Society of Botanical Art (SBA)
Society of Floral Painters (SFP)
Den Norske Forening for Botaniske Kunstner (DNFBK)
Institute for Analytical Plant Illustration (IAPI)
Royal Horticultural Society (RHS)
We haven’t heard anything from Sue today and hope that she is safely ensconced in the hotel in Frankfurt.
I have been marking assignments for LAC all day and I am still only halfway through them. But people have put so much work into their assignments that they deserve good feedback to move onwards.
More pictures. I gather that they are of great interest, hopefully not only to botanical artists. It would be lovely to get more people in the detail of what is our everyday.
Early this morning I heard from Sue Henon at Palmengarten, that yesterday evening until very late, she was getting in touch with loads of hotels in Frankfurt to try and find an affordable one for the duration of the strike. Apparently, as many people were out on the same quest, hotel prices were escalating rapidly. Eventually she found one in an area that wasn’t the best (every city has one), which she could afford. Hopefully it will be comfortable.
Sue tells me that the strike starts at 02:00 and lasts until 02:00 Monday morning. You may remember she takes her one day a week break on Monday, but luckily she has managed to get a lift home on Sunday evening after the exhibition closes for the day.
But as Sue will not be going home and won’t have access to a computer, I doubt that we will have any updates about the exhibition until Sunday evening at the earliest. However, if I get any news I will post it. In the meantime I intend to continue with posting the pictures I have from the exhibition.
On a personal note, today I had my normal weekly class. I am so lucky as there are six students who get on so well together. Four of them use watercolour and two coloured pencil. I do enjoy the class and their involvement in it.
This afternoon I have been marking assignments. I’m afraid that I haven’t got very far as the first two were completing the course. I therefore feel it, important to give a very full feedback so that they can continue working on their own. But if I can get more people interested in botanical art- so much the better.
Now the pictures. I wonder how many actually read what I have written, or just go through the pictures?
![Artwork by Sarah Caswell (sorry I didn't hold the camera [ or me ]very straight!)](https://gaynorsflora.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/image28.jpg)
It has apparently been a good day at the botanical art exhibition in the botanical gardens of Frankfurt, Palmengarten. They have had quite a few visitors there, interested in both the beautiful gardens and the exhibition.
But tomorrow Sue Henon who is manning the exhibition there will have her life made even more complicated.
Apparently there is to be a week long strike of the railways, starting in the evening. This means that she is now in search of somewhere to stay for the rest of the week as there is no other way in which she can get home tomorrow night and back again to the exhibition. But as she quite rightly says, her problem is no different to everyone else’s who travels into the city by train.
As a fellow member of the SBA I am hugely grateful to her for what she is doing for the society and for me as an individual; I too have some paintings in the exhibition.
Today I have been putting together some designs for new cards and downloading assignments ready to start marking after I have finished teaching my weekly class tomorrow (today actually!). Unfortunately the trip to Germany has left me a little behind with that work. As botanical art tutor for the London College of Art (LAC) I am really pleased to see that there seems to be an increase in interest for learning to paint botanically.
More pictures from the exhibition. Some of the artwork looks as though it isn’t hanging straight in the photos. But unfortunately it was me not hanging straight when I took the pictures!
A total of 26 pictures now have red dots on them.
Very little to write about the Palmengarten botanical art exhibition today. This is Sue Henon’s one day off in the week, but she has been catching up on her admin work that has accumulated over the previous week. In the meantime the exhibition has continued, attracting a lot of interest.
I too have been busy at home also trying to catch up on accumulated work. I haven’t been back to the easel since I returned from Frankfurt and as I still get a lot of queries regarding Palmengarten, I can’t see me getting on top of things to carry on with my own work, for a few days yet.
But more pictures, I here you say.
Sue Henon our SBA member in Germany, has been ably manning the exhibition at Palmengarten, Frankfurt’s botanical gardens. She has been there every day and will do so every day except Monday’s until the exhibition ends. They have been very long days for her as she doesn’t actually live in Frankfurt but has to travel in on a daily basis. The SBA is hugely lucky to have her there and willing to give up a solid month of her time for us. This of course excludes all that she has done in the months leading up to the exhibition, that she will use in breaking down the exhibition and overseeing that pictures get safely into the right hands – buyers and artists.
