BOTANICASIA
 |
|
BotanicAsia, an extraordinary art event in Melbourne open in October. It was opened by Peter Valder AO, (see more about Peter lower on this page) on the 8th October. BotanicAsia is now over, unsold works and Peony prints are still on sale through ILLUSTRATA. |
BotanicAsia was an exhibition of BotanicArt of seven of Victoria’s outstanding artists held at Domain House, Dallas Brooks Drive, South Yarra. Works for sale by Anita Barley, Dianne Emery, Fiona McKinnon, Mali Moir, Rita Parkinson, Dolores Malloni and Jennifer Phillips with guest artist from Japan Noriko Hasagawa. Rare works, some never publicly viewed, by Celia Rosser and Margaret Stones will be exhibited . The exhibition accompanied the 2009 Spring opening of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne.
Over the last few years, with Australia’s proximity and embrace of Asian countries, cross fertilization of both plant species and artistic influences to date has been underestimated. BotanicAsia is the first exhibition to recognise this and depict the extraordinary number of plants we see and use here that originate from our Asian neighbours.
The working drawings of these artistic pieces were on show allowing insight into the artist’s process.
Painted and drawn works were for sale and all the artists created a ‘Peony’ artwork on paper all the same dimension 42cm x 54cm portrait format, as well as exhibit works of their choosing. 3 'Peony' works were sold by silent auction and the others are still available. They are pictured here with their price level. Please contact us by phone (03 9429 5666) or email (jo@illustrata.com.au) if you would like to purchase one of these extraordinary paintings. Include the artist's name, your bid and your contact details. Each of these images is enlarged with the artist's resume lower on this page.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
Anita Barley |
Dianne Emery |
Fiona McKinnon |
Mali Moir |
Rita Parkinson |
Dolores Malloni |
Jenny Phillips |
Also for sale is this rare Celia Rosser original Banksia menziesii watercolour study 46cm x 60cm landscape format.
Price $ 45,000.
Click here to see a selection of other works that are part of BotanicAsia.
Exhibition at Domain House, Dallas Brooks Drive, South Yarra. 3rd & 4th of October, 9th October to the 25th October inclusive.
Email to purchase a catalogue - 50 page colour. jo@illustrata.com.au
PRINTS OF THE PEONIES ARE AVAILABLE FOR SALE. $ 110. Please call ILLUSTRATA on 03 9429 5666
Proceeds from gold coin entry fee, catalogue sales, print sales and merchandise donated to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne.
|
The BotanicAsia project would not be possible without the support of |
|
|
Sidney and Fiona Myer,  and Jason Yeap BotanicAsia supports |
 |
GUEST OPENING SPEAKER
Peter Valder, AO
Born in Australia and brought up in the bush, Peter Valder's early interest in the Australian flora was stimulated by local amateur botanists. He went on to become a plant pathologist and mycologist after graduating from the Universities of Sydney and Cambridge. He was pleased to later become involved in the teaching of general botany in addition to his mycological work. Peter has also been an office bearer of the Linnean Society and the Australian Institute of Agricultural Science. Since drifting into the popularizing of Australian botany and horticulture, he has made appearances on radio and television, written for magazines, and lectured to organizations concerned with plants and gardens. His interest in gardening has taken him to Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Burma, and China, from which he has introduced numerous plants suited to the Australian climate. Also, he has visited gardens in Britain, New Zealand, North America, France, Italy, Spain, China, Japan, and Korea, accumulating photographs with which to illustrate his lectures and writings.
His involvement with his family's garden, Nooroo, at Mount Wilson, New South Wales, led to its becoming one of Australia's most admired gardens. It was here that he was able to indulge his enthusiasm for plants from all over the world. Amongst other things, he gathered together a remarkable collection of wisteria, his experience with which led to his writing Wisterias, the first monograph on this genus in any European language. It was the success of this book that encouraged him to utilize his long-standing interest in Chinese plants and gardens to write The Garden Plants of China, which was awarded as the Reference Gardening Book of 1999 by the Garden Writer's Guild of the UK.
To recognize his gifts of plants to and voluntary work for the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney, in 1995 he was made their first Honorary Horticultural Associate, and in 1996 was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in recognition of his contribution to botany and horticulture in that country.
