ArtPlantae Today

Last year, Feature Artist Margaret Best was commissioned by the Royal Canadian Mint to produce a watercolor painting of a wild rose for reproduction on a Canadian twenty dollar silver coin. Margaret’s coin was released this week and is now available online.

The Royal Canadian Mint is well known for issuing commemorative and collectors’ coins of unique and colorful designs to which it adds elements such as, in the case of this coin, genuine Swarovski crystals. The background of a proof finish on pure silver sets off the color of Best’s rendition of a wild rose to dramatic effect.

Margaret Best has been an artist from childhood but narrowed her focus to purely botanical art about twelve years ago. She attributes much of her success in her chosen genre to her mentor, the world-renowned English botanical artist, Pandora Sellars. Best’s botanical art is true to the tradition of rendering flora both in a scientifically accurate and artistically pleasing manner. The genre has its roots in the historical practice of documenting the flora of the world for identification, scientific, classification and recording purposes.

Best’s work has been exhibited in various galleries and group exhibitions in England, the United States and Canada. She also has a piece in the permanent collection of the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation of the Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh. Her next solo exhibition, Bermuda Botanica, opens in Bermuda next month. Her work is also featured in Today’s Botanical Artists, a book presenting a selection of paintings by sixty-five of the top contemporary botanical artists in North America. Best is an active teacher of botanical art. She has conducted classes in Canada, the United States, the U.K. and Bermuda.

Also See…
Margaret Best Discuses Color in Botanical Art