Lizabeth Leech is a botanist, botanical artist, teacher and author. Liz has worked as a botanist at the Field Studies Council, taught biology in Australia, studied the flora and fauna of Australia as a postgraduate student, taught high school for 20 years and worked as a research assistant in soft fruit breeding and in a tissue culture lab growing eucalyptus and acacia trees. In the years leading to retirement, Liz began to study botanical illustration.
Since graduating from the diploma course in botanical painting at the English Gardening School in 2002, Liz has become a founding member of the Hampton Court Palace Florilegium Society, developed short courses in botany for artists and written the new book, Botany for Artists, released in the US just this morning!
Please welcome Liz Leech, the Featured Botanist for May!
A Conversation with Liz
Instead of publishing a complete interview like I normally do on the first day of the month, Liz and I will work together to lead this month’s conversation. We are slowing down our dialogue so that you can comment and ask questions as the conversation develops.
The conversation with Liz will advance every 2-3 days when I will ask our guest a new question. To comment or to ask a question at any time, click in the Comment box below and enter your comment or question. Before you click the Post Comment button, be sure to check the box next to “Notify me of follow-up comments via email”. By checking this box, you will be able to follow the conversation from your inbox.
Let’s begin!
ArtPlantae Today 
Portulaca sp. © Lizabeth Leech. All rights reserved
Question #1: Why do you study plants? What is it about plants that gets to you?
Liz Leech:
I study plants because they are my obsession and I can’t help myself!
I have always been interested in all aspects of natural history but I can’t remember a time when plants were not my first love. The earliest pictures and film show me as a serious one year old peering closely at some flower or another. Things have not changed – except for age!
When the time came I never had any doubt as to what I wanted to study at University, it had to be Botany (with Zoology) – the only question was “where?”. It had to be close to countryside with lots of different habitats and with a wealth of exciting plants on campus. The course I chose, at Exeter University, was quite traditional and involved lots of close study, classification and microscope work, as well as the expectation that one drew everything. The premise being that anyone could draw an adequate, understandable, representation and label it accurately for future reference – somehow we all managed! I also spent lots of time outdoors in various environments and habitats as we were expected to develop a sound ecological understanding of a plant’s place and relationships with its environment and other plants and animals. It was a hard 3 years but I was in heaven – every waking moment devoted to some aspect of plants. I had a couple of inspirational botany lecturers who nurtured and encouraged my enthusiasm which grew exponentially. I gained a wonderful grounding for a life obsessed by plants, teaching about plants and observing and painting them.
It is very hard to say what exactly it is about plants that grips me – so many aspects of plant life excite and inspire me. I will try to summarize these briefly.
I find the vast range of different species with their endless variations on structure, form and colour both exciting, mesmerizing and inspiring.
Structures abound that can withstand immense stresses and pressures, can carry a plant upwards, make it cling to various surfaces, or protect them from animal ravages and allow them to survive in such different environments.
Shapes and forms of seed pods and fruits, leaves, hairs and flowers can never be bettered by any artist’s wildest imaginings. There is no shape, form or structure that we can think of that has not already been designed by Mother Nature.
As for colour – the range of colours, and the unending range of shades and their various combinations found in the plant world exceed any colour card and may delight or defy conventional ideas of taste or restraint. Who can fail to be stunned and moved by the hundreds of shades of green in the spring?
Some flowers are not conventionally beautiful but, may delight in their eccentric ugliness, if you take a closer look at their detailed features. I love these unconventional “beauties”.
I am constantly surprised by the varied reproductive strategies of flowers which are a real source of wonder and delight. Flowers are so flamboyant and subtle and much more interesting than animals. It is hard to believe that flowers have only evolved to expedite plant sex! Such a range colour, size, shape and number of petals and other parts when one looks closely. All designed with one job in mind – to set seed and ensure variation in future generations. Amazing!
Plants’ resilience and adaptations in a vast range of habitats, from kindly temperate to extreme, is the culmination of eons of evolutionary change and a source of wonder. It is amazing that features have arisen time and again in different plants and that some plants have evolved with their pollinators to the point when the loss of either will lead to the death of the final survivor – like many orchid species and their particular insect partners.