ARTIST RESUMES and PEONY works (in alphabetical order)
- Anita Barley
Anita Barley (formerly Podwyszynski) has worked as a professional botanical illustrator for 33 years. Her first published botanical illustrations were for the University of Melbourne’s Centre for Environmental Studies in (1975), undertaken while she was completing a Diploma in Graphic Design at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. For Anita these works were the first tangible realisation of an inspiration gained from her Romanian grandmother’s ancient herbal volumes, whose detailed black and white line drawings had mesmerised Anita from childhood.
She then commenced work as a Botanical Illustrator with Melbourne’s Royal Botanic Gardens in 1977, the first person to be appointed to such a role within Melbourne’s historic and prestigious Gardens for over 90 years. She performed this role for sixteen years, working mainly on the Illustrated Flora of Victoria project, completing over a thousand coloured and black-and-white illustrations for this major scientific reference work. She also provided scientific illustrations for taxonomic papers, the Flora of Australia, Muelleria (the scientific journal of the National Herbarium), Government publications and other projects. She continues to provide illustrations for these types of publications to this date. Anita’s special place in the history of botanical art in Australia was recognised in the publication ‘Australia: 300 years of Botanical Illustration’ by Dr Helen Hewson in 1999.
Anita began teaching botanical illustration at Burnley Horticultural College in Melbourne in 1986. Several hundred illustrators attended these classes over a number of years. She has twice been awarded the Celia Rosser Medal (2002, 2006) in recognition of the quality of her detailed botanical artworks and her sustained contributions to the field of botanical illustration at ‘The Art of Botanical Illustration’ exhibitions hosted at the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne.
Anita Barley’s work has been widely exhibited within Melbourne and in regional Victorian and interstate galleries. Her work is held in public collections (such as the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne) and private collections both in Australia and overseas. She has exhibited widely, including:
1989 Ballarat Art Gallery
1992 – 2008 Art of Botanical Illustration (RBG Melbourne)
1994 Westpac Gallery
1994 Maclelland Gallery
1996 Gregory River Expedition (RBG 150th Celebrations)
2000 Benalla Art Gallery
2001 Benalla Art Galley
2002 Buda Castlemaine
2003 State Botanical Collection ‘Nature’s Art Revealed’ RBG Melbourne
2003 The Mill, Malmsbury, Vic
2004 Anita Barley at Woodbine Art, Malmsbury
2005 Red Box Gallery, Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney
2005 Campaspe House, Woodend
2006 The Masters Exhibition, Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney
2007 Nature in Art, Woodbine Art, Malmsbury
2007 Hidden in Plain View (travelling exhibition) Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne
2008 Nature in Art 2 Woodbine Art, Malmsbury
2008 Plasma Soul, Castan Gallery, South Yarra
Anita now lives at Woodend in country Victoria and works as a freelance botanical artist.
- Dianne Emery
Paeonia suffruticosa 'Destiny'
Dianne Emery is a contemporary natural history and botanical artist living and working in Melbourne. Her background in horticulture and fine art is manifest in a desire to reveal her subjects both scientifically and empirically as individual character studies. Turning to botanical art in the late 1980s, Dianne’s work has maintained a strong desire to explore and further the aesthetic merits of scientific art. An intense interest in form and colour, particularly in the relationship forged between the eye of the viewer and living subject, has motivated a desire to capture something of this experience in paint. Her recognition of this aspect of botanical art stems in part from extensive experience teaching and workshopping the art of botanical painting.
Dianne’s botanical works are invariably the result of an interest in the understanding and cultivation of a particular species. Her work reveals the often lesser-known botanical subjects in all their complex beauty. Her work has featured in exhibitions in Melbourne since the early 1990s, and she has received a number of prestigious awards. Her work has been purchased by institutions and individual collectors both in Australia and overseas. Her current interest in natural history subjects is the result of studies into the interdependent relationships between plants and insects. An interest in the evolutionary theory of convergence has motivated much of her recent work.
Recent exhibitions:
2009 “Reframing Darwin: Evolution and Art in Australia” Ian Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne University
2008 “The Plasma Soul,” Nellie Castan Gallery, South Yarra
2008 “Nature + Art II,” Woodbine Art Gallery, Malmsbury, Victoria
2008 “Botanica: Fruits of our Labours,” Lion Gate Lodge, Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney.
