this and wanted to improve my range of application techniques and experiment with a new approach. The challenge in this instance was to communicate this surface to the viewer whilst conveying the form convincingly, taking account of the changing underlying colour of the bud scales, and the effect of the light on them and on the very fine hairs.

The remainder of this post includes short extracts from just a few of the backstories to illustrate how much information is shared in terms of techniques and different approaches to creating botanical art

Below you can read about:

• who won the awards
• the details of the exhibition
• the selected artists, the plants they portrayed and follow links to their websites if so inclined.

Awards

The is the complete list of awards

• The Hort’s Best in Show Award: Rhododendron ‘Horizon Monarch’ by Fiona Strickland
• ASBA Eleanor Wunderlich Award: Dragon Arum Dragon Arum Dracunculus vulgaris by Betsy Rogers-Knox 
• Helen Gray Garber Award: Turnips. Brassica rapa by Asuka Hishiki 

Turnips. Brassica rapa
© Asuka Hishiki

The back story reveals how Asuka was able to paint from observation and complete her painting!

In the three turnip painting, I ended up using three different turnips to complete just the one on the left, so it is a fusion or mash-up of three different turnips. I started to paint the rainbow leaf, and while finishing it, the rest went bad. So I took a second turnip to finish the turnip root and base stems coming out of it. A third turnip covered the rest. How do I work? I have a kind of photoshop program in my head. I cannot create a new part of a turnip from scratch, but by referring to existing subjects, it is easy for me to merge and blend the parts in my head

• Cheap Joe’s Award: Pincushion Protea Leucospermum cordifolium by  Estelle deRidder
• Susan Frei Nathan Fine Works on Paper, LLC Award: Collections: Abelmoschus, Platanus, Rhexia, Physalis, Hibiscus, Ipomoea, Clematis, Scabiosa, Vitis, Rosa, Hemerocallis, Mimosa, Iris, Smilax, Allium, Aquilegia by Lara Call Gastinger
• Brooklyn Botanic Garden Award for Print or Drawing: Iris germanica by Melissa Toberer 

Iris germanica
graphite
© Melissa Toberer

• Honorable Mentions: 
• Ovuliferous Scale Bunya Pine Araucaria bidwillii by Mali Moir, 
• Elecampane Inula helenium by Rosalind Allchin, 
• Trillium in a Whirlwind Trillium sessile by Carol Woodin

Exhibition

Image: © 2005 Alexander Viazmensky | Cortinarius sp. (Mushrooms)

This exhibition is a highly prestigious showcase of contemporary botanical art by leading artists from around the world.

This year it is being held at the 1stdibs gallery on the 10th floor New York Design Center, 200 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY.

The exhibition opened on  November 4th and continues until December 20th 2015.

The Selected Artists

Florum - The Slideshow

I promised more visuals of the Florum 2015 Exhibition which closes tomorrow at 5pm. Here's a slideshow of the exhibition as some incentive to get down there and take a closer look tomorrow!

This is a slideshow of the two parts of the exhibition. I think I've got it all with the exception of the jewellery which I forgot to photograph.  The slideshow works on the basis of walking around the exhibition in both rooms.

You can see who the participating artists are in my previous post Review: Florum 2015.

Florum Exhibition 2015 - the opening view

I was going to write a longer post but this slideshow has taken two days to make off and on (the first time I've tried making a big slideshow using Photoshop Elements 13) and two hours to upload to YouTube - so I'm a tad pooped!

The last day of the exhibition is tomorrow.

I've nominated Charles Rennie Mackintosh for the £20 note

Pinks by Charles Rennie Mackintosh

This is my nomination for the visual artist to appear on the £20 note.  Have you done yours yet?

Glasgow School of Art.
Architect: Charles Rennie Mackintosh

Charles Rennie Mackintosh is an artist whose work spanned the visual arts. He was also a real original! He was hugely creative in the early part of the 20th century as both an architect and a designer – of furniture, metalwork and graphic art. He also drew and painted wonderful watercolours.

Finally the appreciation of this man crosses borders within the UK and beyond. Importantly, he had a notable influence on others in Europe. He also enjoys global recognition for his buildings and designs. He is truly a man valued by others.