Plants are also subtle in their responses to their environments and to changes in their environment despite being “immobile and rooted to the ground”. Artists are often frustrated by the changes in their subjects as stems grow taller and flowers open and close. Overall vegetation never stays the same – a fact that all gardeners know to their cost. Humans can only hold the cycles of change from colonization to forest; leave an area uncultivated for a time and it soon changes in the types and numbers of different plants. Fascinating.
Finally plants are the one form of life that we humans and all other life depend on. We need to know as much as possible about them.
Is it any wonder that plants have “got” me?
Readers, why do YOU study plants?
Hi Liz
Your enthusiasm for your subject definately shines through in your book. I was lucky enough to be given a copy only last week by my friend and fellow botanical artist Lesley Anne Sandbach. Excellent and I shall recommend it to all my students as a ‘must have’.
Best wishes
Elaine Searle
Hi Elaine,
Thanks for your kind comments.
So glad that you are enjoying my book and that you feel it is going to be useful to your students. I enjoyed writing it and “distilling” the botany for artists; also, I was so lucky that so many of the Hampton Court Palace Florilegium (including Lesley Anne) allowed me to include their lovely pictures.
All best wishes,
Liz
Passiflora caerulea (Passion Flower). © Lizabeth Leech. All rights reserved
Question #2: From your experience, which aspect of plant biology is the most unfamiliar to the general public? How do you think people learn about plants best?
Liz Leech: The most unfamiliar aspect of plant biology, and the greatest barrier, seems to me to be the ability to distinguish plant characteristics and therefore to differentiate between plants within generally recognizable broad groupings such as trees, grass, ferns, moss, flowers, seaweed etc. Most people can put typical examples into these rather loose “groupings” of plants but are lost as soon as they have to be more specific and have to look more closely at less obvious examples. For instance, I have found that most high school students, when faced with assessing how many different species there are in a patch of lawn, only recognized the existence of lawn daisies if the flowers were still left on! After mowing they gave 100% grass! Smaller plants and different grasses were certainly not “seen”.
This lack of recognition, of differences between them, makes plants very boring to people in general and certainly detracts from excursions into the countryside. Once they start recognizing and naming more common plants people take more interest in the plants around them, observe more, enjoy the countryside more and, almost by default, their knowledge base increases ever more rapidly.
In my experience the way people learn about plants depends on the age group, but all ways must actively involve them.
Small children love to study everything and to exhibit that knowledge in a competitive way. They are also ready to absorb information and to look at things closely – whether it is numbers of legs on a creepy crawlie or number, colour and shape of petals on a flower. (This presupposes that their “adults” are enthusiastic and have some knowledge of plants). Simple use of plants in grouping excercises and spot the difference pictures, nature walks, nature tables and competitions (who finds the most different types of plant/flower) are an ideal way of generating enthusiasm for common plants and animals and give a start to the development of their all important observational skills in a fun way.
Secondary school children can be encouraged to make simple keys of obvious features, find out the names and families of common plants and animals, and start relating groups of plants and their animals to different habitats through competitions, art, science, geography and trips out. Enjoyment and building on the early and junior school skills are the key here.
Interested adults with little knowledge of plants will benefit from small group work with an enthusiast who knows their stuff, can relate structure to function (so it is more interesting and has meaning) and can be relied upon to start from the basics. Just enthusiasm can lead to too many facts at once, in a jumble, and be most off-putting and even frightening. Confidence is the key for adults, based on knowledge and development of observational skills. Using lenses and microscopes can also help to open up a whole new world.
See a review of Liz’s new book, Botany for Artists
Can’t wait to continue to read all your interview sessions! I’m hoping to order your new book “Botany for Artists” very soon! The Universe in general, and our little planet, in particular, is wondrous. To be able to continuously study all it has to offer is truly a blessing! With your research, enthusiasm, and talent in presenting it to the rest of us, we can’t help but grow more in awe of all that is offered to us on this Earth! Thanks, ever so much – – Beatrice Mack
Hi Beatrice,
So glad that you are enjoying the “conversation”. I know how lucky I am to have been born with a passion for plants and to have had opportunities to share my enthusiasms. So many wonderful things to see, enjoy, and understand could fill a thousand life-times! My main message is “the more one looks with understanding, the more one sees”. My aim is to help people to “look” and to get more enjoyment and pleasure from the wonderful plant world around us, as well as achieving more accurate paintings. I hope you enjoy my book.
