Congratulations to Angelina Cheong on being accepted as an SBA Fellow
Angelina Cheong ’s application for the Society of Botanical Artists (SBA) Fellow Membership seemed like a natural progression after she completed the SBA DLDC16 in 2021 with a distinction.
SBA Fellowship is only awarded to artists who are consistently producing artwork of top quality that shows excellent artistry and observation, thus qualifying the artist to be among the best botanical artists from around the world.
The application is judged based on the artworks, the artist statement and the artist’s approach to botanical art as shared on their various social media accounts.
The five artworks Angelina submitted to SBA with her application showcased some of the different mediums that she works in - pen & ink, graphite, watercolour and silverpoint.
Angelina feels humbly honoured to have been accepted, and hopes to achieve much, much more as a botanical artist.
She joins BASS members Sunanda Widel and Deborah Montgomerie who are also SBA Fellows.
Flora of Southeast Asia
The official opening event for Flora of Southeast Asia held on 18th November, 2022 was well attended by distinguished guests from NParks and from the embassies of Indonesia, Thailand and Philippines along with some artists from the four botanical art societies. The guests were given a tour of the exhibition by members and also attended live demonstrations by an artist each from Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand.
On 19th November, we held an artist's reception and awards ceremony. 23 awards in various categories were handed out in total. The networking session held thereafter was lively with more than 100 artists from the four societies mingling and enjoying light refreshments.
There was a guided tour of the SBG Herbarium, several live painting demonstrations and workshops specially organised for the event.
Award Winners in Flora of Southeast Asia
The Flora of Southeast Asia was juried by a team of 12 judges who were picked from each of the 4 participating countries. They were experienced botanical artists and botanists who carefully judged and scored the entries based on scientific accuracy, artistic merit, media mastery and overall impact.
A total of 23 award winners were selected in the following categories:
Best of Show
Certificate of Botanical Accuracy
Certificate of Artistic Merit
Certificate of Media Mastery - Watercolour
Certificate of Media Mastery - Acrylic
Certificate of Media Mastery - Colour Pencil
Certificate of Media Mastery - Graphite
Certificate of Media Mastery - Pen & Ink
You can see the list of award winners here
L to R: Best of Show winners Teo Nam Siang, Dianne Sutherland and Deinitisa Amarawi receiving their awards from Carrie-Ann Lee
Best of Show Artworks
Dianne Sutherland, Botanical Art Society (Singapore)
Stelechocarpus burahol (Blume) Hook.f. & Thomson
Nam Siang Teo, Botanical Art Society (Singapore)
Hydnophytum formicarum Jack
Deinitisa Amarawi, Indonesian Society of Botanical Artists
Sterculia oblongata R.Br.
Mieko Ishikawa wins the first Shirley Sherwood Award and the first Jessica Tcherepnine Lifetime Achievement Award!
We congratulate our society member Mieko Ishikawa on being selected the winner of the first Shirley Sherwood Award for Botanical Art on 21 May 2022.
The Shirley Sherwood Award for Botanical Art is given to one artist each year who has made a significant and broad contribution to the field of botanical art.
The main focus of Mieko’s art is on Japanese cherry blossoms and plants of the Borneo rainforests. She has been practising her artistry for over 30 years and runs her own Botanical Art Studio in Tokyo.
Mieko’s works can be found in the Hunt Institute, the Shirley Sherwood collection, RHS Lindley Library, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and the Highgrove Florilegium of His Majesty King Charles III. In 2006 she was awarded the gold medal by the RHS and in 2017 received the Diane Bouchier Artist Award for Excellence in Botanical Art.
Mieko also won the first Jessica Tcherepnine Lifetime Achievement Award from ASBA on 22 October 2022.
Jessica Tcherepnine made a major contribution to botanical art and she passed away in 2018. The following year, 2019, the Jessica Tcherepnine Lifetime Achievement Award was newly established, but no winner was announced until Mieko became the first recipient of the Award in 2022.
It was announced at the Banquet on the final day of the ASBA conference, in which Mieko participated via Zoom.
Mieko joined our society in 2022 and two of her paintings are on display in the ongoing Flora of Southeast Asia exhibition at Botanical Art Gallery, Singapore Botanic Gardens.
The Straits Times, 1 December 2022
The Flora of Southeast Asia exhibition was covered by the Straits Times newspaper in its LIFE section. Read the article to know what our members Seey Seey Leong and Teo Nam Siang said about their botanical art practice.
