A Wealth of Botanical Art!
- elanorwexler
- Jul 3
- 8 min read
Updated: 4 days ago
Following on from Botanical Art Worldwide, we’ve been treated to two stunning botanical art exhibitions this summer. The SBA show ‘Plantae’ ran in late May/early June and displayed a wealth of talent at the Mall Galleries, London. Several ABA members won prizes (details in the article below). The RHS 'Botanical Art and Photography Show 2025' is currently running at the Saatchi Gallery in London until 27th July displaying the work of 15 botanical artists and 18 photographers, including ABA member Pauleen Trim who has had gold medal success.
In this post we’ll give you a little insight into the nature of each event, and some tips for how to enter in future years if interested.
Article by:
Elanor Wexler, botanical illustrator and ABA Committee and Education Team member
Dr Pam Taylor, botanist, botanical artist and ABA Committee and Education Team member.
SBA Plantae Exhibition 2025
Plantae is the Society of Botanical Artists major exhibition, which usually takes place every year either in a gallery or online. In recent years, the physical exhibition has been at the Mall Galleries in London. The show aims to exhibit works that “encompass the entire plant kingdom, with every art form included, from botanical art to illustration – in fact anything that has plants as the main subject”. Exhibitions - Society of Botanical Artists
Pam Taylor exhibited in SBA Plantae 2025 and attended the opening event:
The fortieth anniversary exhibition of the Society of Botanical Artists at the Mall Gallery in London ran from 30 May to 7 June. There were over 500 individual works, most of which were for sale, depicting the plant kingdom in all its diversity, and also a few fungi and even seaweeds. Contemporary botanical art embraces any botanically accurate depiction of plant material and I was impressed by the range of media represented. Yes, there were many beautiful traditional and more modern watercolour compositions, but coloured pencils, graphite, ink, oils, gouache and mixed media were all represented. There were small collections of plant inspired jewellery, paper collage and sculpture, and I was intrigued by several works in pyrography. This all made for the most diverse SBA exhibition ever, which was reflected in the range of awards and certificates given for the most outstanding pieces. Full details of the prize winners and the beautifully produced catalogue, which has images of most of the pictures, can be viewed at the SBA website.
The collaboration between the Rhododendron, Camellia & Magnolia Group of the RHS and the SBA, with a competition for members illustrating these genera, produced a shortlist of 12 paintings which were hung together in the north gallery, making a beautiful themed exhibit in the central part of this gallery.
In 2024 SBA fellows were invited to apply to be involved in a collaboration with the National Trust to produce a Florilegium at Munstead Wood (the home of Gertrude Jekyll), and it was interesting to see the first paintings that had been done for this, alongside a small selection of paintings from the Chelsea Physic Garden Florilegium, which celebrates its thirtieth anniversary this year. These were in the east gallery alongside a fascinating display of work, with the tutors’ comments, by the students from the SBA diploma courses.
Somehow the airiness of the gallery and the way the exhibition was arranged meant that, although it was impossible to take in every artwork, it was not overwhelming. In both the north and west galleries the pictures were loosely arranged according to subject. Food plants were in one area, and it was interesting how many of these were rendered in coloured pencil. Another wall had paintings and drawings of trees ranging from leaves and seeds to depictions of the whole tree, and the end wall of the west gallery had a delightful collection of mixed media works. I was also impressed by the paintings and collages on black or dark backgrounds, which took inspiration from the Dutch flower painters and Mrs Delaney, showing how contemporary botanical artists seek inspiration from the past as well as the present, which keeps the genre alive and vibrant.
Limiting the size of the pictures meant that areas were not dominated by a single work and, considering that this was a selling exhibition, meant most of the artworks would fit comfortably into a modern home. The SBA are to be congratulated on a wonderful exhibition to mark their ruby anniversary.
Congratulations to the following ABA members for winning prizes at Plantae this year:
John Waterman Awards judged by Helen Allen and Rachel Sherwood, 3rd prize to Toni Dade for ‘Much Weathered Nicolai’
Chelsea Physic Garden Florilegium Society Award judged by Katherine Tyrrell and Emma Van Klaveren, went to Sarah Gardner for ‘Natural Mandala’
Coloured Pencil Shop award to Caroline Buckley for ‘Malus vernalis’
St. Cuthberts Mill – Best use of paper in watercolour, Liudmyla Spodin for ‘Physalis: Autumn Lantern’
Certificates of Botanical Merit – CBM’s judged by Lucy T Smith
Alison Barter for Malus ‘Golden Hornet’
Christina Hart Davies for Yonder Cowleaze Lichens
Lesia Zaitseva for Taxus baccata
Exhibiting Excellence Awards
Best Graphite – Marie Friman for ‘Flint corn Yellow’
Ink – Valeria Brambilla for ‘Chestnut Tree’
Ink – Pamela Taylor for 'Wych Elm'
RHS Botanical Art and Photography Show 2025
The RHS show is an annual exhibition intended to showcase excellence in botanical art and photography. Selected artists and photographers exhibit a set of artworks which are then judged and awarded medals using the same gradings as the RHS Chelsea Flower Show – Gold, Silver-Gilt, Silver and Bronze. The fantastic news this year is that the exhibition has free entry, really opening it up to a wider audience.