All best wishes, Liz.
Phaseolus coccineus @ Liz Leech. All rights reserved
Question #3: Describe the moment that made you realize botany classes for artists were necessary.
Liz Leech:
When a couple of fellow students on the diploma course produced wonderful paintings marred by obvious botanical errors (e.g. one had put in a leaf to make the composition better but had upset the natural leaf pattern on the branch, and could not “see” anything wrong with her painting). Others had on-going problems understanding the structure of some flowers and how the parts related to each other. Various fellow students then started to ask me questions and to ask for help with their botanical concerns. Once we founded the Florilegium, over time, I was asked to do a range of sessions on botanical topics for my fellow members. I also started to teach botany-based courses for artists at West Dean College, a new idea at the time. This in turn lead to my “distilling” information in the form of a series of notes to be handed out after I had delivered workshops, using lots of plant material, on different topics – starting with floral structure, fruits, ferns, fungi etc. Anything of interest or considered difficult.
Analysing “why” this was necessary, I concluded that there has been a definite decline in botanical knowledge over the last 30 years or so. Less and less botany was in school syllabi until there is now virtually none, nature study had died a death in many primary schools, adults spent less time with their small children walking and pointing out plants and animals, university courses concentrated less on plants and more on subjects like biochemistry and genetics etc. Gradually the botanical knowledge base of the population has declined to the point where there is a definite gap which will be hard to fill.
Some experienced botanical artists have learned only from close observation and experience but it is difficult to get started and to develop the observational skills when you don’t know what you are really looking at and the important features to look for – especially as this will be obvious in the resulting painting! Added to which, the more you know the more you “see”.
Sadly some botanical artists do not even realize that they need more botanical knowledge! As plants are everyday things and familiar to all, people tend to think they know about them by default – in the same way as “having attended a school” makes most people feel expert on education! However, neither premise makes the “untrained” necessarily good at the job and aware of pitfalls!
Plant or flower painters, as opposed to botanical artists, do not really need to be so accurate but still need to understand and capture the essence of a plant in some way.
Happily in the last couple of years or so, just before I joined the Institute, botanical members of IAPI had also noted this gap in botanical artists’ education and the Institute is now also putting on successful, and more lengthy, courses spread out over the best part of a year; my courses to date have so far been concentrated into 1 day workshops or 2-3 days at Wisley RHS gardens and West Dean College in Sussex.
(ArtPlantae featured an exposure of IAPI recently.)
Nelly Isler Orchid, © Lizabeth Leech. All rights reserved
Question #4: When did you begin writing Botany for Artists? How did you decide what to put in and what to leave out? What do you want to accomplish through your book?
Liz Leech: I finally decided to write my book in October 2009, having toyed with the idea for the previous 4 years or so. The final impetus came when I met Valerie Oxley who had just published her wonderful book “Botanical Illustration” with the Crowood Press. I mentioned that I intended to write a book on botany for botanical artists and wondered if she too thought there was a need. She was suitably enthusiastic and pointed me in the direction of her publisher with the words “Get on with it”. I did, and the die was cast!
I met with Rachel in November, went over my brief outline and some notes on chapter examples and discussed her “house” requirements; next thing I had a contract and a time scale of handing over the finished article by Christmas 2010. Panic! The detailed requirements were quite a shock – 250+ illustrations and photos needed; luckily I had just been given a digital SLR camera and a macro lens which proved invaluable once I had experimented on how to use it. I rather feared that I had in my ignorance of the book writing process “stepped in where angels feared to tread”!
Initially I started with an introduction and brief chapters based on the topics I had already taught to various groups and for which I had written notes and hand-outs – flower structures and pollination methods, fruit types and dispersal methods of seeds, mosses and ferns, fungi, trees with catkins and those with cones, and a bit on classification, Linnaeus and naming plants.
