"Flowers - Flora in Contemporary Art & Culture" at the Saatchi Gallery - extended!

I'm never very sure why some art society selection panels have been somewhat sniffy about paintings of flowers. I've certainly encountered that view in the past (I think they ranked just above paintings of cats!). I guess this was associated with times when those running societies were somewhat sniffy about the participation of women...

However, anybody doubting the popularity of flowers should have been in Chelsea recently. Absolutely HORDES of people have been to see Flowers - Flora in Contemporary Art and Culture at the Saatchi Gallery (£20 entry or £12 if you like me are pensioner age)

Due to the popularity of this exhibition, pre-booking is strongly advised. Visitors are welcome to turn-up on the day, but may be turned away once the capacity for each ticket session is reached.

I've been meaning to go and see it but wanted to avoid the hordes at the beginning and weekends and holidays - and then forgot that it was supposed to finish on 5th May! 

So I scooted along yesterday morning before the hordes wanting to see it before it "finishes" on Bank Holiday Monday.

EXCEPT it's so VERY popular that the exhibition is reopening from 30th May to 31st August 2025.

We’ve been overwhelmed by the incredible response to Flowers. Visitor numbers and feedback have been exceptional, with audiences of all ages sharing feelings of joy, nostalgia, and wonder. We look forward to welcoming new audiences over the summer period, and those returning to enjoy the exhibition again.”

Which means it's on at the same time as the RHS Botanical Art & Photography Show for those who really like flower paintings!

About the Exhibition

It's very much a mulit-media exhibition - examining all the different ways flowers have been presented in visual culture and artefacts.

FLOWERS spans a wide array of media – including large-scale installations, fine art, photography, sculpture, fashion, film, literature, and music – offering a multifaceted exploration of the flower as artistic and cultural muse. The exhibition invites visitors of all ages to engage, learn and reflect on their personal response to flowers, with each section of the exhibition revealing different instance of flora through art, culture and our everyday lives.

It's a very curious exhibition. I'd love to be certain about the business model behind it - which I think I've worked out. Let's just say there's an element of commercial which is not very evident unless you observe and take a little time to think - and read a few exhibit labels.

Anyway, back to the exhibition.

I was glad I went. I saw some things I've never ever seen before. 

RHS Botanical Art & Photography Show - extended until 9th October 2021

This is a summary of the blog posts I've written recently - on my website Botanical Art and Artists - about the RHS Botanical Art & Photography Show 2021. 

This show normally lasts for 2 days in one of the RHS Horticultural Halls in Victoria - and attracts exhibitors and visitors from all over the world. 

Featuring more than 200 of the best botanical artwork and garden photography by 34 global artists, all competing for an RHS Medal.

Last year - like many other annual exhibitions - it was cancelled.

This year, it had to change the way it worked - and moved to the Saatchi Gallery in Chelsea - for three weeks. It was initially two weeks but the show has been extended to Saturday 9th October.

These are my blog posts reviewing the medals awarded, the two shows and the changes in 2021 - and what needs to happen in future - in reverse chronological order

• RHS London Botanical Art & Photography Show - Pros, Cons and the Future
• Review: RHS London Botanical Art Show​
• Review: RHS London Portfolio Photography Show 
• RHS Botanical Art Awards 2021

You can see views of the Installation - in three galleries - at the Saatchi Gallery here

I'm really pleased that the RHS managed to get an exhibition up and running despite the many very significant challenges. 

However the show was VERY quiet and there were no artists - or as one visitor put it

A very different venue to the usual Lindley Hall and the exhibits looked very good in the setting. Missed the atmosphere though, along with chatting to the artists and more information provided about each exhibit.

I think it's a big mistake to consider this show to be an exhibition - as opposed to an EVENT which includes an exhibition.

 

Or as I said in my overview post

My main concern for the future is that the RHS gets back to remembering that this is NOT JUST AN EXHIBITION!

This is very emphatically an EVENT i.e. PEOPLE (not just artwork) come too, to:

• meet up with other botanical artists and photographers
• talk to the people exhibiting 
• talk to one another - many make plans to meet up with people from all over the country and have lunch or dinner afterwards
• sell (and buy) artwork, prints and cards
• network, network, network to plan future projects, exhibits etc

It's this networking and making connections aspect which helps raise the standard of botanical art. It's hugely important to the wellbeing of the genre.