2007 Kawarra Botanical Art Exhibition
2007 “Nature + Art,” Woodbine Art Gallery, Malmsbury, Victoria.
2007 “The Forgotten Flora,” traveling exhibition from the National Herbarium of Victoria.
1994 – 2006 (biennial exhibition) The Art of Botanical Illustration, Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne.
2006 “Botanica 2006: The Masters’ Exhibition”, Maiden Theatre, Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney.
2005 Red Box Gallery, The Herbarium of Sydney.
2005 Solo show, Woodbine Art Gallery, Malmsbury, Victoria.
2005 “Zen Salad: Exhibition of Bryophytes,” Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne
2003 “Botanica”, Dickerson Gallery, Richmond, Victoria.
2003 “Nature’s Art Revealed, 150 years of botanical art at the national Herbarium of Victoria, 1853-2003”, Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne
2001 Benalla Regional Gallery, Victoria.
2000 Benalla Regional Gallery, Victoria.
- Fiona McKinnon
Paeonia suffruticosa 'Gauguin'
Fiona trained as an art teacher and spent many years teaching in Victorian secondary schools. Since 1996 she has taught at the Botanical Art School of Melbourne. Watercolour and graphite are now her preferred media, but she continues to enjoy working with oil paint, pastel and a variety of graphic media.
Fiona is inspired by the amazing diversity of the plant world and the incredible individuality of every living thing. Although she works regularly with some particularly admired species or cultivars, she has no desire to narrow her focus.
Since 1994 Fiona has exhibited at each “The Art of Botanical Illustration” , Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne and in over twenty group or two-person exhibitions.
Amongst these are:
2000 10th International Exhibition of Botanical Art, Hunt Institute,Pittsburgh,
2001 Geelong and Benalla Regional Galleries,
2002 Wildlife Art Society of Australasia, , as guest artist
2003 “Botanica”, Dickerson Gallery, Melbourne
2005 “Botanica”, Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney, as guest artist , in “The Masters Exhibition” 2006 and as an exhibitor 2008 and 2009.
Fiona’s works are included in many private collections in Australia and the U.K., and also:
· The Highgrove Florilegium for The Prince of Wales’s Charitable Foundation
· Florilegium at Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney
· Government House Florilegium, Melbourne
· Esso Australia Collection.
- Mali Moir
Paeonia 'Hesperus'
Mali began her career as botanical artist in 1993 at the National Herbarium of Victoria. Combining botanical and horticultural knowledge with artistic skills Mali has contributed pen and ink drawings for Flora of Victoria, Flora of Australia, Mulleria and other scientific publications. Working closely with botanists in this area Mali understands the importance of scientific accuracy, the fundamentals of precise measurement and thorough depiction of detail. She teaches botanical illustration at the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, at private art groups and conducts workshops here in Victoria, interstate and in New Zealand, Mali was awarded a Gold Medal by The Royal Horticultural Society London and an invited exhibitor to the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation USA. She is a recipient of an inaugural Celia Rosser Medal and twice a finalist in the Waterhouse Art Prize. Mali was the first Australian to receive Focus On Nature Purchase Award by New York State Museum USA. Mali exhibits widely in Australia and internationally and has produced many works for private, public and corporate collections. She has a great interest in working in the area of conservation and was proud to donate a painting for the charity auction ‘Name a New Species of Shrimp’ held by Australian Marine Conservation Society in association with Museum Victoria, Mali also contributes to ‘Art for Sharks’ with AMCS. 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 nature with an active desire to render works of art with beauty, character and scientific merit.
