Introduction to Botanical Art Book Reviews for Artists
Find a review of the botanical art book you've been thinking about buying. On this site you'll find my book reviews, first published on my blog Making A Mark plus reviews by other people (in due course).
I've also included reviews of books by or about famous artists who have been interested in the structure and patterns of flowers.
You can find out about......
......just click a link to go straight to that topic
- Do you prefer historial or contemporary botanical art?
- Book Reviews: Compendia of Botanical Art
- BOOKS: Compendium of Botanical Art
- Which is your favourite botanical art book by Dr Shirley Sherwood?
- Book Reviews: Historical Botanical Art
- BOOKS: Early Herbals and Florilegia
- BOOKS: Historical Botanical Art by Basilius Besler
- BOOKS: Historical Botanical Art by Maria Sibylla Merian
- BOOKS: William Morris & Charles Rennie Mackintosh
- Book Reviews: Contemporary Botanical Art
- BOOKS: Elizabeth Blackadder
- Books Reviews: Creating botanical art
- BOOKS: The Society of Botanical Artists
- BOOKS: The Flowers of Georgia O'Keeffe
- BOOKS: Creating botanical art
- Resources for botanical art lovers
- Comments and Suggestions
Do you prefer historial or contemporary botanical art?
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Book Reviews: Compendia of Botanical Art
These are all books which provide an overview of botanical art produced by different artists - and some cover both historical and contemporary botanical art
- Making a Mark: Treasures of Botanical Art - a recommended read
- Treasures of Botanical Art by Shirley Sherwood and Martyn Rix has been published by Kew Publishing to mark the inaugural exhibition of the The Shirley Sherwood Gallery in Kew Gardens, the first gallery in the world to be dedicated to year round exhibitions of botanical art.
- Making a Mark: Gardens in Art: The Painter's Garden
- I have been delighting all month in reading - very slowly - "The Painter's Garden" a monumental catalogue of nearly 400 pages produced by Sabine Schulz and published by Hatje Cantz. I'd go so far as to say I've been enjoying it that much that I've been slowing down to avoid finishing it.
- Making a Mark: Amazing Rare Things: The Art of Natural History
- The strapline for the exhibition "Amazing Rare Things" is The Art of Natural History in the Age of Discovery. You can order and buy the exhibition catalogue from the Royal Collection online shop (or Amazon)
BOOKS: Compendium of Botanical Art
Which is your favourite botanical art book by Dr Shirley Sherwood?
New Flowering: 1000 Years of Botanical Art by Shirley Sherwood
The magnificent old, the masterful new, this is th more...0 points
Treasures of Botanical Art: Icons from the Shirley Sherwood and Kew Collections by Shirley Sherwood
Provides and overview of the origins, history and more...0 points
A Passion for Plants: Contemporary Botanical Masterworks by Shirley Sherwood
"International interest in this distinctive a more...0 points
Contemporary Botanical Artists: The Shirley Sherwood Collection by Shirley Sherwood
Dr. Shirley Sherwood toured the world over a perio more...0 points
Book Reviews: Historical Botanical Art
my book reviews on Making A Mark
- Making a Mark: Book Review - 1001 Plant and floral illustrations from early herbals
- 1001 Plant and Floral Illustrations: From Early Herbals (Dover Pictorial Archive Series) - Richard G Hatton
In reality there's very little text and an awful lot of engravings and illustrations used in early herbals. I find the herbals to be very attractive in their simplicity......I think I can now well understand why William Morris was such a fan of herbals. I'm also trying to remember which other artists liked and collected herbals - and Monet and Mackintosh spring to mind - Making a Mark: Flowers in Art: William Morris - herbals, flowers and making patterns
- This post identifies William Morris's use of herbals and sources.
- Making a Mark: Plant Motifs and Art #3
- One of the books I bought was "The Flowers of William Morris" by Derek Baker published for the centennial....What I found extremely interesting, apart from the images of hand drawn designs where you can clearly see the process from pencil sketch more cetain deign lines through pen to colour washes, was that William Morris apparently also studied the flowers of Islamic art - and in particular the tulip - at the Victoria and Albert Museum in South Kensington.
- Making a Mark: Book Review: Besler's Book of Flowers and Plants
- Besler's Book of Flowers and Plants: 73 Full-Color Plates from Hortus Eystettensis, 1613
(Dover Pictorial Archive Series) - by Basilius Besler
In my opinion, this is the sort of book which will appeal to a real fan of the history of botanical art. It's certainly very interesting from the point of view of studying classical portrayals of plants and flowers. I also found it really interesting to see the difference between the woodcuts seen in the book reviewed yesterday and how the nature of the illustrations changed as they started to use (1) copper engraving and (2) colour. - Making a Mark: Book Review: Merian's Antique Botanical Prints
- Merian's Antique Botanical Prints CD-ROM and Book (Pictorial Archives) by Maria Sibylla Merian and published by Dover Publications
All the engravings in the Merian book are taken from Erucarum Ortus, Alimentum et Paradoxa Metamorphosis published in Amsterdam in 1718. This was a book published by her daughter after Merian's death and concerns the transformation of caterpillars in butterflies - and the plants associated with that process en route. The book is literally crawling with caterpillars - Making a Mark: Flowers in Art... and Charles Rennie Mackintosh
- "Mackintosh Flower Drawings" by Pamela Robertson and published by the Hunterian Art Gallery. I managed to get hold of a very good second hand copy using Amazon. It was first produced as a catalogue in 1988 to accompany an exhibition of Mackintosh's flower drawings held at the Hunterian Art Gallery - as its contribution to Glasgow's Garden Festival. It contains large images and detailed notes of all the flowers in the collection.