Note the difference between the Installation Views - and photos in my posts and this video of the show in the Lindley Hall in 2017

For all those who follow Botanical Art 

• you can subscribe to my Botanical Art and Artists New Blog - find out how to subscribe to my regular updates on this page.
• you can follow daily updates on my Botanical Art and Artists Facebook Page

A Botanical Art Bonanza!

Botanical art fans are converging on London this week for the RHS Botanical Art Show. 

In terms of handing out Gold Medals for Botanical Art this is the most prestigious botanical art show in the world.  It effect it's the visual equivalent for botanical artists of the Olympics or the World Cup! Absolutely nothing else presents the same sort of challenge!

That's why in recent days botanical artists have jetted into London from all around the globe - to try and capture that elusive RHS Gold Medal. That said, we've got quite a few Gold Medallists who are returning to see if they can enhance their credibility by winning another one!.

Medals are being awarded as I write - and I'll be there at this evening's reception.

View of part of last year's exhibition in the RHS Lindley Hall
Each of the run of panels is an exhibit of a minimum of six works by one artist
Work is graded against various criteria
- but medal colour is often determined by the weakest not the best - so everything has to be excellent!

However, while in London to see this show there is also the most fantastic opportunity to see other top class botanical art exhibitions - and this is a list of the details of everything on offer in London - in terms of botanical art!

Those pursuing other genres might pause for a moment and reflect when there were this many top class of exhibitions in prestigious venues for other subject matter!

Royal Horticultural Society

The RHS Plant and Art Fair (10-12 July 2018) includes three international exhibitions of botanical art and photography. These are:

• The RHS Botanical Art Show
• The RHS Botanical Photography Show 
• The RHS Photographer of the Year 2018

The RHS Botanical Art Show

Venue: RHS Lindley Hall, Elverton Street,
Dates: 10-12 July 2018

For more information:

• official website - and vis news posts on Botanical Art and Artists (below)
• Exhibiting artists at RHS Botanical Art Show 2018 - and this list includes a significant number of former Gold Medal winners back for another try!
• Exhibits at the RHS Botanical Art Show 2018 - the themes for the portfolio of a minimum of six paintings to be shown by each exhibitor
• Trade Stand Exhibitors at the RHS Plant and Art Fair (July 2018)

Plus this is information about how the RHS Botanical Art Show works for those aspiring to show in 2020 (you're already too late for 2019!). It's the only show I know where you have to be approved BEFORE you can submit your artwork

• RHS Botanical Art Show #1 Approval to Submit
• RHS Botanical Art Show #2: The Judges and Judging Process
• RHS Botanical Art Show #3: Medals Awards and Feedback

This is also a show where it pays to sort your visa out in good time..... It loosk like we might have lost one exhibitor to visa problems at the UK end.... - which will be very disappointing

This is a video I made of last year's Botanical Art Show



The number of botanical artists this year - per country is as follows:

• 19 x UK + 1 group
• 7 x Japan
• 4 x Korea
• 2 x Italy
• 2 x New Zealand
• 2 x Turkey
• and one each from Australia, Austria, Brazil, Hong Kong, Thailand and the USA​

The RHS Botanical Photography Show

Venue: RHS Lawrence Hall, Greycoat Street, Westminster
Dates: 10-12 July 2018

Polina Plotnikova - at a previous show

More information:

• RHS Photography 2018 and 2019  | Botanical Art and Artists - includes list of exhibitors in 2018
• The RHS Photographer of the Year 2018 is an international competition for garden photographers run by the RHS.

Worth a Thousand Words

Venue: RHS Lindley Library 80 Vincent Square LONDON SW1P 2PE
Dates: 5 July - 17 August 2018

This is the "must see" for every visitor to the Botanical Art Show - if for no other reason than it is adjacent to the show in RHS HQ in Vincent Square.

View of part of the exhibition

More information:

• Official RHS webpage
• Worth a Thousand Words - exhibition at the RHS | Botanical Art and Artists - about  the previous Gold Medal winners whose gold-medal winning work acquired by the RHS is in this small exhibition.

Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew

There are two exhibitions on display at the moment - in the same place and for the same dates.