I wrote about this last week in Celebrate a visual artist on the next £20 note

Nomination Form

This is the nomination form - which needs to be completed by 19 July 2015.​

You have 100 words to say why your visual artist should be the one to appear on the £20 note.

Visual artists include architects, artists, ceramicists, craftspeople, designers, fashion designers, filmmakers, photographers, printmakers and sculptors.

The Bank will not feature fictional or living characters, with the exception of the Monarch, who appears on the front of our notes.

Unless you nominate your favourite person may not be considered.

• The shortlist will be drawn up by the Advisory Committee from the names of individuals nominated by members of the public.
• The governor will make the final choice from this shortlist 
• Who's going to be on the next £20 will be announced in Spring 2016.

At the end you can see who others think it will be. But first a bit of a wallow in Mackintosh.

Visual Arts by Charles Rennie Macintosh

This is House for an Art Lover which has a fascinating history - starting with Mackintosh being technically disqualified from the art competition that he entered with the design for the house.

A window at Hill House - designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh

This is the Willow Tea Rooms at 217 Sauchiehall Street - and a design for the tables and chairs

Design for tables and chair with high back, for the Room de Luxe, Willow Tea Rooms, Glasgow, 1903.
Pencil and watercolour on wove paper, by Charles Rennie Mackintosh

The Fort (c.1923-4)
pencil and watercolour on paper mounted on board
watercolour painting by Charles Rennie Mackintosh

Note: All images from Wikimedia Commons

More articles about the £20 Note

• The Telegraph:  Are you worried about the new £20 note? You should be - Beatrix Potter appears to be a front-runner - there again this could be people having a laugh!
• This is The Guardian view on the new £20 note: make room for William Morris They're making a pitch for William Morris - surprise, suprise!
• The Manchester Evening News says Salford artist LS Lowry is frontrunner to be the face on the Bank of England's next £20 banknote
• Unsurprisingly the Royal Photographic Society thinks a photographer should be the next person to be on the £20 note - see Nominate a photography person for a new banknote. They suggest suitable candidates might include William Henry Fox Talbot, the British inventor of photography; Sir Cecil Beaton, photographer and designer or Julia Margaret Cameron, portraitist and art photographer.

I think by now you will have begun to appreciate that there are some very partial opinions out there and doubtless there will be some pretty heavy duty lobbying on behalf of different interest groups!

Review: 30th Annual Exhibition of the Society of Botanical Artists

Entrance to the Annual Exhibition of the Society of Botanical Artists

The Society of Botanical Artists is relatively young compared to those national art societies which started life in the 19th century. However this youngster is in robust health and currently going from strength to strength.

As it reaches its 30th Annual Exhibition it seems an appropriate time to take stock of the progress made promoting botanical art and in displaying botanical artwork at its annual exhibition.

30th Annual Exhibition - In Pursuit of Plants

The theme of this year's show is In Pursuit of Plants. You can see it in the Aldersgate Room, in the basement of Central Hall Westminster until Sunday 26th April 2015. The exhibition is open every day between 11am and 5pm and admission is free.

This is a short video of the opening address by Sandra Armitage, the President of the SBA about this year's exhibition and the preparation for next year.



The topic for next year's exhibition is "Shape Pattern and Structure" which will be 15-24 April 2016.

Highlights of the exhibition

I think the thing most worth commenting on is the improvement in the standard of the student work.  The work of students in their final year of the Distance Learning Diploma Course is, as always, exhibited in a corner of the exhibition. (The students graduated from their course last Friday evening). Every year I've seen some stunning work alongside work which appeared very promising.

This year I was amazed to find a display which is truly outstanding in the breadth and depth of the quality of the work.  So much so, that much of the student work on display was an awful lot better than rather a lot of the artwork I used to see in the early days when I first started visiting this exhibition each year. (I started coming in 2006 and you can now find links to all my past blog posts about the SBA exhibition on the Botanical Art and Artists page of this blog.)

Florum Exhibition 2014

Below is a list of the artists who have been invited to show their artwork at the Florum exhibition which opens on Saturday after a private view next Friday night. I'm one of them!

