Botanical illustration competition call for entries

Australia’s botanical illustration competition, the Margaret Flockton Award Exhibition, is calling for scientific botanical artists to get their entries in by 4 February 2011.

Botanic Gardens Trust Executive Director Dr Tim Entwisle said the Margaret Flockton Award is the only competition and exhibition that recognises this beautiful and rigorous art form, celebrating its contribution to both science and society.

“Botanical illustrators draw in black and white, capturing the intricate details of plants that even with today’s technology, cameras are yet to achieve,” Dr Entwisle said.

The Margaret Flockton Award competition is sponsored by The Friends of The Gardens with assistance from the Maple-Brown Family. The first and second prizes are valued at $5000 and $2000 respectively. Entries last year came from Australia, New Zealand, Britain, Spain, Poland, USA, Mexico and Brazil.

The awards honour Margaret Flockton, the first and longest serving botanical illustrator at Sydney’s Royal Botanic Gardens. Her tenure totalled 27 years, beginning in 1901 at the age of 40.

At the 2010 opening of the exhibition, gardening communicator and media personality Jennifer Stackhouse said Botanist Sir Joseph Banks secured a place on Captain Cook’s Voyage of the Endeavour and ensured he had a draughtsman with him.

“Australia can date its first botanical illustrations to the drawings of Sydney Parkinson, who sailed to Botany Bay in 1770 with Banks,” Stackhouse said.

“Banks was recorded as saying ‘a botanic garden cannot be complete unless a resident draughtsman be part thereof’.”

Guest artist exhibiting 10 of her works throughout the duration of the 2011 Margaret Flockton Award Exhibition will be inspirational botanical illustrator Margaret Wilson from Perth. Her achievements are many and include providing illustrations for the handbook ‘Mangroves of Western Australia’ by Semeniuk, Kenneally and Wilson (1978) and providing the cover painting and all the illustrations for the Flora of the Perth Region (Marchant et al., 1987).

Entry to the exhibition is free - selected works are for sale. Entries must be in by 4 February 2011. The judging and notification of winners will be on 15 February and the winners announced on Thursday 31 March.

The exhibition opens to the public on Friday 1 April 2011.

Enquiries at  www.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au.