Realism is at the very foundation of botanical art. Ours is an informative genre committed to scientific accuracy with a high degree of detail. Anything less and it’s not botanical art. It’s inescapable. And the fact that it has to be achieved working with the...
It was at an exhibition in 1998 at London’s Tryon Gallery that I first saw Alexander (Sasha) Viazmensky’s mushroom paintings. Aside from the overall quality of the renderings, two things struck me—the less-than-perfect specimens and the seemingly random placement of...
It’s a question that could be mistaken for the beginning of a bad joke . . . What do an Australian botanical artist, a Welsh botanical artist, a Russian botanical artist, an American botanical artist, and a Canadian botanical artist have in common? The answer is,...
Giovanni Cera’s geometric drawing of a quince bud. Giovanni Cera of Florence is a retired architect and botanical artist who sometimes goes by the English moniker he has adopted, Johnny Wax—a direct translation of his Italian name. I first made contact with...
The banner on the land-on page of my botanical art educational website is my painting of Armillaria mushrooms. Placing it there was a conscious decision and, inevitably, has prompted questions. “Are you aware, Margaret, that fungi are not classified as plants?” and...
