The Annual Exhibition
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| Exhibition Catalogue for ASBA 15th Annual Exhibition Brassica oleracea Ornamental Kale Watercolor on Vellum © Karen Kluglein |
It opened in mid September and you can see a slideshow of photos from the reception and awards ceremony on Flickr
It continues until 21st November - with gallery hours Monday - Friday, 10am to 6pm - which has got to be disappointing for those who work and don't live in New York. The exhibition is free.
However for those who can't get to New York you can also see the artwork in this exhibition online.
An exhibition catalogue is available via the ASBA website and ArtPlantae Books - priced at $20.
I've got the publication from the traveling exhibition Losing Paradise which came to Kew Gardens - and the reproduction and publication qualities are very good.
The Awards
This year the awards have been made as follows
- The Horticultural Society of New York Best in Show: Silphium laciniatum Compass Plant, Watercolor on Paper by Heeyoung Kim. I met this very accomplished artist from Illinois in the Lindley Hall in London earlier this year after she had won an RHS Gold Medal for her work. (see my blog post 7 Gold Medal Winners at RHS Botanical Art 2012 in which you can read my interview with her which details how she approaches her work.)
- ASBA Eleanor Wunderlich Award for Excellence: Hydrangea paniculata Panicled Hydrangea, Oil on Paper by Ingrid Finnan
The judges were impressed by her ability to render white flowers on white paper in the unforgiving medium of oil paint.
- Brooklyn Botanic Garden Award for a Print or Drawing: Carica papaya Hand-colored Aquatint Etching by Monika E. deVries Gohlke This etching was also used as the image for the exhibitions's card
- Talas Award: Sierra Dawn Lily by John Pastoriza-Pinol
- New York Central Art Supply Award: Tasmanian Blue Gum by Leah Kaizer
- Ursus Books and Prints Award: Northern Red Oak and Gray Birch by Carrie Megan
- Honorable Mentions:
- Bamboo Grass by Lizzie Sanders
- Flowering Quince by Andrea Wilson
I guess the big difference about this exhibition, when compared to one I'm more used to (Society of Botanical Artists and the RHS), is that virtually all artists appear to be only displaying one work of art. I'm not sure if this is "an American thing" as I've noticed this happen in other American exhibitions. I have to say that I much prefer to see a suite of works. That for me illustrates much more clearly the relative skills levels of different artists and also provides the scope for an artist to really shine.
The 'strictly botanical' artwork included in the exhibition came from 192 works submitted by botanical artists from the US, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, and the UK. The jurors Patricia Jonas, Kathie Miranda, and Derek Norman selected just 43 works for the exhibition.
Works on natural vellum are becoming more prevalent, with 10 artists choosing it as their materialThat means that around one quarter of the artwork selected for this exhibition was painted on vellum which is a statistic which I find quite amazing! I guess it's maybe prompted from having some of the premier exponents of painting on vellum living in North America - such as Jean Emmons whose work is fabulous and who has two works in the show. I was fortunate to meet Jean at the 2011 RHS Botanical Art Show - see my interview with her in RHS Botanical Art Show & Five Gold Medal Winners.
Selected Artists
The selected artists are listed below. Names in bold indicate a link to their own website; links not in bold link to the interview with the artist on the ASBA website. Those without any link have no discernible presence online. Where I can spot where the artist comes from I've listed this too
Do please let me know if I've got any of this wrong or there's a better website which you'd rather be linked to - my contact details are in the side column.
- Beverly Allen (2 works) - Australia
- Christine Battle GM - UK (graduate of the 2 year EGS Diploma)
- Margaret Best - interview about her artwork - a South African living in Canada
- Dorothy DePaulo
- Maria Alice deRezende
- Jean Emmons (2 works) - Washington State, USA
- Akiko Enokido
- Margaret Farr
- Ingrid Finnan - Bronx, New York
- Keiko Fujita
- Pamela Geer-Gordon
- Monika deVries Gohlke - Brooklyn, New York
- Cherie Ann Gossett
- Asuka Hishiki
- Wendy Hollender
- Rosemarie James
- Leah Kaizer
- Heeyoung Kim
- Karen Kluglein
- Patricia Luppino
- Dorothy Gardner McCauley
- Carrie Megan - interview with Carrie Megan
- Regina Gardner Milan
- Mary Ann Neilson
- Mary Anne O'Malley
- Tomoko Ogawa
- George Olson
- Hillary Parker - interview with Hillary Parker - USA
- John Pastoriza-Piñol - Australia
- Susan Pettee
- Betsy Rogers-Knox - Betsy Rogers-Knox - Connecticut, USA
- Lizzie Sanders - Edinburgh, UK
- Judith Simon
- Fiona Strickland - interview with Fiona Strickland - Edinburgh, UK. Readers of this blog will know that I'm a huge fan of Fiona's art and had the pleasure of interviewing her for this blog in April. See A 'Making A Mark' Profile of Fiona Strickland which provides an account of her success to date - and how she works!
- Carol Till - Colorado, USA
- Catherine Watters - interview with Catherine Watters - California, USA
- Kerri Weller - Kerri Weller - Canada
- Andrea Wilson - interview with Andrea Wilson - Tennessee, USA
- Carol Woodin - NY state(?), USA. Carol is also ASBA Director of Exhibitions, teaches workshops on painting on vellum and has a splendid set of photos about being a botanical artist on her website
Workshops
Associated with the exhibition are a number of workshops. The remaining workshops are as listed below. I'm being very geeky here and am also including links to the pdf files of the materials lists where these are available - I know they will interest a lot of the botanical artists who read this blog!
- Friday, October 5: Introduction to Painting on Vellum: A Botanical Painting Workshop with Carol Woodin + Materials List
- Wednesday, October 10: Introduction to Painting Botanical Art in Oil: A Botanical Illustration Workshop with Ingrid Finnan
- Monday, October 29: Painting Vegetables, Warts and All: A Botanical Illustration Workshop with Asuka Hishiki + Materials List
- November 5, 8, and 9: Grisaille Technique in Botanical Painting: A 3-Day Workshop with Wendy Hollender + Materials list
PS Top prizewinner Heeyoung Kim has just started a blog Heeyoung Kim Botanical Art so why not go and say hello!
Thanks for this insightful post Katherine. I think the ASBA are so amazing with the amount of work they do to promote botanical art. I am just browsing Heeyoung's website now. I haven't looked at her work before and it's beautiful. Thank you for bringing my attention to it.
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