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by Deb Shaw
Prunus dulcis, Almond, watercolor by Margaret Best, © 2016, all rights reserved.
BAGSC members Margaret Best, Akiko Enokido, Asuka Hishiki, Mitsuko Schultz, and Deborah Shaw have been accepted into the 19th Annual International American Society of Botanical Artists (ASBA) and The Horticultural Society of New York.
Jurors Susan Fraser (Director, Mertz Library,The New York Botanical Garden), David Horak (Curator of the Aquatic House, Brooklyn Botanic Garden), and Catherine Watters (Botanical Artist) chose 48 artworks from 258 submissions. Works in the exhibition include artists from the United States, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.
Camellia japonica ‘Hakuho’, Heirloom Camellia ‘Hakuho’ ‘White Phoenix’, watercolor on vellum by Akiko Enokido, © 2015, all rights reserved.
This year’s exhibition is in a new venue: it will be hosted by the New York Design Center and installed in their bright, airy, contemporary gallery space, 1stDibs, on the tenth floor. The Horticultural Society of New York, New York Design Center, and ASBA are designing special outreach events and programs, to be announced in September.
The opening reception will take place on Thursday evening, November 3, 2016 and will be on display through December 30, 2016. The catalog of artwork images will be posted on ASBA’s website the day of the opening. A full-color catalog will be published and available on ASBA’s website, as well as at the 1stDibs Gallery and at The Horticultural Society of New York. For further information please contact ASBA’s Exhibitions Director.
1stDibs is located on the 10th Floor of The New York Design Center, 200 Lexington Avenue, New York, New York, 10018. Gallery Hours are 9:30 – 5:30 Monday – Friday.
Solanum lycopersicm, Dancing Duo 34-A, Portrait of an Heirloom Tomato, watercolor by Asuka Hishiki, © 2016, all rights reserved.
Hibiscus rosa-sinensis, Hibiscus, watercolor by Mitsuko Schultz, © 2016, all rights reserved.
Opuntia spp. Fruit, Tunas or Prickly Pear Cactus Fruit, watercolor on vellum by Deborah Shaw, © 2016, all rights reserved.
California Poppy, 50″x28″, © JW Fike, 2015. Photographed in Miramonte, CA.
by Deb Shaw
There are a wealth of exhibitions this summer in Southern California that are botanically instructive and inspirational.
One is in South Orange County. Soka University in Aliso Viejo is currently showing JW (Jimmy) Fike’s solo exhibition, Photographic Survey of the Wild Edible Botanicals of California, now through August 26, 2016.
Even though his medium is photography, rather than traditional painting or drawing, the intent behind Fike’s large, stark, beautiful photographs is similar to any botanical artist or illustrator:
“Within my system the plant is excavated, arranged in the studio, photographed, then illustrated digitally in such a way as to render the edible parts in color while the remaining parts, less emphatically, read as contact prints.” [Quote from Soka University website.]
Henbit, 28″x20″, © JW Fike, 2014. Photographed in Miramonte, CA.
After Fike meticulously composes and arranges his specimen to emphasize key plant characteristics, he photographs it and then begins illustrating in Photoshop. Each piece may take up to three or four months to illustrate. (Sound familiar?) Each photograph references scientific illustration, contact prints, and photograms:
“I’m referencing the history of contact prints and photograms from the dawn of photography,” said Fike, noting 19th century English botanist Anna Atkins and pioneering photographer Henry Fox Talbot. “Some of the very first photographs were plant specimens on sensitized paper.” [Quote from LA Times article, Haunting flowers: The eerily beautiful California botanical art of J.W. Fike.]
Fike exhibits a symbiotic collection of edible plants from a geographic area. He has photographed more than ninety plants in “seven different states and plan to continue the survey until I’ve created a collection that spans the continental United States.” [Quote from Soka University website.]
Soap plant, 110″ x 64″, © JW Fike, 2015. Photographed in Miramonte, CA.
Fike’s exhibition has been covered in the LA Times, and on Botanical Art & Artists by Katherine Tyrrell. His photographs and other articles can be found on his blog.
Soka University’s Founders Hall Art Gallery is located at 1 University Drive, Aliso Viejo, CA 92656, 949-480-4000, info@soka.edu
Exhibition now through August 26, 2016
Free Admission
Monday thru Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Map and directions
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