Florum website - my drawing is top right

The aims of the exhibition are:

• to create "a colourful and inspiring mix of works celebrating plant life" and 
• to raise funds for the Kent Wildlife Trust's Sevenoaks Reserve, in Bradbourne Road, Sevenoaks, Kent TN13 3DH where the exhibition is held from 6th - 13th September 2014. It's open 10am - 5pm everyday and entrance is free.

Florum invites some of the UK's most celebrated botanical artists, as well as artists working in freestyle, mixed media, printmaking and jewellery.

List of Invited Artists

Each artist's name contains a link to their website or a site related to the artist

• Sandra Wall Armitage (President of the Society of Botanical Artists)
• Sarah Ashwell
• Carole Aston
• Gillian Barlow (Vice Chairman of the Florilegium Society, Chelsea Physic Garden)
• Debra Barr-Smith
• Ann Bridges
• Linda Brown
• Jean Canter
• Susan Christopher-Coulson (Vice President of the Society of Botanical Artists. Check out Susan's online article about "How to Paint Botanical Arrangements")
• Yvonne Collard
• Marianne Cox - won the Elizabeth Smail Memorial Award for Colour and Composition in 2013
• Joanna Craig-McFeely
• Julia Craig-McFeely
• Wendy Cranston - sadly Wendy died in late July and the exhibition will contain a memorial section of her truly wonderful gouache paintings which I absolutely love and you can see a picture of her paintings at one of the previous exhibitions in my review of the 2012 exhibition
• Diana Croft
• Susan Dalton
• Pamela Davis
• Margaret Devitt
• Jean Douglas
• Janet Downer
• Margaret Eggleton
• Henrietta Fernandez
• Sandra Fernandez
• Christine Flintham
• Felicity Flutter
• Jackie Gethin
• Pauline Grove
• Lesley Hall
• Amber Halsall
• Helen Hanson
• Stephanie Harrison
• Christina Hart-Davies
• Mayumi Hashi
• Jennifer Jenkins
• Maureen Jordan
• Marion Kemp
• Julie King
• Rosemary Lindsay
• Vicky Mappin
• Alister Mathews
• Rachel Munn
• Ann Oliver
• Fiona Ormerod
• Jane Price
• Steven Pierce-Smith
• Roger Reynolds
• Carole Robson
• Joyce Rogerson
• Maureen Russ
• Sue Scullard - I've bought a wood engraving by Sue for the last two years
• Gael Sellwood
• Billy Showell
• Julie Small
• Alison Smith
• Annie Soudain
• Tessa Spanton
• Penny Stenning
• Lyn Stone
• Katherine Tyrrell
• Barbara Valentine
• Linda Wallis
• Sue J. Williams

In praise of the older artist - Mary Anderson Grierson

It would appear that one of the perks of working for the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew for a long time is you get a bench outside the Palm House on your retirement or death. I came across a bench for Mary Anderson Grierson on Tuesday and looked her up when I got back home.

Hylocereus Undatus, night blooming cereus, 1985

pencil, ink and color wash

56 x 34 cm. (22 x 13.4 in.)

by the late Mary Anderson Grierson

Her obituary - she died age 99 - in the Telegraph provides all sorts of incentives for those of less tender years who aspire to do well as a botanical artist.


First of all she only started to work as a 'proper' botanical artist in middle age - at the age of 48.

Prior to this she worked, during the war, on analysing analysing and interpreting aerial photographs. It was during the war that she started painting wild flowers for pleasure.

After the war she worked for Hunting Aerosurveys producing contour maps which naturally required a lot of precision. They sent her to do a course in pen and ink drawing course at the Field Studies Centre at Flatford Mill.  She subsequently did a number of courses there with painter and illustrator John Nash, younger brother of the great war artist Paul Nash.  He was much interested in nature and drawing the countryside.

Mary Grierson then applied for a post organising exhibitions at Kew in 1960. However, having seen her portfolio of drawings they decided she'd be much better employed as an Artist in the Herbarium. Thus it was that she embarked on the second half of her life - as a professional botanical artist - having had no tuition except in skills related to drawing and painting.

In 1966 she received her first gold medal for flower painting from the Royal Horticultural Society. She subsequently received another four plus the Veitch Memorial Medal of the RHS, and later their Victoria Medal of Honour.

While working for Kew she was also commissioned to illustrate a series of volumes on Orchidaceae - published in 1973. She also illustrated The Country Life of Orchids, An English Florilegium, and a number of monographs including one on Hellebores.