During the exhibition, Sue, together with a botanist from the gardens, is giving some tours and talks about the pictures. The botanist of course talks about the topic of the exhibition, poisionous and medicinal plants, in relation to the pictures that are exhibited there. Sue talks about the botanical art, the different types of medium that the artists have used in their pictures and how It is applied. She also discusses the history of botanical art In Germany.
I understand from various quarters that these talks are enthusiastically received. I am told that the visiting public have appreciated getting a better understanding of botanical art and afterwards look a lot more closely at the pictures.
But, I think you are more interested in seeing some more of the artwork that is in the exhibition. I notice that yesterday one of the pictures fell out of the blog for some reason. I had also wanted to give you a better idea of the botanical art in situ in the Palmhouse. It is a beautiful area for exhibiting these pictures.
We have deposits on 24 pictures.
This week we have had visitors at home, therefore I have done little work. However, now it is catch-up time.
I have been sorting through some of the over 450 photograp
hs Robin and I took leading up to the trip out to Germany, the exhibition hanging activity, what the exhibition looks like, the opening and home
again. I thought that you might like to see some of the photographs from the exhibition itself and I will try to post some fairly regularly for you to see.
Last but not least, we now have deposits on 21 pictures of the pictures in the exhibition.
The van was returned to Portsmouth, but this time trains didn’t connect, so I followed Robin in the car. Our drive now only contains our car. The bedrooms are reclaimed, the mess has yet to be cleared up – until we get unsold pics back in a months time.
Up until close of play yesterday, 17 deposits have been made on botanical art pictures painted by SBA members and associate members. Although not necessarily photos of the pictures mentioned above, I am attaching some photos of pictures from the exhibition as they hang in the Palm House at Palmengarten.
Please enjoy.
I am writing this on Sunday as by the time we got home last night I was thoroughly exhausted. We spent 13 hours travelling between Frankfurt and our home in Bosham. We were in an empty van – except for suitcases and some bubble wrap. I didn’t feel 100% when we started, but I could not understand why I was getting worse during the journey – until we put two and two together.
Robin and I were obviously very tired as a result of the hard physical work last week, but as the van was empty it was rolling around a lot. It is not like me to not to want to eat, and Robin wasn’t much better either although he was doing the driving and holding onto the wheel all the time. For any of you who picked up the tweet yesterday, I took one picture of the foggy driving conditions. It was not a nice journey.
However, whilst on the road I did get a message that we had three further deposits for pictures yesterday. That I felt was brilliant news. Today I picked up a message on the SBA Facebook page that someone there had seen a German newspaper with information about the exhibition from the 76 SBA artists and mentioning in particular two of the pictures.
I am going to attach five pictures here. Three about the journey home and both pictures mentioned in the German newspaper yesterday.
I am very happy to say that by the end of the exhibition’s first day at Palmengarten, we’ve taken a deposit for 10 pictures!
I am really pleased about this. All the months of organising, receiving botanical art pictures, delivering and hanging them in Palmengarten’s Palm house, has really resulted in a lovely exhibition. Already a lot of people have been to see it and have been duly impressed. Congratulations to all the artists and others who helped to make it happen.
The exhibition of SBA members and associate members paintings will be on in Palmengarten for a further month. Therefore if you have the opportunity, please go and see it.
Our SBA member living in Germany will be manning the exhibition throughout and we all owe her a debt of thanks for giving up so much of her time for the benefit of our members.
Robin and I are driving back home with the van tomorrow. Hopefully it will be uneventful. The weather will certainly not be like it was a week ago when we had 26 degrees. Today it was down to 12 degrees. We are definitely into Autumn.
One of the things that I regret this time, is that the hanging team were so busy hanging and organising the exhibition overall, that we didn’t even get time to walk round the gardens in daylight – as we have done on previous occasions. But, hopefully we will get more opportunities in two years time.
Finally, a picture of Karin Wittstock, Sue Henon and Me( with Robin behind the camera), about to put our feet up with a lovely cup of tea and a delicious German cake!
GAYNOR'S FLORA 