© Beverly Allen, all rights reserved
Born Sydney, Australia, 1945
. Doryantes excelsa (Gymea Lily), Watercolour on Arches paper
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39 x 28 ins (99 x 71 cm)
Botanical art has for centuries been closely linked to exploration, travel, and adventure, aiding and inspiring scientists in their quest to understand the natural world. The best botanical artists have always combined technical skill in producing a faithful likeness of a specimen with their own artistic flair.
The Jonathan Cooper Park Walk Gallery is delighted to host an exhibition of new works by 18 outstanding contemporary artists in Work from Botanical Artists in the Collection of Dr. Shirley Sherwood: Celebrating 25 Years of the Collection. This exhibition will be on view April 23 – May 30, 2015. All works are for sale.
Interested in plants and art since childhood, Dr. Sherwood earned her undergraduate degree in botany from Oxford University and her D.Phil working in a team which discovered the important drug Tagamet.
She started the Shirley Sherwood Collection in 1990, and it now includes 900 paintings and drawings, representing the work of over 240 contemporary artists from 30 countries around the world. Alongside curating exhibitions of works from her collection specially hung for the Shirley Sherwood Gallery, she has exhibited her collection in many other prestigious locations including the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, the Marciana Library in Venice and the Real Jardín Botánico Madrid. She has also written six books and many articles on botanical art.
The Sherwood family have all generously supported Kew with the building of the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art, the only purpose-designed botanical art gallery in the world. The gallery opened in April 2008, and has between 2 – 3,000 visitors a week. Awarded the OBE for services to botanical art in early 2012, Dr. Sherwood is a Fellow of the Linnaean Society, was awarded the Veitch Memorial Medal by the Royal Horticultural Society and is an Hon. Fellow of St Anne’s College, Oxford.
Artists participating in this exhibition are: Beverley Allen, Francesca Anderson, Phansakdi Chakkapak, Annie Hughes, Ingrid Finnan, Monika de Vries Gohlke, Coral Guest, Mieko Ishikawa, Rachel Pedder-Smith, Kate Nessler, Brian Poole, Jenny Phillips, Rosie Sanders, Jessica Tcherepine, Carol Woodin, Fiona Strickland, Susan Ogilvy, Susannah Blaxhill.
The Jonathan Cooper Park Walk Gallery is open Monday – Friday (10:00 am – 6:30 pm) and Saturday (11:00 am – 4:00 pm). Admission is free.
Celebrate 25 Years of the Shirley Sherwood Collection!
Visit Jonathan Cooper Park Walk Gallery
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