Channel 8 TV feature: 狮城有约 'Hello Singapore'
27 May, 2022
Mediacorp Channel 8 TV did a feature about the Society on their 'Hello Singapore' program.
Our members Ai Hwa Goh and Nam Siang Teo spoke about their inspiration for creating botanical art and how it is a fine balance between art and science.
Society President, Carrie-Ann Lee discussed the history of botanical art and shared about the Society's goal to bring more awareness and recognition to the art and artists from Singapore.
The Straits Times, 15 November 2021
The Straits Times team did an amazing job with this article about the Society! They accompanied a group of members sketching at the Singapore Botanical Gardens and even came to a workshop we were giving to find out all about what we do! Make sure to watch the accompanying video.
Lyssa zampa
Nature Art Lab Online Exhibition, Canberra, Australia
Society Member Ai Hwa Goh will have her watercolour of a Lyssa zampa moth in the Nature Art Lab Annual Exhibition. The exhibition will also be online 2-20 December, 2021.
ASBA Dare to be Square
Society Member Kelly Bassett has a coloured pencil drawing showing in the American Society of Botanical Artists' Dare to be Square non-juried exhibition, in conjunction with their annual conference. To see all the artwork, click on the link below.
Bulbophyllum bicolor
September 2021: American Society of Botanical Artists and Marin Art & Garden Center, USA
24th Annual International Exhibition
Society Member Sunanda Verma Widel's watercolour painting of the Bulbophyllum Orchid is on display from 19th September - 28th November, 2021 at the Marin Art & Garden Centre for ASBA's 24th Annual International Exhibition. Only 45 artworks from a record number of 260 entries were selected. Artists selected come from the US, Australia, Canada, France, Japan, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, and the UK.
Click on the link below and then select 'The Art' tab on the page to see all entries in the show.
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh
Certificate in Botanical Illustration
Society Member Constance Zhao completed the RBGE CBI course and was awarded a Distinction!
Her final watercolour painting of the Hibiscus rosa-sinensis shows a branch with leaves, an orange flower and buds along with a dissection of its reproductive elements in graphite.
Photo courtesy of Singapore Botanic Gardens
Article in Gardenwise
Workshop in collaboration with Singapore Botanic Gardens highlighted in Gardenwise magazine
Earlier this year, the Society conducted a watercolour workshop in collaboration with the Singapore Botanic Gardens’ Education Branch.
Held at the Gardens, Society Member Debbie Teo guided the participants through the steps of painting a leaf of the Calathea ‘Beauty Star’.
You can read more about this workshop in the article “Framing nature through photography and botanical art”, published in the latest issue of the Singapore Botanic Gardens’ magazine, Gardenwise.
Click button to download a copy of Gardenwise, Vol 57 (August 2021)
Exhibition
Botanical Illustrations by Society Member Waiwai Hove from the Garden of Miss Joaquim Collection
Singapore Botanic Gardens: People’s Gallery - Botany Centre (Tanglin Gate), Nassim Gate Visitor Centre and Botanic Gardens MRT Exit A (Bukit Timah Gate). 17 Aug to 17 Sept, 2021.
The collection showing was a commission by children’s book author, Linda Locke, who is the great-grandniece of Agnes Joaquim. It shows 44 botanical illustrations of fruits, flowers, plants, spices, and vegetables, commonly grown by horticulturists, and submitted to flower shows in the 19th century. These plants are believed to be the likely species that Agnes Joaquim grew and garnered awards for in the annual Flower Shows.
Book Publication
Tropical Plants in Focus
Botanical Illustration at the Singapore Botanic Gardens
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh
Certificate in Botanical Illustration
Society Member Ai Hwa was recently awarded the RBGE CBI with Distinction! Shown here is her final watercolour project depicting Hibiscus rosa-sinensis - showing the leaves, flower and bud, along with a dissection of its reproductive elements.
June 2021: Plantae Exhibition, Society of Botanical Artists, UK
Two of our member's artworks are showing this year at the SBA's Plantae. This annual exhibition showcases the work of SBA Fellows & Foundation members, along with a selection of work from students on the SBA’s diploma course.
June 2021: Margaret Flockton Exhibition, Sydney Australia
Two of our member's artworks were chosen to show at the Margaret Flockton Exhibition. This prestigious yearly show is held by the Foundation and Friends of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney and gains submissions from the world's leading scientific botanical illustrators. The exhibition awards excellence in contemporary scientific botanical illustration, as distinct from botanical art.
Visit the exhibition online here: Margaret Flockton Award 2021
