"15th Annual International American Society of Botanical Artists" Exhibition
The Horticultural Society of New York
This event has ended.
One of the world’s premier venues for botanical art, for 15 years this annual exhibition has showcased the most important artists in the genre alongside emerging artists. Chosen from a field of 192 submissions, the forty-three artworks selected by jurors Patricia Jonas, Kathie Miranda, and Derek Norman have been created by artists from the US, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, and the UK.
Within the genre, artists find a broad range of approaches, and each artist brings a unique interpretation to their subject. Hillary Parker zooms in on a single fern in her contemporary watercolor, Wooly Fern Fiddlehead. Maria Alice deRezende takes the long view of a Brazilian palm, showing the trunk and its full canopy, in her watercolor, Acai. Trees seem to be a favored subject this year, from Leah Kaizer’s Tasmanian Blue Gum arching gracefully into the picture plane, to a powerful hand-colored etching, Papaya, by Monika deVries Gohlke. Akiko Enokido’s sensuous Camellia is luminously painted in watercolor on natural vellum. Works on natural vellum are becoming more prevalent, with 10 artists choosing it as their material, and botanical art exhibitions are become the prime venue for seeing what mastery of this medium produces. Jean Emmons, one of today’s premier colorists, stretches it over panels for both of her paintings, Hyacinth II and Onion. Heirloom ‘Rome’ Apples are beautifully depicted in a non-traditional composition on vellum by Pamela Geer-Gordon. Also on vellum are a pair of flower details, painted in watercolor by Australian Beverly Allen, who brings to life the rich coloration and velvety and glossy textures of Old Port Magnolia and Upside-down Orchid.
A stunning minimalist composition displays two Prickly Pear Fruits in watercolor by Asuka Hishiki, to be contrasted with Wendy Hollender’s colored pencil drawing of Red Burgundy Okra, a multi-faceted exploration of the plant and all its parts. George Olson’s autumnal and muscular version of Compass Plant stands in sharp relief to Heeyoung Kim’s delicately colored and drawn watercolor of the same subject. Another roadside plant, Common Mullein, was studied through the season and cropped to focus on the flowering tips and spring leaves in a watercolor painting by Betsy Rogers-Knox. Birch and Buckthorn are placed side by side in a watercolor by Mary Anne O’Malley, bringing out the blues in the birch bark alongside the blue buckthorn berries. A color catalog of the exhibition has been published and will be available for purchase at the exhibition and through ASBA’s website (below). Author Jack Kramer penned the introduction and Karen Kluglein’s Brassica oleracea, awatercolor on vellum, was chosen to illustrate the wraparound cover.
[Image: Monika E. deVries Gohlke "Papaya carica (detail), Papaya" hand-colored etching 24 x 18 in.]
Media
Schedule
from September 14, 2012 to November 21, 2012
Opening Reception on 2012-09-14 from 18:00 to 20:00