The Botanical Shoes by Billy Showell

Footwear from flowers - a sumptuous collection of fantasy shoes. It’s an unorthodox design concept but Billy has run with it!

Article by Sarah Gardner, botanical artist and ABA Committee and Education Team member

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Preferring sneakers to stilettos, I was not sure whether I represented the target audience for The Botanical Shoes, but I needn’t have been concerned. For the botanical artist this book offers page after page of gentle, mind-opening inspiration - not really a ‘How to…’ more of a ‘Why not...?’.

As anticipated, each of Billy’s paintings deftly illustrates her supreme skill at finding that perfect sweet spot between the painterly brush-stroke and the photorealistic, inviting the observer to look and then look again more closely, as we try to decipher how each effect is achieved with watercolour glazes, dry-brush work and a very steady hand!

Billy terms her collection of botanical shoes as ‘noetic’, referring to the notional rather than tangible existence of each shoe, with living plant subjects arranged on the page to create the illusion of a shoe in silhouette. She states early on in the book:

‘I make no excuses for my flights of fancy, I only ask that you dance with me to the last page and beyond.’  Billy Showell

'Anna’ (The Shoemaker’s Shoe) Paeonia lactiflora ‘Sarah Bernhardt’ by Billy Showell, image courtesy of publisher

The introductory pages drop a crumb trail of notes, poems and paintings leading one to tip-toe through the story behind these shoes.

As any Bob Ross fan can tell you, ‘We don’t make mistakes, just happy little accidents’ and this was certainly the case with Billy’s first shoe, which came into being after an awkward compositional placement led her toward a transformative flash of footwear-based inspiration.

Left: ‘Millie’ (Crazy for You Rose Slipper) Rosa ‘Crazy for You’, Anemone hupehensis ‘Jasmine’

Right: ‘Laurie’ (Carnival Shoe) Zantedeschia ‘Fire Dancer’, Oshima sedge – Carex hachijoensis ‘Evergold’, Tulipa ‘Rococo’, Pansy – Viola tricolor var.

By Billy Showell, images courtesy of publisher

The chapters of The Botanical Shoes are themed by colour, each introduced by a page of poetically named colour swatches and an accompanying list of colour-mix information revealing the pigments used from Billy’s favoured Sennelier range of watercolour paints.

BLUES – Verse, colour mixes and corresponding colour swatches, image courtesy of publisher

Throughout the book, Billy’s words encourage the artist to play - with colour, with composition and even with poetry and prose. She drops in little tips here and there for keeping the yellows true, warming-up the reds and tackling those difficult chocolatey purples.

The full Botanical Shoes collection by Billy Showell, image courtesy of publisher*

First published in 2022, this is an updated second edition offering those who missed it the first time around an opportunity to discover the book. I noticed in the publisher’s notes that readers are permitted to reproduce any of the artworks in this book for personal use, or for the purpose of selling for charity, free of charge and without prior permission* which generously offers those who are developing their botanical painting skills an opportunity to practise by recreating Billy’s designs.

The quality of this new 22 cm x 29 cm, 104 page hardback edition is such that it would enliven any coffee table and is novel enough to entice those who are unfamiliar with the science and strictures of pure botanical illustration to peek inside and find joy in the poetic prose and exquisite artwork it contains.

*You are not permitted to use any of the artworks for commercial purposes, or for the purpose of training artificial intelligence technologies or systems.

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Biography

Billy Showell is an internationally renowned botanical painter, illustrator and tutor and is based in Kent in the UK. Her works are distinguishable by her striking compositions, and she has won several botanical awards as well as selling over 48,500 copies of her books to date.

Billy’s work is held in the collections of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, the Hunt Institute (USA) and in the Shirley Sherwood Collection as well as in private collections worldwide.

Visit her website: www.billyshowell.com and her Instagram: @billy_showell

Where to purchase:

Available widely online and in bookshops.

https://www.searchpress.com/book/9781800923539/the-botanical-shoes