What is Botanical Art?
Botanical Art ist a form of art, that concentrates on the depiction of plants and their respective characteristics.
It has a very long history, that dates back to even antique civilisations. Already thousands of years ago people drew and painted plants because of their beauty, their symbolic power but also to document their knowledge about those plants.
In this article however, I don´t wanna go that deep into history. My aim in this article is to highlight the different styles of Botanical Art, that you can find nowadays.
You´ve probably heard of terms such as "Botanical Illustration", "Botanical Painting", "Botanical Sketching", or something similar. All of them are related to botany and art, but are they all the same?
The short answer is no. (But you probably already guessed that, right?)
Today, you´ll learn how Botanical Art can be divided into several subcategories and why this classification is useful for you to know, or why you can simply ignore it altogether.
Important note! There are, of course, other art forms that deal with plants. However, this article focuses exclusively on drawing and painting botanical subjects.
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Let's bring in some clarity now
When I started getting interested in Botanical Art, I have to admit, that I confused all sorts of terms without thinking further about it.
My perception was quite simple:
If someone illustrates/paints/draws a plant, it is a botanical illustration/painting/drawing.
Well, not quite right. Because contemporary Botanical Art is a distinct genre, in which these terminologies actually have different meanings.
How important these terms are to you specifically, of course depends on the environment in which you move with your Botanical Art and what you are interested in at all.
If you wanna dive deeper into classical Botanical Art specifically, as it is maintained by numerous societies for Botanical Art (e.g. Association of Botanical Artists), you can orient yourself to the following categories.
3 terms you should remember…
Botanical Illustration / Scientific Illustration
In classical Botanical Illustration the artworks are made from living plants or plants from herbaria, as far as possible.
In Botanical Illustration, the main focus is on the scientific and botanically correct representation of a plant for the purpose of identification.
Typical of this is the representation of all relevant characteristics of the plant (leaves, flowers, fruits, seeds, etc.), including its life cycle.
The artist can particularly highlight specific characteristics of a species and thus make them clearer for the viewer. In contrast, a photo can often be unclear for the viewer and leaves room for interpretation, which can become an obstacle for the precise identification of plants.
Most Botanical Illustrations are monochrome, i.e. drawn either with ink or digitally. However, there are also coloured representations.
Botanical Illustration and Scientific Illustration are often equated.
I personally wouln´t see it this way in general. The purpose of representing all relevant characteristics isn´t always scientific, but is simply created for the sake of joy.
Botanical Painting
The aim of botanical painting is also to provide a scientifically and botanically correct representation of the plant, which however is not necessarily shown in its entirety.
The emphasis here is more on the aesthetic value of depicting a plant, and the artist takes the liberty of presenting the plant in a particularly appealing light.
Very often, these works are executed in colour.
A good example of this category are the works of the renowned artist Billy Showell.
Flower Painting / Plant Portraits
When it comes to this type of painting, the main focus is on the aesthetic beauty of the work, rather than the botanical accuracy of the rendering.
This means that the style can be more impressionistic and the colours or proportions can deviate from the real plant. Creating a representation for scientific or educational purposes is not the goal.
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Commonly used media
Botanical Art encompasses a variety of techniques and media used to depict plants.
One of the oldest techniques is pencil drawing, which allows for capturing fine details and shading precisely. This technique is often used for botanical sketches and preliminary studies to plan the composition and arrangement of the plants on paper. Nevertheless pencil, also called graphite, is used for autonomous artworks as well.
Watercolours are a transparent medium and allow the artist to apply layers of colour to depict the vibrant colours and textures of plants. Watercolours are well-suited for depicting flowers, leaves, and other organic elements in nature. However, it is also one of the most challenging media to learn.
Coloured pencil drawings have become more and more common. This is not the kind of coloured pencils known from school days. Highly pigmented and high-quality artist pencils are used. There is even a water-soluble version of them available.
Fineliners, ink, and pen are used to create botanical drawings, too. Black or dark brown/sepia are very often used, but one can also find works in grey or occasionally in a different colour.
Oil, gouache, acrylic, and tempera are common media in botanical painting as well. However, I haven´t explored these media myself, yet.
Summary
Ultimately, there is no definite “right” or “wrong”.
If you are outside of societies for Botanical Art, you will very well get along without precise definitions.
However, if you are specifically dealing with Botanical Art as a craft, wanna become (or are) a member of one of the many societies, or even wanna participate in exhibitions, it´ll be surely advantageous being able to distinguish the respective terms.
Even though there´ll always be a certain scope for interpretation of the definitions and mixed forms of it.
Thank you!
Thank you for taking the time to read this article!
I am thrilled that the topic of Botanical Art has found other interested readers.
I´d be overjoyed to welcome you back to my little corner of the internet in the future!
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