Botanical Art Worldwide 2025
Australia
Bountiful Botanicals: A Botanical Art Worldwide exhibition
About
The second Botanical Art Worldwide Project will focus on and celebrate biodiversity in the crops that have been closely associated with the human species over thousands of years. The theme is designed to draw attention to the vast variety of food and useful plants available, in contrast with the relatively few varieties currently used in mass cultivation. Plants eligible for inclusion are those cultivated for food, textiles, building, energy, and medicine.
Edstein, Melinda - Brachychiton acerifolia - flame tree LR
For tens of thousands of years, the First Nations people of Australia have paid close attention to their environments, developing profound knowledge about the bounty of plants on their country. For Aboriginal people, plants were their foods, medicines, tools and technology. They painted things of the earth, using the earth itself. Native plants have sustained Indigenous communities for centuries, providing essential sustenance and cultural significance.
Ansellin, Annick - Pepperberry LR
Honouring this knowledge, the Botanical Art Society of Australia has focused on First Nations' uses of plants in Australia in this next Botanical Art Worldwide exhibition of botanical art, 'Bountiful Botanicals'. We have chosen to focus on botanical art pieces showcasing the beauty and cultural significance of native plant species that are Bush Foods, Medicinal and Utilitarian Plants.
Moon, Helen - Lomandra LR
organizers
Botanical Art Society of Australia
Exhibition Venue
Belco Arts, 118 Emu Bank, Belconnen, ACT
Exhibition Dates
28 March to 18 May 2025
Botanical Art Worldwide 2018
Flora of Australia
About this Exhibition
Organized by the Botanical Art Society of Australia, Australia’s exhibition will be held in Ainslie Arts Centre, Canberra. The exhibition will be open May 18 - May 27, 2018, 10am - 4pm daily.
Entries were solicited from botanical artists across Australia and eventually one hundred and nine works were chosen to hang in the exhibition. From this group forty works have been selected to be sent digitally around the world for viewing in the other participating countries. These have been chosen to showcase both the talent of our botanical artists and the diversity of our native flora.
Jurors for the exhibition were renowned botanical artists Beverly Allen, Leonie Norton, and Jenny Phillips and botanist David Albrecht. Further information can be found on BASA’s website at: https://www.botanicalartsocietyaustralia.com/
two artworks included in the exhibition
Pararchidendron pruinosum occurs in coastal areas and adjacent islands along watercourses from northern Queensland to the Illawarra district in New South Wales. It is usually a tree to about 15 metres. Leaves are divided into 5 to 11 leaflets each 2-8 mm wide by 15-25mm long. The small flowers are seen in summer and are clustered into globular heads in the leaf axils occurring on long stalks. The colour is greenish white, turning yellow with age. Flowers are followed by large flattened seed pods which curl after opening.
Pararchidendron pruinosum seed pod, watercolor on paper, ©Susannah Blaxill
Banksia serrata, watercolor on paper, ©David Reynolds
A group of artists at work in Jenny Phillips’ Botanical Art School of Melbourne.
Banksia serrata is a character filled small to medium tree with leathery serrated leaves and creamy yellow to brown large flowers in summer. The flowers are followed by interesting seedpods, and the bark is lumpy and bumpy, both of which inspired May Gibbs ‘Big Bad Banksia Man’ stories. It naturally occurs on the east coast of Australia from southern Queensland to Victoria, plus northern Tasmania.
Photo courtesy Jenny Phillips
Organizers
Botanical Art Society of Australia
Steering Committee
Christine Cansfield-Smith
Sandra I’Anson
Thea Clark
exhibition Venue
Ainslie Arts Centre - Elouera Street, Braddon, Canberra
Photo Credit: Luke Fletcher Photography, courtesy Ainslie Arts Centre
Photo Credit: Elizabeth Curry, courtesy Ainslie Arts Centre
Location