The winners of the RHS Botanical Art and Photography Show have been unveiled as the show makes its return to the Saatchi Gallery in Chelsea.
Featuring more than 200 pieces, 2021’s show, which opens to the public tomorrow, includes an array of intricate and scientifically accurate botanical illustrations by 15 artists and portfolio collections from 19 photographers. The works on display competed to be awarded an RHS Medal – Gold, Silver Gilt, Silver or Bronze and a ‘best in show’ award – Best Botanical Painting, Best Botanical Artwork, Best Portfolio Photography Exhibit, Judges Special Award – which will be revealed at a special evening awards ceremony later today.
Award-winning exhibits in 2021 include Pauleen Trim’s ‘Native British Deciduous Trees Featuring Galls’, Kimiko Miyahara’s ‘Endemic Plants of Japan’s Ogasawara Islands, A UNESCO Natural World Heritage Site’, Shelley Lawrence Kirkwood’s ‘I’ll Follow The Sun’ and Francesca Wilkinson’s ‘Full Circle – Studies of Cyclamen coum and Cyclamen hederifolium’.
Entries were judged by an expert panel including and assessed based on their scientific accuracy, technical skill and aesthetic appeal.
The show compliments the work of the RHS Lindley Collections with Gold medal-winning artworks regularly added to the collections, contributing to a long legacy of botanical art collecting and display by the gardening charity.
Charlotte Brooks, Art Curator at the RHS, said: “We are absolutely thrilled to see the show return with such a high standard of work. The collection of captivating illustrations and photography not only document the plants around us but celebrate the beauty of our natural world. Congratulations to all the winners and entrants for a fantastic year.”
The RHS Botanical Art and Photography Show, which runs parallel to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show hosted this year for the first time in Autumn, is open to the public from 18 September to 3 October at Saatchi Gallery, Chelsea. For more information visit: www.rhs.org.uk or www.saatchigallery.com.