Tag: Botanical illustration

The South Indian cereal drawings of P. Mooroogasen Moodelliar

During my work on Hugh Cleghorn I became very interested in the Madras School of Art, the first of its type in India, established on 1 May 1850…

Neera Joshi Pradhan

Born in 1967, the daughter of R.N. Joshi (1938-1988), painter and doyen of Nepali art Personal Statement I am an independent self–employed artist and botanical illustrator in Nepal….

Florilegium: A gathering of flowers

In RBGE Creative Programmes’ exhibition in Inverleith House – Florilegium: A gathering of flowers, there is something for everyone. In the first room downstairs, you can lose yourself in the meticulously skilled detail of botanical paintings and illustrations, which have been contributed from around the world. Upstairs, you can meander from Wendy McMurdo’s Scottish Garden, through a Barbadian sugarcane plantation with Annalee Davis, pausing upon RBGE’s own Herbarium and Centre for Middle-Eastern plants with Lyndsay Mann, and finally travelling through a floral take on 100 days of traditional Taiwanese mourning with Lee Mingwei.

The Other Library, Archives & Photography Team

A series of posts from our volunteers … Laura Gunstensen – Library Volunteer The ‘Botanics’ have always been a very special place for me since I arrived, fresh…

Mysteries inside the RBGE Illustrations Collection

In January 2020 Manshu Xu, an MSc student at Edinburgh College of Art began a work placement in the RBGE Library that involved creating an initial finding list…

Part 2/2: ‘Sensing and Presencing the Imperceptible’, Siân Bowen’s Micro-conference

Alessandra Leruste has been a Volunteer gallery assistant with Inverleith House since 2019. Alessandra has an MA in History of art from the University of Edinburgh and has her own art-writing blog. Here, Alessandra shares her experience from the afternoon of Siân Bowen’s micro-conference at RBGE.

Part 1/2: ‘Sensing and Presencing the Imperceptible’, Siân Bowen’s Micro-conference

Klaudia Jaworska is in her third year at Edinburgh Napier University, studying International Festivals and Events Management and Marketing. As part of her course, she is currently carrying out a work placement in RBGE’s Public Engagement Department. Here, Klaudia shares her experience from the morning of Siân Bowen’s micro-conference at RBGE.

Siân Bowen’s Leverhulme Research Fellowship Exhibition: After Hortus Malabaricus: Sensing and Presencing Rare Plants

After Hortus Malabaricus: Sensing and Presencing Rare Plants marks the culmination of my four-year collaboration with the Herbarium at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE). Having held my first solo exhibition in Scotland at Inverleith House at RBGE in 1995, it is wonderful to be able to exhibit here once again. In 2017, I was awarded a Leverhulme Research Fellowship to carry out the project. The Leverhulme Trust is known for supporting experimental proposals with an emphasis on outward facing journeys. The journey that the award facilitated has certainly been extraordinary – opening up possibilities to work with botanists, ecologists, historical researchers, cultural geographers, taxonomists and curators. It has allowed encounters with rare plants in darkened herbaria and light-filled South Indian forests and swamps; epistemologies used to ‘reveal’ specimens and sensory differences between plants’ live and preserved states.

Aechmea fasciata

RBGE Accession number:19982583 Living plants of this accession Aechmea fasciata (Lindl.) Baker 19982583B G11 Rainforest Riches Aechmea fasciata is a species of flowering plant in the bromeliad family, native…

Drimia maritima

Drimia maritima (L.) Stearn RBGE Accession number:19771097 Living plants of this accession 19771097A G20 Temperate Lands Collected in: Spain: Canary Is Collection number: 5602 Collected by: Long, David G….

Agave vilmoriniana

Agave vilmoriniana Berger RBGE Accession number:20030287 Living plants of this accession 20030287A G04 Arid Lands Agave vilmoriniana, popularly known as Octopus agave, is a species of agave endemic to Mexico. It is known for…

Hedychium thyrsiforme

Pincushion Ginger- Broad jungle like foliage with a dramatic inflorescence with white spidery flowers.  BGE Accession number:19825041 Hedychium thyrsiforme Sm. Living plants of this accession 19825041B G52 Lowland Tropics…

Musa laterita

RBGE Accession number:19973654 Musa laterita Cheesem Collected by: Smith, Paul S. 19973654A G25 Plants & People Living plants of this accession Musa laterita is an Asian tropical ornamental species…

The Tale of Anne and Beatrix

Research about Victorian botanical illustrator Anne Pratt turns into a Beatrix Potter book binding mystery… Anne Pratt was born in 1806 and, suffering from poor health as a…

Botanical Drawings made in Nepal for Nathaniel Wallich in 1821 by Vishnupersaud and Gorachand

When the museum and library of the East India Company, following its inheritance by the India Office of the British government, was dispersed in 1879 its fragments were…

Buchan Hepburn and McDouall East Africa and Angola Album 1904 – 1909

By Helen Bennett, Library & Archives Volunteer New light has been shed on the creation of Logan Garden by a previously unknown album of photographs and watercolours recently…

Podcast: Chatting with Marianne Hazlewood about Botanical Illustration

It was a pleasure to sit in the garden with Marianne Hazlewood and talk about her journey from graphic designer to botanical artist as well as the origins…

Anne Sarah Jervis (1801–1886): a new swagger print by an unrecorded artist working in India

In the past I have written about botanical ‘swagger prints’ – large-format illustrations commissioned at least in part to boost the ego of the commissioner. At RBGE (from…