Gold Success for ABA members at the RHS Botanical Art and Photography Show, 2026
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The RHS Botanical Art and Photography Show 2026 has now opened at the Saatchi Gallery, London, and we are delighted to share that three ABA members entered this year and all were awarded prestigious gold medals for their exhibits. Opening night was a chance for exhibitors to share their work with friends, family and like-minded artists. I was able to catch up with all three ABA members to find out more about their projects.
Article by: Elanor Wexler, botanical artist and ABA Committee and Education Team member
Mary Crabtree
Asclepias species: Milkweeds of the U.S. Great Plains Region
Mary chose to depict six of the native Milkweed species found in Central United States of America. Her work is simply stunning. Painted in watercolour on Vellum, it has a wonderful luminosity without being overstated.
The paintings have a traditional feel, and the attention to detail is inspiring. This is no surprise given that Mary has a scientific background, and she explained that she wanted to depict species that showed the wide variety of features Milkweed have; two species can look quite different to each other whilst functioning in a similar way. Mary grew her own specimens as well as observing the plants in their native habitat and took three years to complete the project.
Her interest in Milkweeds is linked to the fascinating life cycle and migration patterns of the Monarch Butterfly, whose larvae rely on this plant. As well as depicting each plant to show the stages of its development, over the series of paintings we see the Monarch butterfly in its adult, larval and pupae form. Mary’s project has a conservation message; as well as the pressures of habitat loss and climate change affecting Milkweeds and in turn Monarch butterflies, the introduction of non-native species (eg as garden plants) is affecting the migration patterns of the butterflies.
Mary had to ship her paintings over from America, and made the trip to London to be present at the opening night and to receive her judges feedback. She was thrilled to achieve a gold medal for this outstanding project.
Christiane Fashek
Raucous Glaucous: Lichens of Texas Hill Country 16x
As you enter the first room of the exhibition, your eyes are drawn to Christiane’s striking, large scale depictions of three lichen clusters on twigs, each drawn twice to show both wet and dry forms.
Scientifically, lichens are identified when in their dry (glaucous) form, but there is less data and recording of them when wet (raucous), sparking Christiane’s interest in filling ‘a gap in available data’.
Christiane became interested in lichens following a family holiday to Texas where her children were picking up fallen twigs and asking questions about the lichens on them. This led to Christiane taking courses with a lichenologist at New York Botanical Gardens, and botanical drawing tuition from Dick Rauh, who taught her about scaling up her work.
She chose to depict lichens for the certificate project, and as they say, the rest is history! Christiane explained to me that her architectural background plays a role in her carefully thought out compositions, helping her to think about scaling and perspective in her work. She chooses to work in coloured pencil and works closely with lichenologists throughout the process in order to show all relevant details of the species. Her work is meticulous and I was fascinated by this close-up view of something that is often overlooked. Like Mary, Christiane shipped her work over from America and attended the exhibition with her family, enjoying a holiday in London at the same time.
Sally Pond
Grasses of the Greater Târnava Valley, Southern Transylvania
Sally is an experienced RHS exhibitor, this being the fourth time she has participated in the RHS show. Sally was invited over to the Transylvania School of Botanical Art by owners Rachel & James de Candole, to illustrate grasses for a field guide they are creating. She explained to me that grasses are often overlooked and that she intended to depict them naturally, using graphite within her compositions behind the watercolour to give the sense of the grasses as you see them in the wild.
Her gold medal was well deserved; Sally’s watercolour and graphite depictions of six species of grasses are exquisite in their detail, both in terms of her painting and scientific accuracy.
She was surprised to find that she was already familiar with many of the grasses as some of the species grow in her local area, and this obviously made it easier to continue her work once she returned back from Transylvania.
Sally has chosen grasses as a subject before; two of her paintings showing collections of grasses were part of the Botanical Art Worldwide exhibition last year. She has a broad portfolio of work and is a well known botanical art tutor, based in Salisbury UK.
Congratulations to all three ABA members – what an achievement, and congratulations to everyone who participated in the show.
The RHS Botanical Art and Photography Show is on at the Saatchi Gallery from 19th June to 2nd August 2026, Monday-Sunday, 10am-6pm (last entry 5.20pm).
The exhibition comprises two large rooms showing the 19 art entries, and a third room showing the 18 photography portfolios.
Click here to see a full list of medals awarded.
If you are interested in finding out more about entering the competition including details of how it is judged, and an opportunity to vote for the people’s choice award, there is lots of information on the show’s website.
And if you fancy exhibiting yourself then this RHS webpage has lots of useful information.