She continued to work after she retired in 1972, age 60, and was then much in demand. She managed to fit in quite a few projects!

• She began painting species of plants in Hawaii in 1973 - leading to the publication of A Hawaiian florilegium: botanical portraits from paradise in 1996. (The lovely thing about projects after you retire is you don't have to rush to finish them in order to make your mark!)
• She was commissioned to produce illustrations for "Hedgerows of England" and "Coastal Plants of England". She proceeded to travel the length and breadth of the country to find the plants. The subsequent associated exhibitions were sell-outs.
• She produced a major series of tulip drawings for the Van Tubergen Nurseries at Haarlem. These were subsequently bought by the Library at Kew in 1992
• plus she continued to produce illustrations for Curtis's Botanical Magazine.

You can see a number of her illustrations which sold at auction on the Internet. Her work is now included in the collections of The British Museum, The Natural History Museum, as well as at Kew.
For me, the uplifting bit about this story is that she achieved much of this after reaching 60 - having only turned professional age 48. Which just goes to show that a whole new world can open up to you as you get older - if you are open to the possibilities of what life has to offer - and hone your skills in drawing and painting!

References:

• The Telegraph - Obituaries - Mary Grierson - this includes a slideshow of some of her botanical drawings and paintings
• The Independent - Mary Grierson: Floral artist celebrated as one of the most distinguished in her field

Society of Botanical Artists - Annual Exhibition 2014 - Call for Entries

Botanical artists have just under two months to get our entries ready for this year's Annual Exhibition of the Society of Botanical Artists - which is open to entries from both non-members and international artists.  This post is an overview of the call for entries and the process.

Call for Entries - Society of Botanical Artists
Botanical Garden Annual Exhibition 2014

Note that this year, both the Receiving Day and Annual Exhibition are later than usual.

The Receiving Day for entries for the 2014 Annual Exhibition is Monday 17th March in the Aldersgate Room in the basement of Westminster Central Hall in London (11am - 4pm).  Here's a great blog post by Julie Whelan about last year's Receiving Day.

The theme of this year's exhibition is The Botanical Garden. It will include about 700 works of botanical art:

• at Westminster Central Hall, Storey's Gate, London SW1H 9NH and is 
• between Friday, 9th to Sunday 18th May 2014 (Daily from 11am to 5pm including Sundays)
• open to the public - admission FREE

Below you will find:

• the key points for those wanting to enter the Exhibition.  
• links to previous posts on this blog which include images so you can see the type and quality of work which is accepted for exhibition and/or wins prizes
• links to my resources for botanical artists

Who Painted This? #50

We need to have a little celebration this week - as we've now reached 'Who painted this? #50'.

Who painted this? #50

I've chosen a work which I actually photographed. It's a stunning still life painting.

You need to tell me - as a comment on this blog

1. who painted this 
2. including all the basics I want to know (see link to rules below).
3. plus what you can find out about this artist and/or artwork 

The winner will be the person with the BEST complete answer rather than the first to respond - so you don't have to rush and you do have time to do some research.  Just get your answer to me by the end of Thursday your time.

For those who've not risen to the challenge before please take a minute to read the rules - see below.  The questions which need answering don't stop at "Who painted this?".

How to participate in "Who painted this? #50"

PLEASE make sure you read the rules before posting a comment - and ONLY POST ON THIS BLOG what you think is the answer.

The Best Books about Botanical Art and Artists

I've split my website about the Best Books about Botanical Art in three.  It used to cover both botanical art instruction and botanical artists.

[UPDATED 23 December 2016 - for subsequent movement of content about botanical art books to a new website which is all about Botanical Art and Artists]

The revised and new web pages are as follows

The Best Botanical Art Instruction Books
Learn about botanical art from the best botanical art books and botanical illustration books. Read reviews about which are the best botanical art instruction books - for those wanting to develop their skills in drawing and painting plants and flowers.

The Best Botany Books for Botanical Artists and Illustrators
Did you know that RHS Gold Medal winning artists often have a very strong botanical theme to their artwork? Strict botanical illustration standards requires a knowledge of botany. Would you like to know more about botany which is helpful to botanical artists?
The first site I split out - focusing on botany for botanical artists - has had a very good reception as it appears there was no site which brought all the resources together in one place.

