BOTANIC ART & CLASSES

• What is Botanic Art?
• Botanic Art Classes
• Botanic Art Workshops
• Botanical Illustrators
• Botanic Art Teachers
• Featured Botanic Artist
• Quarterly Meeting
• Celia Rosser Medal
• Exhibitions
• The Illustrated Garden

 Blackberries
Joan Mason
 

JOIN THE FRIENDS

CONTACT DETAILS

Friends of RBG Melb
Gate Lodge
(opposite the Shrine)
100 Birdwood Avenue
Melbourne 3004

Map references
Melways page no 2F
Melways grid ref K 12
UBD page no 283 UBD grid ref M1

For all enquiries and bookings -
Tel: (03) 9650 6398
Fax: (03) 9650 7723
Email: friends@frbgmelb.org.au
www.rbgfriendsmelbourne.org

What is Botanic Art?

Botanic Art or the art of botanical illustration is a highly specialised artform, in which plant portraits combine finely observed detail with artistic expression. 

Interest in this artform has greatly increased over the years and currently the Friends hold a number of classes conducted by their experienced Botanic Art teachers - Dianne Emery, Mali Moir and Helen Burrows. See below for more information on our classes and teachers.

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Botanic Art Classes and Workshops

Eucalyptus conferruminata
Edyta Hoxley

Botanic Art Classes

Enquiries are welcome for TERM 3 2009 (beginning on 20 July).  For more information download an Application form  (PDF).

Botanical Art classes are held on

• Monday: 10am -12.30pm (Intermediate - Mali Moir)
• Monday: 1pm - 3.30pm (Mixed including Beginners - Mali Moir)
• Tuesday: 6.15pm - 8.45pm (Mixed including Beginners - Dianne Emery)
• Wednesday: 10am - 12.30pm (Advanced - Dianne Emery)
• Wednesday: 1pm - 3.30pm (Intermediate/Advanced - Dianne Emery)
• Wednesday: 6.15pm - 8.45pm (Mixed including Beginners - Helen Burrows)
• Thursday: 1pm - 3.30pm (Mixed including Beginners - Helen Burrows)
• Friday: 10.30am - 1.30pm (Intermediate/Advanced - Dianne Emery)
• Saturday: 10am - 12.30pm (Mixed including Beginners - Mali Moir)
• Saturday: 1pm - 3.30pm (Mixed including Beginners - Mali Moir)

Classes are held in the Whirling Room Studio located in the Observatory Gate Site at the RBG. Please dowload a map showing the location of the Whirling Room Studio.

Cost: 2.5hr classes $255 Friends $215 (incl GST)
            3hr  classes $295 Friends $255 (incl GST)

For more information on all Botanical Illustration Classes and Workshops please download an application form (pdf) or telephone our office on 9650 6398.  To take advantage of the Friends' members rates please Join the Friends. 

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Botanic Art Class

Botanic Art Workshops - book now

Insect Illustration
with Kate Nolan
Friday 3, Saturday 4 and Sunday 5 July
10.00am to 3.30pm
Cost: $225 (Friends $180)

Insect Illustration (Advanced)
with Kate Nolan
Wednesday 8, Thursday 9 and Friday 10 July
10.00am to 3.30pm
Cost: $225 (Friends $180)

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Longhorn Beetle
Mali Moir

Botanical Illustrators

Who are The Botanical Illustrators?

A group of Members of the Friends' who meet regularly to paint, take classes and workshops, and put on exhibitions of their work.  One group of Members called the Whirlybirds meet every Tuesday. 

Whirlybirds

The Whirlybirds group of botanical artists meet every Tuesday, in the Whirling Room Studio, to paint and exchange ideas.  Members of this friendly group range from beginners to professionals, and there is no instructor.  Rather, members encourage each other in their artistic endeavours, discuss works-in-progress, offer advice, and occasionally, work on a group project.  Following the success of illustrating the oaks in the RBG they are now working on the eucalypts.  Any member of the Friends is welcome to join the Whirlybirds, for a small weekly fee, either to pursue their own botanical art interests or select a eucalypt to illustrate.  If you would like to join the Whirlybirds please contact Sandra Sanger on 95989532.                

Whirlybirds

Hakea multilineata
Margaret Holloway

Friends' Botanic Art Teachers

Dianne Emery
Born in the United Kingdom, Dianne studied art at the National Gallery School in Melbourne followed by a diploma of Education.  She worked as an artist and a teacher for many years, teaching at secondary, TAFE and tertiary levels.  Always interested in plants and horticulture Dianne enrolled part-time at Burnley Horticultural College where later she began teaching short courses in Botanical Illustration.  This was followed by later courses taught at Swinburne University , Melbourne CAE, Royal Botanic Gardens and workshops in Melbourne , Sydney , Brisbane and Adelaide .  She currently works at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne , where she has been running workshops and classes since 1996.  Dianne has exhibited widely both here and interstate, including The Art of Botanical Illustration, since 1994.  Recent exhibitions include: Botanica 2006 ‘The Masters Exhibition’, Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney; 2005, Red Box Gallery, The Herbarium, Sydney; and a solo show at Woodbine Art Gallery, Malmsbury, Victoria.  Dianne has won the Celia Rosser medal twice, in both 2002 and 2004, and her study of Medlars was acquired for the Victorian State Collection.