Elanor Wexler was lucky enough to attend the opening night of the exhibition:
The setting is the Saatchi Gallery in London – a large, open gallery which has a sense of space and prestige. This year’s show featured the work of 15 artists arranged over 2 rooms, as well as a room featuring 18 photographers.
This is an exhibition that can take years to prepare for and this is evident from the high standard of the work displayed. To be eligible to exhibit you submit samples of your artwork to a panel at the RHS, and if accepted, you have a period of 5 years in which you may be able to exhibit at the show. Each artist exhibits 6 artworks on their chosen theme and provides a synopsis to explain their project. This is one of the things that makes this exhibition particularly engaging – as a visitor you are seeing the results of extensive research and personal interest on the part of the artists.
Themes this year were wide ranging and the exhibition was truly international with artists from Asia, North America, Africa, Australasia and Europe represented. Several artists focussed on rare and endangered species with some projects clearly having some amazing stories behind them, for example, Julie Ah-Fa’s project ‘Endemic Dombeyoideae of Reunion Island’ – a remote island in the India Ocean, or Kyoko Uchiyama’s exhibit ‘Ohga Lotus Cultivated from a Seed after 2000 Years’ Slumber’.
Some artists touched on environmental issues or disease, and crop diversity also came up as a theme. The RHS show really allows botanical artists to have a focus for pursuing their areas of research and interest, and to make that link between botanical art and our knowledge and understanding of plant species at this moment in time.
ABA member Pauleen Trim received a gold medal for her project ‘A Year in the Life of Six UK Native Deciduous Trees and their Galls. Her botanical illustrations show an amazing level of detail about each species and are beautifully composed.
Well done to Pauleen on her gold medal success!
In terms of media used, most of the artwork was produced using watercolour, with some use of graphite and tempera. As always, I really enjoyed seeing the artist’s individual styles coming through despite the fact that they are using the same medium as each other. A sample of each artists work can be seen on this site: Botanical art entries | RHS Botanical Art and Photography Show 2025 / RHS.
Similarly to the SBA show, a section of the RHS exhibition focussed on archival material. Copies of the work of Miss Lilian Snelling (1879-1972) was on display, originals being held at the RHS Lindley Library. This gave a fascinating insight into the career of a botanical illustrator producing plates for Curtis Magazine at a time when printing techniques employed the use of colourists.
Interested in entering future exhibitions?
SBA Plantae
Plantae is an open exhibition. The physical exhibition at The Mall Galleries is biennial with an online exhibition held in the intervening year. The beauty of this exhibition is that it really is down to you what you enter – if you enjoy using an unusual medium or want to take a slightly different approach with your work, this can still be open to you! The exhibition aims to celebrate the plant kingdom and the many ways artists can interpret this, whilst still showing botanical details accurately.
Artists actively sell work at this event – there were many red stickers on work when I visited! Many artists submit a single artwork but this year you were allowed to enter up to 6 pieces, and you simply pay a fee per entry (around £20 to £25 depending on if you are an SBA member), and then a range of 35 to 50% commission if you sell your art. Submitted artwork is assessed before being accepted into the exhibition to ensure it meets the standard required. More information here https://www.soc-botanical-artists.org/exhibitions/information/
There are a wide range of prizes on offer from both the SBA and partner organisations. In addition to the exhibition, the SBA also produce a beautiful catalogue featuring all artworks in the exhibition and short artist biographies.
RHS Botanical Art and Photography Show
The RHS show really is a fantastic chance to showcase your work and build up a portfolio, and to exhibit in a very prestigious gallery. Many botanical artists have benefitted from exhibiting at the RHS show, raising their profile through the publicity and reputation of the event.
To be eligible to exhibit you have to submit samples of your artwork to a panel at the RHS, and if accepted, you have a period of 5 years in which you may be able to exhibit at the show. The RHS provide detailed guidance on how to apply for this exhibition: RHS - RHS Botanical Art & Photography Show Artist Factsheet 2025 - Page 1
Your artworks need to be on a theme (of your own choice), and must show botanical accuracy. This is an exhibition that can take years to prepare for. Artists are strongly advised to work from live specimens and one of the criteria is that ‘paintings directly copied from photographs are not acceptable’.
If this is something you might aspire to, we’d recommend visiting the current exhibition to see where the artworks will be exhibited – the Saatchi Gallery is a lovely open space with large white walls. Each artist has around 5 metres of wall space for their exhibit. In terms of general impression, smaller artworks can be a little lost in the space against those exhibits with higher impact. However, size of the artworks is not part of the judging criteria.
Artwork is not put up for sale at the RHS exhibition. Artists can sell the work but this is arranged privately as it is not the aim of the exhibition. It is worth noting that some of the highest quality work is regularly added to the RHS Lindley Collections.