I sent these off for comment and was told to be less succinct and to use more words – apparently in all her years in publishing she had never had to issue this advice, only the opposite! I have now linked structures to their function and have tried to keep the text clear and concise whilst retaining the botanical detail and terminology which would allow the reader to go on to more formidable botanical texts if they so wish.
As I wrote, the book expanded naturally to include things that I felt an artist or plant enthusiast needed to look at. I divided the unwieldy flower section into chapters on Dicotyledons and Monocotyledons and then branched into flowers with much reduced parts and the differences between grasses, sedges and rushes. Leaves, stems and roots and their arrangements and adaptations for various functions also led me to include the carnivorous plants as amazing and complex leaf adaptations which are wonderful subjects to paint. A chapter on succulents and cacti followed from struggles colleagues had had understanding the differences between them. This then lead me to consider a chapter on unusual plant structures such as those in passionflowers, spurges and orchids as examples of adaptations to look out for and not to be confounded by. I split the tree chapter into broadleaf and deciduous trees with winter twigs and catkins and the conifers with cones. Fungi lead me to include lichens. I then tackled a chapter on useful information to botanical artists – like naming plants properly; a brief section on classification groupings such as families; care of their material and useful equipment; adding scales to pictures; and the best way to do internet researches of plant subjects. Finally I included a short section on the Hampton Court Florilegium as so many members had allowed me to use and reproduce some of their pictures and their questions had formed the basis of the book’s structure. Just for good measure I ended with a section on classification in more detail, in the light of current research and its effect on plant family groupings. I also included a full glossary of botanical words that I had used with, hopefully, my easier to understand definitions and an introductory flowchart and explanatory section to show the botanical logic behind the chapters and how to use the book.
As I wrote I realized that information is all very well but there would inevitably come a point when the reader would have a plant in hand and may not know where to start with the necessary detailed observations needed prior to drawing and painting accurately – a very intimidating position and a real off-put! I have therefore devised various detailed helpsheets and have filled in examples of each which are included in the appropriate chapters. Blank copies are also included so that an artist can photocopy them and use them as an observational guide and record of each plant with sketches and colour matches. I hope these will be of real practical help to painters and to those teaching them.
I have left out features of plants that are difficult to see without a microscope (e.g. types of hairs), and have not covered every variation of plant form or flower that occurs. This would have been impossible and also made the text too unwieldy. I have deliberately left out the algae and have concentrated more on terrestrial plants. However, I have hopefully included sufficient material to provide a text that forms a sound basis for a life-time of accurate observation and botanically correct painting.
I hope that this book is accessible, demystifies and gives readers a more comprehensive understanding and love of botany through a greater insight into plants, their forms and structures, their behaviour and adaptations. I also hope that it achieves its main aim and helps artists to develop greater observational skills and to use them in producing both beautiful and more technically accurate paintings.
A quick update about the distribution of this book in the US…
The distributor is waiting on a shipment and it could take a few weeks to arrive. I apologize for the delay. Thank you for your patience.
I’m really enjoying this conversation – thank you. It’s very interesting to read about how your book was created and all the work that went into it. I think as artists we all need someone to say to us “Get on with it” because then you do, don’t you?
Hi Martin,
I am glad that you are enjoying the conversation. It is certainly true that a timely comment or an approaching deadline work wonders on the motivation front in almost all walks of life! “Hand-in” day at the Florilegium always concentrates all our minds and generates great productivity, as well as a sigh of satisfaction when the picture passes the selection panel for the archive.
All best wishes Liz
Solanum sp. © Lizabeth Leech. All rights reserved
Question #5: You mentioned that your book has been adopted by the English Gardening School as a recommended text for botanical art students. Congratulations! What kind of feedback have you received? How has your book been used by other students and programs in the UK?
Liz Leech: Thank you. I have been delighted by the responses to it and am just pleased that people appear to think that it fulfills its purpose.
I have received very positive feedback from an unexpectedly wide range of readers – artists, botanical art teachers, librarians, gardeners, those with a general interest in plants, and even a cake decorator who makes realistic icing flowers! The illustrations, photographs and diagrams have also been commented on as making the whole book “lovely” and “a visual feast”.