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Paeonia suffruticosa
Dianne Emery

Mali Moir
Mali has worked at the National Herbarium of Victoria since 1992 as a botanical illustrator, contributing pen and ink drawings for many scientific publications. Mali teaches at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne. She has received several awards including - RHS Gold Medal (2001), Celia Rosser Medal (2002), Purchase Award – New York State Museum.  She has been invited to exhibit at the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation in Pittsburgh USA and was a finalist in the Waterhouse Art Prize. Mali exhibits widely in Australia and internationally and has produced many works on commission for private, public and corporate collections.
Mali has a keen interest in the artistic interpretation of natural history themes. She approaches her work with traditional techniques whilst developing a fresh contemporary look. Mali executes works on paper with the consummate skill of a dedicated artist as she combines her fascination for science and natural history with an active desire to render works of art with beauty, character and scientific merit.

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Tulips
Mali Moir

Helen Burrows
Helen’s botanical watercolour illustrations are represented in the Victorian National Herbarium collection, The Government House Florilegium Project, The Illustrated Garden Collection, The National Library of Australia, The Huntington Library (California), The Hunt Institute of the Carnegie Mellon University (Pennsylvania), the Lindley Library Royal Horticultural Society (London), galleries and private collections throughout Australia and overseas.
A professional Graphic Designer, Helen has also worked in both secondary and tertiary education sectors teaching art and lecturing in Design and Graphic Communication.
Her passionate interest in gardening and horticulture has found expression in her commitment to botanical painting.

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Camellia reticulata
Helen Burrows

Featured Botanic Artist

RITA PARKINSON

The recent Botanica exhibition ‘From the Desert to the Sea’ in Sydney featured Victorian artist Rita Parkinson’s Agave americana.var striata as their signature image.

British born Rita Parkinson is a Fine Arts graduate of St Martins College of Art and holds a graduate diploma in Art history from the Coutauld Institute. London University.
A London based career as a freelance illustrator took Rita into the world of publishing where she worked as an illustrator of scientific and educational texts and in the children’s literature field. This was followed by 15 years in New Zealand where she continued her career in freelance illustration.
The nature of a working illustrator practise is to enhance another’s ideas. This is accepted as the writer/botanist/scientists viewpoint must have the primary focus but, over time, this can have its frustrating side for the illustrator. So a move to Australia gave the opportunity for a change of direction and a focus on Botanical Art.
Rita does consider herself more as a botanical artist now than an illustrator as the emphasis is on her viewpoint. Of course the scientific requirements of the genre are unnegotiable, but the media, point of view and style are very flexible. Rita prefers subjects that have a naturally expressive geometry such as agaves, cycads and palms.
2009 began in March with the exhibition ‘From the Desert to the Sea’ held in Sydney. Her painting of Cycas seemannii is one of 40 works scheduled tour the USA in an exhibition titled ‘Losing Paradise’ focusing on endangered plants. This is a major Exhibition curated by The American Society of Botanical Artists. The final destination in 2010 will be the Smithsonian Museum in Washington. Another work, her dramatic painting of the desert spoon Dasylirion acrotriche is destined for the Phoenix Art Museums ‘A Natural Perspective’ in Oct. In Melbourne, Rita hopes to have work included in the biennial ‘Karwarra Exhibition of Native Species’ in Oct and, on Oct 6th, the ‘Botanicasia’ exhibition will open at Domain House. This is a new direction for Victorian illustrators. The Exhibition will showcase the work of 8 Victorian artists working to the theme of Asia. Rita is working on a set of paintings based on the Japanese aesthetic, a kind of ‘Homage to Hokusai’.
Rita regularly shows work with the New York Horticultural Society and has work featured in the last four ‘The Art of Botanical Illustration’ Exhibitions in Melbourne
 

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Agave
Rita Parkinson

Dasylirion acrotriche
Rita Parkinson

Botanical Illustrators Quarterly Meeting

LAURIE ANDREWS

An advertisement in the FRBG’s Botanical News drew a larger than normal attendance at the Botanical Illustrators Quarterly Meeting.

Our speaker was well-known botanical illustrator, Laurie Andrews, who holds a Bachelor of Science and a Diploma of Education.  Laurie introduced many in her audience to the fascinating subject of numbers, shapes and radiating, spiral and fractal patterns seen in plants, and explained how an understanding of the mathematics involved can help artists accurately represent the plants they are painting.  She also explained Fibonacci numbers, the Golden Ratio, the Golden Rectangle and how organisms have evolved to conserve energy and propagate the species by using the shortest path, the most economical fit or the least energy.

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Laurie Andrews with her watercolour of a pine cone that graphically demonstrates the use of Fibonacci numbers

Celia Rosser Medal  

The Celia Rosser Medal 2008

Inaugurated in 2002 the Celia Rosser Medal is awarded to select Botanical Artists exhibiting in the Art of Botanical Illustration Exhibitions. 

At the 2008 Art of Botanical Illustration Exhibition Celia Rosser awarded three equal winners of the medal.

• Jenny Phillips - Eucalyptus pryiformis
• Sandra Sanger - Doryanthes excelsa
• Jennifer Wilkinson - Rhododendron 'David'

Eucalyptus pryiformis
Jenny Phillips

Rhododendron 'David'
Jennifer Wilkinson

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Doryanthes excelsa
Sandra Sanger

The Art of Botanical Illustration Exhibitions

These biennial exhibitions are presented by the Botanical Illustrators and the Friends of the RBG Melbourne.  For further information follow this Art Exhibition link or the Art Exhibition 2008 link in the left navigation bar.

The Illustrated Garden 

This project was established in 2001 by artist members of the Friends to create an illustrated record, or florilegium, of selected plants growing in the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne. The collection is held digitally and photographically by the Friends.


 

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Araucaria bidwillii
John Pastoriza-Pinol