GROUP EXHIBITIONS; 1991 Centenary Botanical Art Exhibition, Burnley, Melbourne
1996 – 2008 The Art of Botanical Illustration, RBG Melbourne
1998, 2006 Wildlife Art Society of Australasia, Melbourne
2001 1st Botanical Illustration Exhibition, Benalla Regional Art Gallery
2001 10th International Exhibition of Botanical Art & Illustration, Hunt Institute USA
2001 London Flower Show, Royal Horticultural Society, London
2002 ‘Special Botanicals’, Villa Mulberry, Melbourne
2003 – 2007 Karwarra Botanical Art Exhibition, Victoria
2003 ‘Botanica’ Dickerson Gallery Melbourne
2003 ‘Nature’s Art Revealed’National Herbarium of Victoria, RBG Melbourne
2004 -2006 ‘Focus on Nature’, New York State Museum, USA
2004, 2007 The Waterhouse Natural History Art Prize, South Australia
2005 Woodbine Art Exhibition, Red Box Gallery, Sydney
2006 ‘The Masters’ Botanical Art Exhibition RBG Sydney
2007, 2008 ‘Nature + Art’, Woodbine Art Gallery, Victoria
2008 – 2009 ‘Hidden in Plain View, the forgotten flora’ (travelling exhibition) Royal Botanic Gardens
2008, 2009 Botanica, Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney
2008 ‘VFFA Art Show 2008’, inaugural show, Victorian Fly Fishing Association
2008 ‘Plasma Soul’, Nellie Castan Gallery, Melbourne
2009 Margaret Flockton Art Prize, Sydney Australia
2009 ‘Reframing Darwin: evolution and art in Australia’ The Ian Potter Museum of Art, The University of Melbourne
- Rita Parkinson
Peonylactifolia ‘Sarah Bernhardt’ Paeoniaceae
A contemporary botanical illustrator based in Melbourne. Australia Rita graduated from in Fine Art from St Martins School of Art. London.UK, followed by a graduate diploma in Art History from the Courthauld Institute. London. UK. She began her career as a freelance illustrator, mainly in publishing and children’s’ literature, including work in the educational and scientific fields. This work required versatility in style and the use of various media and a need to emphasize and fulfill the needs of the reader.
These skills came into play later when Rita moved to New Zealand and then Australia and began to specialize in scientific illustration and then more specifically in botanical illustration. Sophisticated painting skills are highly prized in the botanical art field but can never be an end in itself. The ideal is to combine in an image botanical precision with aesthetic insight. To achieve an elegant balance means controlling a complex puzzle of focal points, tonal balance, optimizing color relationships, directional flows etc. with highly developed painting skills.
In recent years Rita’s subjects have come from the of Agave, Cycad and Palm families of plants
Her prolific work has seen her participate in 19 Group Shows and 4 Solo Shows between 2000 and 2008 including:
2002 Royal Horticultural Society. London .Gold MedalDec
2008 ‘Plasma Soul’ Nellie Castan Gallery. Melbourne. Vic
Apr 2009 ‘Botanica from the Desert to the Sea’ Royal Botanic Gardens. Sydney
Oct 2009 ‘A Natural Perspective’ Phoenix Art Museum. Phoenix. AZ. USA
Oct 2009 ‘Botanical Art @Karwarra’ Vic. Aus
Sept 2009/2010 ‘Lost Paradise’ USA Missouri Botanical Gardens Chicago Botanic Gardens New York Botanic Gardens Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Washington DC ·
- Jenny Phillips FLS, Fellow of The Linnean Society UK
Born 1949, Jenny is a self-taught botanical artist teaching Master Classes in Melbourne, Lilianfels at Katoomba, The English Gardening School in London and at Botanical Gardens in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Europe and South Africa. She has been exhibiting botanical art in Melbourne, Sydney, London and New York for 35 years. Featured in many major international art collections including; · Shirley Sherwood UK, · The Hunt Institute USA · Three works for HRH Prince of Wales’ Trust Highgrove Florilegium. Founder/artist/director of The Botanical Art School of Melbourne 1993. Gold Medals: RHS London, National Print Awards Australia. Only living contemporary artist to be represented by the famous Arader Galleries in the USA.
- Dolores Skowronski-Malloni
Botanical artist since 1993 Do has a keen eye for detail, colours and composition. Her work develops in a theme format, always searching for a new subject keeping her audience interested in what will come next. Three of Dolores original works are held in the State Botanical Collection at the National Herbarium of Victoria. Her work is also kept in private and corporate collections in Australia and overseas.
In 2005 Dolores was awarded a Silver Medal for a collection of paintings of the ‘Passiflora’ Genus by the Royal Horticultural Society, London.