The general concensus seems to be that the helpsheets are an excellent idea and a real practical help to the beginner and the more experienced painter, while the completed helpsheets in the book give the reader a good idea of the sort of detail required when observing a plant.
Several botanical art teachers have deemed it useful and an “essential reference book” for themselves and for their students in terms of the overall coverage of material and the fact that it “demystifies the science underpinning botanical art”, and “enlightens without intimidating and informs without oversimplifying”. The text has been pronounced clear and concise and enlivened by humour and deemed to answer many questions whilst leading the reader to ask more questions about the plants they are drawing. What more could an author want?
At the moment the book is still relatively new (4 months old) and is still developing its reputation, but is gradually becoming better known as word slowly spreads. The English Gardening School’s adoption of it as their text, at the instigation of Gillian Barlow, is very gratifying and encouraging. Also, fellow IAPI members have been very enthusiastic and the Institute is listing it as recommended reading for students. To my knowledge several individual art teachers have also begun to use it and the observational helpsheets with their students.
I am delighted that ArtPlantae is featuring my book on its launch in America and hope that it is as useful to your readers and to botanical art students in the USA.
For someone who loves to draw and paint and photograph plants, what equipment would you suggest: DLS, lens, dissecting scope that can take pictures. same for microscope? I’ve a science background and recently drawing and painting and want to combine them. The flowers fascinate: their sheer beauty and adaptation and want to draw the macro parts too and need better ways to see.
Hi Brook,
Science and painting are a strong combination. I am sure you will create some wonderful pictures.
I use a Digital SLR camera (Eos 400D) which takes pictures with high number of pixels, has manual as well as automatic focus, and you can change the lenses. I have so far only used a Macro EF 100mm 1:2.8 USM lens for close up shots but find you can get a really high level of magnification if you then use computer software to crop and zoom in several times before saving the image – hence high number of pixels as the image blurs if too few. A white card just behind the subject also helps. With this set up lighting is a minor problem – flash is too high to illuminate the subject so you need a flexible light (preferably daylight quality) that can shine between the lens and the subject – which may only be a few centimetres away! You can get a ring light to attach to the front of the lens – this is my next purchase. You can get microscopes, both dissecting and ordinary, with adaptors for specific makes of camera or with adaptors and software leading direct to a computer – this would need more enquiry on your part. You will also need a very good tripod to support your camera when using the macro lens as the slightest shake ruins your shot.
I hope this information helps you to achieve the level of “seeing” that you hope to achieve. Any “larger” macro lens needs to work on a rail and even a millimetre will make or break the image.
Best of luck and happy experimenting,
Liz
Sempervivum arachnoideum. © Liz Leech. All rights reserved
Today this conversation opens up and you are invited to ask Liz questions. What would you like to learn?
Post your question (or comments) in the Comment box below.
I pre-purchased your book before publication, and am thrilled with it! The helpsheets are wonderful. With plants that can’t be removed from their environment, detailed sketches and photos only go so far; there is always something I need to go back and check, and the helpsheets can save the day. Thank you!
Hi Judy,
I can’t tell you how pleased I am that you are very happy with my book and are finding the helpsheets so useful in the field, when observing a plant.
I designed the helpsheets as aide memoirs to recording all the necessary detail and observations, but the proof (or otherwise) of their actual usefulness has to come from people, like you, using them in a “real” context. I am so glad that they help.
I too have found that the odd important and frustrating detail is easy to miss without similar records and that re-checking is time-consuming and frustrating – assuming the plant or the relevant parts are still there to check!
Thank you so much for your positive and enthusiastic feedback.
Liz
Euonymus europaeus. © Liz Leech. All rights reserved
Questions for You!
This morning Liz has questions for readers who own a copy of Botany for Artists. Released in the UK in November 2011, Liz’s book was released in the US earlier this month. Interested in artists’ experiences with her book, Liz would like to ask artists and all readers of her book:
I just ordered your book the other day and can’t wait until it arrives. The help sheets are what made me think this might be really useful! So I am glad to hear others have found them helpful. I’ll have to check back in when my book arrives!
Carol
Hi Carol,
I look forward to hearing from you once you have used some of the helpsheets.
Additionally, I hope that you enjoy the book and find the main body of each chapter interesting and helpful too, as they should provide both the knowledge and context that underpin each helpsheet.
