"The 14th Annual International Juried Botanical Art Exhibition"
The Horticultural Society of New York
This event has ended.
One of the world's premier showcases for botanical art, this annual exhibition features the most important artists in the field, both established and emerging. Selected by jurors Patricia Jonas, Kathie Miranda, and Derek Norman from 198 submissions, the forty-one artworks on view were created by artists from the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, Australia, Brazil, and Canada.
In this year's exhibition, familiar plant life is displayed along with strange and interesting exotics in a broad range of media and styles. Milly Acharya's intensely detailed and composed watercolor of "Sour Cherry" in flower and fruit contrasts with a hand-colored etching of an apple tree branch with a single ripening fruit by Bobbi Angell. A surreal egg tempera painting of a Floribunda Rose suspended in space by Patricia Mahoney Giebutowski graces the cover of the exhibition catalog and is a counterpoint to the elegant "Tamora Rose," painted on natural vellum in watercolor by Karen Kluglein. An ink drawing of a Crested Myrtillo cactus by Joan McGann is otherworldly, stripped of it's context and barely recognizable as a plant, whereas Ann Fleming's Mesa Verde Cactus is shown in its natural environment.
Autumnal subjects are always a favorite in this exhibition and dried seed heads are captured by several artists in watercolor: Kathy Folino's wind-tossed Bulrush; Dick Rauh's large-scale examination of muscular Peony follicles; George Olson's graphic rendering of Broomcorn; and Barbara Klaas's dynamic drawing of Curly Dock. In what is a clear highlight of the exhibition, Heeyoung Kim's watercolor of Indian Hemp beautifully depicts the plant's feathery seeds in exquisite detail.
Additional highlights include Fiona Strickland's watercolor painting of a blooming poppy and Lizzie Sanders' "Nepenthes." Strickland utilizes a striking color palette to capture that moment of anticipation before the poppy bursts into full flower. Sanders bravely tackles the difficult subject of the tropical pitcher plant, which is seldom painted, especially in its dried form. For the risk, she has achieved a stunning image, the heft of the trap borne by the springlike tendril of the leaf.
[Image: Milly Acharya "Sour Cherry, Prunus cerasus" watercolor on paper 15 x 11 in.]
Media
Schedule
from September 22, 2011 to November 23, 2011
Opening Reception on 2011-09-21 from 18:00 to 20:00