My Botanical Art Week starts

My invite to the SBA Reception

The Silver Jubilee Exhibition of the Society of Botanical Artists opens to the public on Friday 16th April - with the Private View on the 15th April. The exhibition is at Central Hall Westminster, across the road from Westminster Abbey. It will continue until Sunday 25 April 2010 and is open every day from 10am to 5pm including Sundays; admission is free.

If you are planning to go do see if you can find the two works of mine which are included in amongst what I know will be a huge number of fabulous works of botanical art. (see Two works in the Society of Botanical Artists Exhibition)

I'm hoping to get to see the exhibition tonight when I'm invited to a Reception. There will in any case definitely be a review of the exhibition on this blog later this week.

In the meantime I've kicked my botanical art week off with a book review of Sarah Simblet's brand new book over on Making A Mark Reviews - see Book Review: Botany for the Artist


I'm very happy to recommend this book. Botany for the Artist: An Inspirational Guide to Drawing Plants is written by Sarah Simblet whose expertise is in drawing and who always creates absolutely fabulous books for Dorling Kindersley. This is my summary

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. I value the fact this book is written by an artist, writer and lecturer who is an expert in drawing and communicating rather than a botanical artist. It means she brings a fresh and expert eye to the challenge of how to draw plants from a botanical perspective and an excellent approach to communicating the key messages. The quality of the text and illustrations is first class and the whole book provides a fresh perspective on botany for the artist while losing none of the fundamental and enduring truths of what's required of botanical illustration.

But before you all rush out to buy I've got other books to review this week!

The next one is going to be about Botanical Sketchbook by Mary Ann Scott with Margaret Stevens.

I predict this one will become an essential buy for all those doing the Diploma in Botanical Illustration which is run by the Society of Botanical Artists. You can read more about this in the interview I did last year with Margaret Stevens, President of the Society of Botanical Artists A Making A Mark Interview with Margaret Stevens

My other book reviews about Botanical Art books include:

• Book Review: The Art of Botanical Painting
• Book Review: Botanical Illustration
• Book Review: The Art of Plant Evolution
• Book review: Treasures of Botanical Art
• Book Review: Merian's Antique Botanical Prints
• Book Review - 1001 Plant and floral illustrations ...
• Book Review: Besler's Book of Flowers and Plants
• Flowers in Art: what's on my bookshelves?
• Flowers in Art... and Charles Rennie Mackintosh

You can also find out more about botanical art on my information sites:

• Botanical Art - Resources for Artists
• A History of Botanical Art - Resources for Botanical Art Lovers
• The Best Botanical Art Books