The President, Sir Ninian Stephen, and the Council of the Friends of the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, Inc.are proud to present
The Art of Botanical Illustration 2002 (To be opened on 23rd October, 2002)
INTRODUCTION
The Friends of the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne since 1990 have been proud to be involved with the development and promotion of the work of professional and amateur botanical illustrators and are delighted to present this the sixth biennial Art of Botanical Illustration exhibition.
In this exhibition the 148 paintings chosen for exhibition were selected from over 250 submitted. They represent the works of 70 artists from around Australia, including works by talented students attending Botanical Illustration classes held at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne.
The works were selected on the following basis: they should accurately represent the form and botany of the chosen subject; they should adequately convey the characteristics of the species or variety; and they should be presented as an artistically pleasing, balanced and considered work of art. They must also be identified and named accurately according to standard botanical practices.
By encouraging artists at all levels of experience to submit works for selection, the final collection on display offers an outstanding opportunity to acquire works by talented emerging artists as well as those by artists with well-established national and international reputations. For some artists this will be the first time they have exhibited at a major exhibition; we are delighted to be able to offer so many artists this opportunity to display their work alongside that of their peers.
This exhibition will be the fourth at which the Friends have donated funds to the Royal Botanic Gardens for the purchase of works for inclusion in the State Botanical Collection held in the National Herbarium of Victoria. From the 2000 exhibition, works by Edyta Hoxley, Ora Molenaar, Rita Parkinson and Dolores Skowronski-Malloni were acquired by the Gardens in this way. A painting by Ellen Hickman was also purchased by the RBG for the State Botanical Collection.