Venue: Shirley Sherwood Gallery, Kew Gardens - which celebrated its 10th anniversary this year
​Dates: 31 March - 16 September 2018

​The Florilegium: The Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney

This is an exhibition by the Florilegium Society of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney. It was originally mounted at the RBGS Gardens in Sydney in 2016 as part of the 200th anniversary of the Botanic Gardens. ​

Part of the Florilegium exhibition at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery at Kew

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED - This is a world class exhibition and sets a very high standard for exhibitions by Florilegia

Links:

• Kew - The Florilegium: The Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney
• My review - "The Florilegium: The Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney" exhibition at Kew Gardens

Down Under II: Works from the Shirley Sherwood Collection

The second exhibition - Down Under II: Works from the Shirley Sherwood Collection - is a follow on from the first exhibition of artwork in the Shirley Sherwood Collection of native Australian and New Zealand plants created by local and international botanical artists.

Natural History Museum

There's always an exhibition of nature botanical or natural history in the Images of Nature Gallery at the Natural History Museum
Venue: Images of Nature Gallery, Natural History Museum

The Art of British Natural History : Images of Nature

When I last visited besides the examples of botanical artwork by many of the great artists from the past there were some paintings of natural habitat by Barbara Nicolson and a reproduction of a watercolour painting of orchids by the late Pandora Sellars

Orchids (1985) by Pandora Sellars (1936-2016)

Rumanian Cultural Institute

The exhibition of botanical paintings included in the Transylvania Florilegium has returned for July and August

• Venue: Romanian Cultural Institute (UK), 1 Belgrave Square, London SW1X 8PH (nearest tube is Hyde Park Corner)
• Dates: 2 July to 31 August 2018
• Publishers: Published for The Prince of Wales’s Charitable Foundation by Addison Publications Ltd London
• Artists - see the list in my blog post - Transylvania Florilegium at the Romanian Cultural Institute
• More details: the Highgrove website

Jonathan Cooper Gallery

Finally for the true and dedicated fans there are some excellent artworks by botanical artiosts from England, Scotland, Australia and the USA on display at Jonathan Cooper's 30th anniversary exhibition in Chelsea

• Venue:  Jonathan Cooper Gallery, 20 Park Walk, Chelsea, London, SW10 0AQ
• Dates: 12 - 21 July 2018
• Gallery Opening Times: Mon – Fri (10 – 6.30pm); Sat (11 – 4pm) Closed Bank Holidays
• Admission: Free
• Information: Botanical art at Jonathan Cooper: 30 years exhibition - opens 12 July 2018

A new website - Botanical Art and Artists

Today I'm launching my new website Botanical Art and Artists http://botanicalartandartists.com.  It provides a compendium of resources about botanical art past and present for botanical artists and illustrators of today and tomorrow.

If you just want to look at some wonderful art, there's lots to look at and links to take you to more places to enjoy the art produced in the the last few hundred years and by today' artists.

There's also lots of information to help you improve if your focus is on drawing or painting plants and flowers.

Home Page of Botanical Art and Artists on Launch Day 16th April 2015

You can access information on the site via

• the top menu - which has a drop down menu of pages within each topic 
• the menu at the bottom of the page which provides quick links to headlines of content in a slightly different format.

You'll also find that due to a responsive design it can be accessed easily via a desktop, a tablet or a smartphone. (On the smartphone it reads down the columns in sequence left to right - making decisions about how to locate content more than a little challenging!)

Please bookmark it and/or share it with anybody who you think might like to access its resources. 

Today seemed like a good day for the public launch as it's also the Private View day of the 2015 Annual Exhibition of the Society of Botanical Artists!  (I have two coloured pencil drawings in the show!)

Where to find the SBA

The SBA features quite a bit on various pages - and this is probably quite a good way of explaining how the site works.

• see the SBA on the National and Regional Botanical Art Societies page
• see the annual exhibition via the Exhibitions portal - on the Botanical Art Exhibitions in the UK page
• see some of the SBA member artists on the Botanical Artists in the UK page via the Artists portal. Given the number of artists who could be included on this website the guideline I use for who to include on the Artist country pages is that the artist has won an RHS Gold Medal or equivalent. (I may at some point in the future also include a page for artists who are members of an art society but have yet to win their RHS Gold Medal - but first things first!)
• Also accessible via the Artists portal are pages for top botanical artists and illustrators - I hasten to add that none of the lists of artists are exhaustive - but they do tend very much to focus on the artists with websites:
• in the USA
• in Australasia
• in Europe
• in Africa and Asia
• and a page highlighting those artists who work in alternative art media by which I mean not drawing in dry media and painting 
• Plus a page of Botanical Art Blogs
• The SBA's Distance Learning Diploma Course is listed on the Diplomas and Certificates Page within the Education section of the site
• Also listed under Education are:

Reflections on the RHS Botanical Art Show Autumn 2014

The Botanical Artists selected by the RHS to exhibit at their Autumn Botanical Art Show 2014
- from Bath, Cornwall and Lincolnshire (England)Midlothian (Scotland)Powys (Wales),
and Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, South Africa and the USA (Maine and Florida)

More from the artists and photographers whose work was submitted and selected for last week's Royal Horticultural Society Exhibitions of Botanical Art and Botanical Photography - with a view to winning those all important RHS Medals!