1994 to 2008 Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne
1995 to 2003 invited guest artist to the Grampians Wildflower Show
1996 and 2003 Solo Exhibitions
2005 London Horticultural Society, Silver MedalSince
1994 numerous group exhibitions
- Celia Rosser OAM
Banksia menziesii watercolour study 46cm x 60cm
Early in her artistic career Celia Rosser began painting the uniquely Australian wildflowers with which she was intimately acquainted. In 1965 her first exhibition at Leveson Gallery in Melbourne included three watercolours of banksias. In 1967 she published her first book Wildflowers of Victoria. She is now among the world's finest botanical artists and is recognised internationally for her Banksia paintings. In 1977 she was awarded the coveted Jill Smythies Award for Botanical Illustration from the Linnean Society of London, and in 1966, the Medal of the Order of Australia (O.A.M.) for her contribution to botanical art.
In 1981, Monash University honoured her artistic achievement by awarding her an honorary Master of Science degree and in 1999 an honorary PhD.
Celia illustrated Peter Bridgewater's The Saltmarsh Plants of Southern Australia and also George Scott's and Ilma Stone's The Mosses of Southern Australia.
In 1974 she was appointed University Botanical Artist to paint every known species of Banksia. Her love for Banksias has continued throughout her life, and with the publication of Volume III of The Banksias she has completed this gigantic twenty-five year task.
- Margaret Stones AM, MBE
BotanicAsia is pleased to announce works from Margaret Stones, never exhibited before, will be included.Born in 28 August 1920 in Colac, Victoria, AustraliaMargaret Stones is one of Australia’s foremost botanical artists. She undertook professional art training at Swinburne Technical College and the National Gallery of Victoria Art School in the 1940s. At the invitation of John Stewart Turner, Stones attended lectures and demonstrations in the School of Botany at the University of Melbourne, and joined their summer expeditions to the Bogong High Plains, 1948-1950. In 1951 she left Australia for London to further her botanical knowledge, working independently for the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew and other botanical institutions for more than 30 years.
From 1958 she was the principal contributing artist to Curtis's Botanical Magazine, producing more than 400 watercolours. Her most important project during the 1960s and 1970s was the illustrations for The Endemic Flora of Tasmania, and from 1975 her work on the Flora of Louisiana project. Commenting on Margaret Stone’s botanical knowledge and experience, Tasmanian botanist Dr Winifrid Curtis ‘recalled that Stones never needed to be told, but invariably knew, which sections to draw in order to facilitate correct taxonomical classification’. A genus has been named after her, Stonesia and a Tasmanian species, Stonesiella.
1969 Endemic Flora of Tasmania: (USA tour)
1975 Margaret Stones Retrospective: University of Melbourne
1976 Endemic Flora of Tasmania: Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery Launceston
1980 The Native Flora of Louisiana: The National Museum of Natural History and National Museum of Man, Smithsonian Institution, Washing DC
1985 The Native Flora of Louisiana: State Museum, New Orleans
1991 Flora of Louisiana: Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh
1993 Jefferson and the Natural World: University of Virginia, Charlottesville; Library of the Boston Athenaeum, Boston
1996 The fine Art of Botanical Illustration; University Gallery, The University of Melbourne
1996 Beauty in Truth: the Botanical Art f Margaret Stones: (retrospective exhibition) National Gallery of Victoria
- Guest artist - Noriko Hasegawa, Japan
Born in Tokyo, Japan, Noriko started drawing lessons with a group led by Yoshitugu Koyanagi, one of the leading figures in botanical art in Japan. Since 1997, she has been teaching in Asahi Cultural Center in Tokyo, NHK Cultural Center in Ohmiya, TamagawaTakashimaya Culture Center and Niiza Community Center in Saitama prefecture. In 1999, she attended an intensive master course with Jenny Phillips at Botanical Art School of Melbourne and since then has been attending regularly to her classes. Noriko is a member of Japanese Association of Botanical Illustration ( JABI ) and Botanical Art of Australia ( BAA ).
Exhibitions and awards:
1993-2005 Annual group exhibitions
1999-2003 Japan Grand Prix International Orchid Festivals
2001- The Exhibition of JABI
2007 Two person’s exhibition
2006 Royal Horticultural Society London, Silver Medal.
2007 Royal Horticultural Society London, Silver-Gilt Medal.
Two works for HRH Prince of Wales’ Trust Highgrove Florilegium
Executive Committee of Management for BotanicAsia: Susie Hamson; Curator, Jo Lane;Creative Director & Manager and Libby Morgan
Project Writer: Sarah Guest