Viewpoint — (not your usual blog)
This is my botanical art blog. Here you will find posts on technical and administrative topics of interest to botanical artists. Please feel free to comment or drop me a line via my Contact page. If you’d like to know more about my work please visit my portfolio site.
An artist’s worst nightmare—a painting lost in transit
Every time I hand a painting to a courier I do so with trepidation. This week my trepidation was justified. I shipped my painting for the ASBA's Abundant Future exhibition with FedEx Express. En route from my home in Chester Basin, Nova Scotia to The New York...
Don’t leave home without them
A small sketch book, mechanical pencil, and eraser. These are essential travelling or out-and-about companions for any botanical artist. You know what's going to happen on that one occasion that you don't have them handy—you'll come across that unusual flower,...
Exhibiting abroad—a story about why you should do your homework!
The invitation: I received an invitation to exhibit in an international botanical art exhibition. I felt flattered. And I readily agreed to participate. Exhibiting abroad is an enticing proposition. I'd exhibited outside Canada before in Bermuda, the US, the UK,...
When is sharp sharp enough?
From left to right: sandpaper block from Faber-Castell; wooden pencil sharpened in the regular way; sharpened mechanical pencil; pencil sharpener; wooden pencil with half inch of graphite exposed; Exacto knife for shaving the wood off the pencil. When I'm working in...
Remembering Pandora Sellars
It has been four years since Tuesday, 9th May 2017, a sad day in the long history of botanical art. For it was on that day that Pandora Sellars passed away. In 2011, I posted the article below, Spotlight on Pandora Sellars. At the time I quoted from the catalogue of...