Palmengarten – Monday week 2

November 4, 2014April 3, 2015 | Gaynor's Flora

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.

Artwork by Sheila Etchingham, Kath Baker and Eiko Takano,

Artwork by Gill Jelley, Jenny Jowett, Charlotte Linder and Maggie Fitzpatrick

The Palm house botanical art sales desk .

Palmengarten botanical art exhibition – second weekend

November 3, 2014April 3, 2015 | Gaynor's Flora

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.

Artwork by Hazel Rush and Penny Stenning,

Artwork by Sarah Wood, Sue Linton and Janine Walkky

Artwork by Yuriko Kojima, Janine Walkky and Gael Sellwood

We have deposits on 24 pictures.

Bosham Christmas Craft Trail, 28-30 November

November 2, 2014April 3, 2015 | Gaynor's Flora

There are many artists in Bosham, West Sussex and in previous years Jan Guest has hosted a weekend where many of us could display our artwork in one place. However, this has become so popular because it is not of the typical ‘arts and crafts’ quality to be found especially at Christmas. This also means that it has become too big. Therefore some of us have decided to form a Christmas Craft Trail within Bosham.

It is a craft trail as we all practice our art in different ways. Botanical art would be in the category of fine art, whereas many of the other artists form their works of art.

During the Bosham Christmas Craft Trail, and in the warmth of my home, I will be displaying some of my original work, prints both mounted and unmounted, cards and note pads. All are for sale, with larger works, ideal for that very special gift, down to smaller things for the unexpected extra.

Join me for the obligatory mince pie and mulled wine whilst you browse my work. I look forward to seeing you.

Gaynor Dickeson – Saltings, Windmill Field, PO18 8LH

Tel: 01243 573 405, email: gaynorsflora@mac.com

First week of the Palmengarten, Frankfurt exhibition

November 1, 2014April 3, 2015 | Gaynor's Flora

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.

Artwork by Kate Green, Sarah Wood & Lucille Carter

Last but not least, we now have deposits on 21 pictures of the pictures in the exhibition.

Saturday after Palmengarten opening

October 26, 2014April 3, 2015 | Gaynor's Flora

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.

Parked outside the hotel in Frankfurt & ready to leave.

Gloriosa sp. (Glory Lily) in Coloured pencil by Sue Henon

Brassica oleracea var. itlaica (Savoy Cabbage) in watercolour by Gaynor Dickeson

End of first day’s play!

October 24, 2014April 3, 2015 | Gaynor's Flora

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!

Opening day of the Palmengarten/ SBA botanical art exhibition.

October 24, 2014April 3, 2015 | Gaynor's Flora

Quickly rushing over the first part of the day except to say that Ian Coulson and Robin Dickeson quickly took over doing the finishing touches to all of the SBA pictures. They took on cleaning and polishing the glass for every single picture, straightened up the pictures, hid tags and hanging wires etc. additionally they hung all the framed information that told visitors about the SBA.

What did the rest do? We did all the other bits and pieces necessary to make sure the exhibition was ready for this evenings opening.

The opening went perfectly and a lot of people came to it. I won’t go into guest lists or speeches, but the emphasis definitely was on ‘what is botanical art and how is it done?’

I was really pleased to see other SBA members supporting the opening and even a botanical artist I had met at the Hunt Institute of Botanical Documentation in Pittsburgh, USA last year. This world is small!

Photos, including ones of the first pictures sold today.

First hanging day Palmengarten

October 21, 2014April 3, 2015 | Gaynor's Flora

I think that this evening we all look rather tired, but first of all the British hanging contingent want to thank the SBA member who treated us to a drink. We are all very grateful and overwhelmed by her very unexpected generosity.

But many will wonder how the day has gone. Here are a few of the pictures taken. Susan Christopher Coulson headed up the decision making hanging party, with Sandra Wall Armitage.

The rest of us were ‘hanging dogsbodies’. Our husbands, Ian, Ken and Robin; Sue Henon and a DLDC (distance learning course) student, Miriam Pampas; Jonas & Peter (both from Palmengarten); Pam Henderson (SBA); Renate Tessmar-Leonardy (friend of Palmengarten and lover of Camellias) and her husband (lover of Fuchsias) and of course Karin Wittstock from Palmengarten who was involved with the Palmengarten/ SBA initiative from the word go.

We have not quite finished placing all the pictures yet, but had to stop today for fear of falling off ladders!

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Day before the journey to Frankfurt’s Palmengarten

October 18, 2014April 3, 2015 | Gaynor's Flora

My last blog mentioned that the botanical art exhibition at Palmengarten is now less than a week away. Each day that comes I think that I might get a little painting in before we go – but no such luck. I will show you a couple more pictures from the pen and ink drawing of Bear’s britches progression though.

I thought I had all the paperwork for Palmengarten clear in relevant folders etc, but then the cat jumped up onto the keyboard and knocked my tea all over the paperwork and the printing paper. That took a couple of hours to reprint it all as well as clear up the mess.

But today, my husband Robin got up early, gave me a cup of tea in bed and then took the train to Portsmouth to collect a van for our trip to Frankfurt. It is quite a large van, but he thinks we will be comfortable enough during the long journey, although it doesn’t seem to have all the mod cons one might expect/ wish for.

So we checked all the paintings etc against the spreadsheet I had done and loaded everything onto the van. Robin fastened everything securely and one of the cats, Fudge, inspected the lot to see that we had done it properly. His black and white brother (guess what his name is) inspected the suddenly empty spare bedrooms. They will be having a strict cat-sitter for the duration!

A good night’s sleep tonight and tomorrow we will be on our way to Kent to pick up the other half of paintings.