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Home Read & watch Dr Shirley Sherwood shares her insights on modern botanical art

28 JANUARY 2020

Dr Shirley Sherwood shares her insights on

modern botanical art
Dr Shirley Sherwood talks about the evolution of botanical art, current trends, and the
stories behind our latest exhibition.

BY ELLEN MCHALE AND DR SHIRLEY SHERWOOD

A beautiful fusion of art and science, botanical art has

an important role in documenting and identifying plants.
Artists around the world produce work that plays
a major part in botanical discovery.

Celebrating 30 years of collecting this vital artform, our latest

exhibition in the Shirley Sherwood Gallery brings together
contemporary work from talented artists who are the very best in
the Ield.

Dr Sherwood explains how she's built her collection, what makes a

great painting, and why there's more to botanical art than meets the
eye.

Botanical art tells powerful stories

"The composition of a painting is what gives it 'oomph' and will often
tell a story.

I like to collect contemporary paintings with unique compositions that

tell a story about the plant and how it interacts with its environment.

Many of the paintings in the exhibition show the details of a plant, from
Oower to seed. A painting of a Siberian iris (Iris siberica) shows the
plant in development beautifully. The buds are at different stages of
growth and the rhizome are included, showing aspects of the growing
cycle."

Annika Silander-Hökerberg Iris siberica © Shirley Sherwood Collection

"Some of the work in the exhibition conveys political messages about

the environment, such as paintings by renowned artist Margaret Mee.
She made 15 trips to the Amazon in her lifetime, and was angry
about the destruction of the rainforest.

She painted plants in their environment to highlight how much they

relied on their rainforest habitat and how essential it is to protect this
environment."

'Philodendron sp. Rio Negro, Amazonas' by Margaret Mee © Shirley Sherwood Collection

Botanical art has evolved over time

"Contemporary botanical art has evolved from the days of traditionally
life-sized paintings.

Some modern botanical artists are painting bigger now, with plants
magniIed and zoomed in. This giant poplar leaf (Populus x
canadensis) by Jess Shepherd is a beautiful example, as she has
magniIed it to draw attention to its subtleties of colour and venation.

Paintings like this force you to look again at plants, which we often
don't pay much attention to and take for granted. Through the eyes of
botanical artists, we're able to appreciate the tiny details of specimens.

Larger plants can be painted life-sized, to give people a sense of their

impressive size in the wild. A beautiful example of this in my collection
is Sue Herbert's gunnera leaf, which she painted life-sized using the
largest watercolour paper she could source to make it completely
realistic."

Inside the Shirley Sherwood Gallery showing an enlarged poplar leaf and a life- sized gunnera leaf © Shirley Sherwood Collection

A tool to highlight rare and endangered

species
"There are some beautiful depictions of endangered plants in my
collection and some can survive in all sorts of extreme environments.

The orchid Phragmipedium kovachii is listed as critically endangered,

and I have two paintings of it in my collection.

This is the Irst work ever completed of this new discovery by Angela
Mirro, who went to Andean cloud forests of northern Peru to paint
it. After it had been cultivated in Lima I commissioned another painting
on vellum by Carol Woodin who painted the Oower just past its prime.

This orchid has an extraordinary large bloom, up to 20

centimeters across and was discovered in 2001. Since then the whole
area has sadly been depleted of this spectacular orchid, and over-
collecting is a major threat to its survival in the wild."

'Phragmipedium kovachii' by Angela Mirro © Shirley Sherwood Collection

Plants past their prime

"In the last six or seven years, I've seen a growing trend in painting
Oowers that are past their prime and starting to wilt.

These kinds of paintings really appeal to me, as there's a sense that the
artist is really engaged with their subject and attentive to the plant life
cycle.

A gorgeous example of this trend is Rosie Sanders' "Rose: Red

sensation", which shows a rose as it’s starting to disintegrate.
Depicting it at this stage of its life adds to the drama of the piece and
creates interesting textures and colours."

Rose: Red Sensation 2016 by Rosie Sanders © Shirley Sherwood Collection

"This painting by Regine Hagdorn depicts the stamen of a Mermaid

rose, and shows the stages of decay. It goes beyond a traditional
painting of the rose in full bloom and shows us more about a stage of
its life, making it a really special artwork."

Mermaid Rose Stamens by Regine Hagedorn © Shirley Sherwood Collection

Changing perceptions
"Contemporary artists were never considered as good or as worthy as
historical botanical artists, but I hope I’ve done something to change
that perception.

I generally don’t buy old paintings (only the ones I really can’t resist!).
Museums have many amazing collections of historical botanical
paintings, and I didn't need my collection to compete with them.

Instead I wanted to showcase the gems of the modern botanical art

scene, and celebrate the artists across the world producing incredible
work today."

Visit the Shirley Sherwood Gallery to see these stunning artworks for
yourself in the Modern Masterpieces exhibition.

Peony, Greenbank Garden by Victoria Braithwaite © Shirley Sherwood Collection

Modern Masterpieces
Bring this stunning exhibition into your home with
this gorgeous coffee-table book.

Buy the book

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