Cathy's Art Diary

Exquisite exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery showcasing the best of botanical art and photography. The Royal Horticultural Society awards medals to art which has been entered into their awards in the same was they award gardens and displays at the Chelsea Flower Show. I was mesmerised by the detail in the paintings and drawings which often make you feel you could touch the plant. Many show beautiful flowers but I find the more strange works most engaging such as this stage in a magnolia seed pod by Toni Dade. My favourite photographs were by Andrea Jones and looked at light effects in different gardens. One of a sunrise over a snow covered formal garden was beautiful. However I am going to have one of my usual moans. Please don’t use such reflective glass on works with steering overhead lighting. It was hard to see some of the images because of the reflections on them. Closed 28 July 2024    

Delicate exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery for this year’s Royal Horticultural Society prizes for botanical art and photography. The show followed a strict judging policy and prize structure very similar to the Chelsea Flower Show. In each category people were invited to submit six pieces which were judged as a set. The artwork was mainly highly detailed watercolours of a stunning quality. I preferred the ones which seemed to fill the plain with an image rather than the barer ones arranged in a pattern. The works were from around the world. I think my favourites were pictures of Scottish lichen by Liz Campbell. I was less impressed by the photographs. The ones that focused on detail were actually very like the watercolours and I’m not sure I’d have been able to tell them apart. My favourites were flower arrangements like Dutch still lives by T.M.Glass which paired flowers from renowned gardens in vases from museum collections.   Closed 9 July 2023