All best wishes
Liz
I have ordered it too Liz… would have done so earlier but I thought perhaps it was the same as Botany for the Artist – different cover and author but similar title! … I am currently doing the SBA Distance Diploma Course and would appreciate more botany instruction. Am in Western Australia and hopefully shipment won’t take too long – am in the middle of the botanical illustration with dissection …. thanks for your generous input.
Hi Vicki,
I can understand the confusion.
Simblet’s Botany for the Artist is a great book, but is geared towards drawing techniques with a bit of standard botanical input. She is an artist with an understanding of botany but is not a botanist by training.
My book is very different as it is based entirely on the botany that I think all botanical artists need to have and points out the features which an artist should look out for and observe before drawing and painting a plant/flower. It places great emphasis on “what” to observe and “how” to observe it; so that a botanical artist produces an accurate, as well as beautiful, painting or drawing. I make no attempt to include artistic technique – which is covered by so many others.
I have had several distance learners on my courses, in the past, who have also felt a bit lost over the required knowledge. I hope my book bridges the gap for you and that you can tackle your coursework with greater confidence and understanding.
I envy you the Australian flora – I really miss it; even after so many years. I shall have to renew my Australian passport and come over before I get much older! I never got to Western Australia.
Happy botanising and the best of luck with the course.
Liz
Hi Liz
Delighted your book seems to be meeting such an unfulfilled need as we have discussed at IAPI education sub-committee. I shall definitely be referring students to it on our next ‘Understanding Plants’ course. Wishing you continued success with it, Mary Brewin.
Hi Mary,
Thank you so much for your kind comments.
I am very glad that you and IAPI feel it fills the gap in botanical knowledge for botanical artists. I am also delighted you think your students will find it enlightening.
Am sure your forthcoming course will be another unqualified success.
All best wishes,
Liz
Readers,
Mary Brewin co-taught the pilot course Botany for Botanical Artists with Anne Bebbington in the UK from September 2010 through July 2011. Read more about their pilot course here.
Dear Liz,
I love your book! I am just completing a natural science illustration course at the University of Washington, in Seattle. I would like to learn much more! I have been illustrating an Ophiopogon planiscapus ‘nigrescens’ or ‘arabus’. I have had difficulty find good accurate information for this project as there is much confusion regarding Liriope vs. Ophiopogon.
Where do I find information of upcoming distance learning programs taught by you?
Thank you,
Eve
Hi Eve,
So glad that you love my book and find it a help – it is obviously doing its intended job!
I have quickly researched your difficulty regarding Ophiopogon planiscapus variety ‘nigrescens’, ‘Black Dragon’ or ‘nigra’ – apparantly O.nigrescens and O. arabicus are invalid species names used in the horticultural trade. As to the confusion over the genera Liriope and Ophiopogon (the Liriopogons), I have found some excellent and easy to understand detailed comparisons of their overall characteristics (Table 5) and a key to the genera (table 6) in P.R. Fantz’s paper in the journal Hort Technology, July-Sept 2008, vol 18, no.3, pages 334-342. No doubt you have already found these? He has obviously been working on these genera of plants since the 1990s and produced several papers in that time.
You could always adapt one of my helpsheets using the appropriate information, from Frantz’s work, for use in your project. Just devising the worksheet will help you to crystallise your thoughts!
Regarding distance learning programs, I am sorry to say that as yet I have not developed one, but your query has made me think!
I do hope that this reply has been of help to you.
Best of luck with the rest of your course at University of Washington in Seattle.
Liz
Dear Liz,
Google led me here and I hope that you can help. I recently discovered an odd plant growing wild on a hillside and I’m having a difficult time identifying it. It stood approximately 2 feet tall on a hairless and leafless stalk, the ‘flower’ head consisted of numerous elongated green tentacle like protuberances surrounding a red fruit-like center. I have pictures! If that would be of assistance.
Thank you for your time.
jennifer
Hi Jennifer,
I need a bit more information!
Pictures would be a help, plus some idea of where you found it in terms of some of the other plants and in which country. I shall then try to be of help.
Look forward to hearing from you.
Thanks.
Liz