BOOKS: Early Herbals and Florilegia
BOOKS: Historical Botanical Art by Basilius Besler
BOOKS: Historical Botanical Art by Maria Sibylla Merian
BOOKS: William Morris & Charles Rennie Mackintosh
Book Reviews: Contemporary Botanical Art
my book reviews on Making A Mark
- Making a Mark: Volume 1 of The Highgrove Florilegium is published
- The Highgrove Florilegium (Volume 1) published on behalf of the Prince of Wales by Alecto Publications. Painting and horticulture are two major interests of the Prince of Wales which are combined in The Highgrove Florilegium. This started as a project in 2000 to mark the Prince's achievements in his garden and to provide a historical record of the plants. The first volume was published this week after six years work - in his 60th birthday year.
In this post I'm looking at
* the definition of a Florilegium,
* the publication of the first volume of the Highgrove Florilegium
* Historical Florilegia
* Contemporary Florilegia in the making - Making a Mark: Flowers in Art...and Dame Elizabeth Blackadder RA RSA
- The Royal Academy Masterclass book "Elizabeth Blackadder".
This book is a total bargain at £4. For anybody interested in her work, I very much recommend you buy this book as it's rich in content and comment by the artist - it very much lives up to the notion of a masterclass. Plus of course it has a lot of illustrations of her work - including close-ups of her painting as the work progresses.
BOOKS: Elizabeth Blackadder
Books Reviews: Creating botanical art
- Making a Mark: The Society of Botanical Artists is 21!
- Last year I bought Margaret Stevens' excellent book and practical instruction guide "The Art of Botanical Painting" (produced in association with the SBA) without realising that this is now set as the basic text for the Diploma course. It's a truly comprehensive and very impressive volume covering.....
- Making a Mark: NEW: The Botanical Palette: Colour for the Botanical Painter
- The Botanical Palette, subtitled 'colour for the botanical painter', by the Society of Botanical Artists in association with Margaret Stevens. Published on 1st October 2007 by Harper Collins
It provides a very authoritative and helpful guide to this topic - and will doubtless be welcomed by all those seeking to develop and improve the quality of their botanical art. - Making a Mark: Flowers in Art: what's on my bookshelves?
- I love books about flowers in art and floral art-making. This post sets out the candidates for a book review this month.
- Making a Mark: Georgia O'Keeffe Month: Learning about Notan #1
- I'm trying to get to grips with Notan - using "Composition" the book by Arthur Wesley Dow, first published in 1899, which was Georgia O'Keeffe's bible when she went through the same process.
- Making a Mark: Georgia O'Keeffe month: Two white irises (and three buds)
- As you know I've been hunting down useful books for my Georgia O'Keeffe month. On Friday, I bought "Georgia O'Keeffe Museum Collections (Volume 2)" by Barbara Buhler Lynes at Kew Gardens. Having now had a chance to look through this book - which is the right way to describe a book which is mainly full page plates of colour images of her work - I've come to a few conclusions.
BOOKS: The Society of Botanical Artists
The Botanical Palette: Colour for the Botanical Painter
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Amazon Price: $37.18 (as of 12/03/2008) 
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The Art of Botanical Painting
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Release Date: 11/01/2005
Amazon Price: $19.77 (as of 12/03/2008)
List Price: $29.95
Used Price: $15.45
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BOOKS: The Flowers of Georgia O'Keeffe
BOOKS: Creating botanical art
Resources for botanical art lovers
- Botanical Art - Resources for Artists
- This site shares information about botanical art - societies, collections, books and other resources which support the development of botanical art. It also links to leading botanical artists in the past and present.Its subject matter will interest botanical fine art enthusiasts, students of botanic
- Flowers in Art - Resources for Artists
- Do you love looking at flowers in art? Do you want to know how to learn to draw or paint flowers? Do you want to improve your flower drawings or flower paintings? Or do you just love flowers? If you do then consult the resources in this lens to find out more about:- the history of flowers in art
- Maria Sibylla Merian - Resources for botanical art lovers
- Maria Sibylla Merian was a Naturalist and Botanical Illustrator and is rated as being one of the greatest ever botanical artists. This site will be of interest to all botanical artists and all those who enjoy botanical art and natural history.
Making A Mark
Katherine Tyrrell's blog about: - Making marks with pastels, pencils and pen and ink - Creating new drawings and paintings - Influences on developing both artwork and art careers - Interviews with artists - Information about resources for artists and art
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ElizabethJeanAllen wrote...
Nice lens. I like to read and I like to write book reviews. You did a nice job of it.
Lizzy
The Weekend Reader
Posted July 26, 2008