The Best Books about ​Botanical Art History, Artists & IllustratorsIf you love botanical art and want to know more about some of the important the artists - in the past and present - who have created botanical art and illustration then this is the site for you. This site highlights key events in the story of botanical art and focuses on the best books about specific and outstanding Botanical Artists.

I've now got a third site a new website called Botanical Art and Artists which aims to tell the story of specific botanical artists in history and the major themes in the development of botanical art which provided a context for their work:

• early herbals and florilegia - Leonart Fuchs, Basilius Besler and
  Alexander Marshal
• exploration in the age of enlightenment - Maria Sibylla Merian and Sydney Parkinson
• the impact on the Linnaeus classification on botanical illustration - Georg Dionysius Ehret
• botanical artists and great gardens - Franz Bauer and Pierre Redoute

It starts with great botanical artists of the 20th century - Rory McEwen and Arthur Harry Church.

I've got a few more artists to add in - I'm just trying to decide who's in and who's out!

I'm also anticipating developing a further website about great flower painters - which will include artists from the likes of Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder through to Rennie McIntosh and impressive contemporary flower painters.

Which flower painters - past and present - have impressed you the most?

Florum 10th Anniversary Exhibition - review

Well - I finally made it to the Florum 10th anniversary Exhibition this afternoon - and, as a result, this is going to be a bit of a picture biased post.

This exhibition always celebrates plantlife in a variety of media and mixed botanical artwork, plus floral paintings and paintings of gardens.

I was really impressed with how a closely hung exhibition could look so good.  (I'm going to use photos I took in my forthcoming posts about hanging exhibitions!)

I gather compliments on the hang should be paid in the direction of Susan Christopher-Coulson, Christina Hart-Davis and Rachel Munn.  The walls and boards in the 'botanical' room looked excellent and I think the quality of the work has increased this year.  It was certainly the best looking exhibition I've attended in terms of the botanical artwork.

My other comment before we start with my photos is that I'd never realised before quite how many visitors a Wildlife Reserve gets.  I've only ever attended before on the Friday evening Private View.  This (Sunday) afternoon, we were very nearly shunted into the overflow car park!  The exhibition was also really very busy with lots of visitors.

For those wanting to exhibit botanical or wildlife art, I suggest you go and take a very close look at the facilities offered by your local Wildlife Reserve!

60 artists were exhibiting 342 paintings and prints - including a section for miniatures. Judging by the red dot chart on the wall, sales have been brisk in terms of originals, prints and cards.

This exhibition is by invitation only. There is a regular turnover of artists each year.  The new artists for 2013 are: David Bowyer, Margaret Eggleton, Sandra Fernandez, Janina French, Amber Halsall, Anna Mason, Sandrine Maugy and Maureen Russ.

First I'm going to show you the colour sequences of work on display. The images are bigger than usual - but you'll have to click them to see them at the larger size.

The Orange Scarlet Board

Two Botanical Art Exhibitions

I should be posting about two botanical art exhibitions but it's a long story! They are:

• Chelsea Physic Garden Florilegium Society Exhibition - review of an exhibition
• Florum - preview of their Annual Exhibition

Chelsea Physic Garden Florilegium Society

Artwork by Nicki Tullett and Margaret King

I had a delightful visit at the end of August to the exhibition that the Chelsea Physic Garden Florilegium Society held during the month of August at the The Gallery at the Chelsea Physic Garden.

The Chelsea Physic Garden Florilegium Society's aim is to create a collection of drawings and paintings which record the plants growing in the garden.  It was formed in 1995.  The collection at the Physic Garden now comprises some 570 botanical paintings or drawings selected and gifted by members of the Chelsea Physic Garden Florilegium Society to the Garden over the last 18 years.

Artwork by Julia Trickey and Judith Hillelson

Treasures from a Hidden Garden: Plant portraits by the Florilegium Society included part of this collection, most of which have never previously been seen.  It comprised a wide range of botanical illustrations - with most painted in watercolour.  There was however an excellent section of work in pen and ink.  By the very nature of the society, the exhibition is emphatically leans more towards botanical illustration than floral - with some excellent examples of complete botanical portrayals.