RHS Botanical Photography

I viewed the Botanical Photography first (displayed on the Mezzanine level in the Lawrence Hall for anybody who missed it).  This is always exhibited at one of the RHS exhibitions in October - usually the Autumnal colours rather than the Harvest themed.

Four Gold Medals were won as follows.

GOLD MEDAL: Kobaimo - Japanese Endemic Fritillaria by Laurence Hill 
It's not really bendy - it's just my camera trying to get it all in!

Laurence Hill has an extremely unusual display of Kobaimo - Japanese Endemic Fritillaria. It was very impressive both in terms of scholarship and techniques.

His display played tribute to:

• shashin - which relates to how images were created as prints and the incredible importance of demonstrating authenticity - of having handled the plant
• Iinuma Yokusai - a Honzu-Gaku (Herbal doctors) of the late-Edo period who was responsible for the publication of the first botanical book in Japan - the Somoku-dzusetsu (an iconography of herbaceous and woody plants of Japan)

His photographs are printed on rice paper and the format adopted is that of the old wood block prints of plants.

Two of the exhibits in Kobaimo - Japanese Endemic Fritillaria by Laurence Hill 

Laurance has also developed a website - Fritillaria Icones - which serves as a photographic botanical database for all all Fritillaria species. Its purpose is to help with identification, research and conservation of Fritillaria.

GOLD MEDAL WINNER: The Art of Plants by Nigel Chapman

Nigel Chapman is a regular exhibitor at the show and has won many Gold Medals  (see my previous post about him RHS Gold Medal winning Botanical Photography in 2012). Nigel and I are both interested in photographing patterns in the same sorts of plants which makes viewing his display a very interesting experience for me. You can see his former exhibits at the RHS on his website

GOLD MEDAL WINNER: Past Perfect by Polina Plotnikova

Polina Plotnikova is a Russian born UK-based photographer who now lives in the London Borough of Bromley.  This is the page relating to Polina's previous submissions to this October RHS exhibition.

The fourth Gold Medal was won by Plants (in this instance "Lichens on Flint") by J Cassidy Photography (Cambridgeshire).

RHS Botanical Art

This is a commentary on other interesting aspects of the Botanical Art Show

RHS Exhibitions: Guidance and Regulations for submitting Botanical Art & Botanical Photography

The Royal Horticultural Society recently gave its website a massive overhaul. URLs have changed and some things went missing for a while - including the Guidelines and Regulations for submitting Botanical Art to an RHS Exhibition!

I wrote and asked what had happened and, as a result, the information has now been loaded. It's also been relocated out of the Shows area and into a section on Education and Learning and a subsection on Libraries. This is in part because the Picture Committee is no more and the function previously carried out by that Committee is now undertaken by the Picture Panel under the auspices of the Lindley Library and Arts Committee. So the website follows the organisational form of the RHS.

For those of you who want to enter your botanical art or botanical photography into the RHS Exhibitions I've detailed below where you can now find the information. You have until 25th June to submit work for assessment to the next meeting of the Picture Panel.

RHS Exhibition of Botanical Art

You have until 25th June to apply to be assessed to submit work for a future exhibition of 
Botanical Art in the RHS Lindley Hall
This is half of the 2014 Exhibition and the winner of the Best Exhibit in Show is in the foreground
(see RHS Botanical Art Show 2014 - Medal winners)

A very high standard of work is required in the exhibition of botanical illustration.

Emphasis is placed primarily on botanical accuracy with aesthetic appeal.

Individual artists or group exhibitors are allocated space at each show.

Exhibits must comprise a minimum of six pieces of art, preferably presented on a theme.

Interestingly the exhibition is referred to as being about botanical art whereas the introduction to the subject references it as being about botanical illustration. As botanical artists well know there is some considerable scope for debate about the differences between botanical art and botanical illustration!  It's certainly the case that Gold Medals awarded of late have had a very strong botanical theme.