A selection of the works on display will also be seen at the RHS Autumn Show at the Horticultural Halls in Westminster on October 22nd-23rd.

Artwork which stood out for me included

• a coloured pencil drawing of Salvia by Jo Edwards.  It displayed a very delicate touch and amazingly subtle rendering of the structure and texture of the leaves and very fine colouration of the different parts of the plant

Salvia Officinalis by Jo Edwards
coloured pencil

• Catharine Nicholson's pen and ink drawings of Ferns.  These were simply amazing.  Sadly Catharine died aged 52 of breast cancer in 2011. This was her obituary in The Guardian.  I highly commend you take a look at her website.  I've seen it before and remember how impressed I was with all her work.  She sets a very high standard for those wanting to work in pen and ink.  Her response to cancer is also reminiscent of Rory McEwen.

Ferns by Catherine Nicholson

One thing I do feel that the Society needs to do. It needs a website - or at the very least a Facebook Page.  That way they can share what they do with a wider audience and all the other Florilegium Societies around the world.

Florum

©  Sandrine Maugy

The Florum Annual Exhibition opened to the public today at Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve.  It continues until 14th September and is open every day 10am to 5pm - entry is free.

The late founder Elizabeth Smail’s ethos centred on the Florum exhibition being “broader than botanical” and 10 years later this philosophy is no different. There are 60 artists displaying botanical and floral artwork - drawings, paintings and fine art prints.  They always do a roaring business (I came away with a lovely woodcut last year).

The exhibition is at the Kent Wildlife Trust's Sevenoaks Reserve, in Bradbourne Road, Sevenoaks, Kent TN13 3DH.  The great thing is that this is an exhibition which is accessible by car - with free parking!

I was supposed to be there last night - but after overheating in the high temperatures experienced during our visit to Hampton Court Palace, I had a bad night's sleep. I make a point of never driving at night when tired - and so I missed the PV.  This wasn't a problem as I decided I could go today - and then write the review.

So we got in the car early afternoon and headed off - only to find that the whole of my neighbourhood was experiencing gridlock.  Knowing full well that this can go on for hours (as in two hours to go less than a mile) when it's bad, we turned round and went back home while we still were able to retrace our journey.

So we're going to try again tomorrow!

(I subsequently found out that it was a demonstration by the EDL and that the Metropolitan Police in their "wisdom" decided that diverting traffic in a major way and creating massive gridlock problems for everybody else trying to come into or leave Tower Hamlets was preferable to making the EDL demonstrate in an area which is unlikely to cause offence.  This is now twice that this has happened and caused a major problem for the whole of the borough.  Time I think for the Met Police to have a major rethink!  It's totally unsatisfactory for everybody else's comings and goings to grind to a complete halt.)

Botany for Botanical Artists

Cydonia oblonga (Quince) 

By Franz Eugen Köhler, 

Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen

via Wikimedia Commons

I've been making a new website today - about Botany for Botanical Artists.

As I noted in my Interviews with RHS Botanical Art Gold Medal Winners at this year's RHS Botanical Art Exhibition - painting a nice painting is not enough!

Painting flowers nicely isn't enough. There's a clear and strong botanical science theme running through the stories of many of the new Gold Medal Winners. Dissection and the portrayal of the complete plant and life cycle should be high on the agenda of any aspiring Gold Medal winner

The botanical science theme for me essentially means telling the life story of a plant and demonstrating all its relevant parts - on one sheet of paper.

Following the exhibition, I'd noticed that there seems to be a lack of websites with a focus on the topic of botanical art for artists.  On the other hand there's quite a lot of information on the Internet and there are also very good books.

Botany for Botanical Artists covers books providing advice on

• drawing the shapes and parts of plants correctly and so they demonstrate correct plant morphology
• Botanical Latin and the correct terms for naming the different parts of plants

PLUS

• places where you can learn more about analytical botanical ans scientific illustration for artists (still developing this section)

AND

• lists of national botanical networks
• lists of botanical gardens in different countries (I've still got to transfer the USA, Australasia and Asia)
• lists of arboreta around the world

Most of the website involved transferring content from one website to another.  I started to develop content on my Botanical Art - Resources for Artists website and then realised it was getting a bit hefty.

Any suggestions as to useful additions will be much appreciated