British Artists in the Shirley Sherwood Collection

Dr Shirley Sherwood has been collecting British botanical art since 1990 when a dramatic watercolour of Laelia tenebrosa by Pandora Sellars caught her eye. Impressed by the quality of Pandora's work, Dr Sherwood went on to commission many British artists to paint studies of favourite plants such as fritillaries, cowslips and lapageria. Her vast collection of botanical art contains 330 works by 86 British botanical painters, of which a proportion is showcased in this exhibition. Botanical artists such as Brigid Edwards, Coral Guest, Rory McEwen, Rosie Sanders, Pandora Sellars and Graham Rust have been carefully chosen to showcase British talent.

The exhibition also highlights the sometimes changing style and approach of botanical artists, through experimentation with medium and scale.

Dr Sherwood’s enthusiasm for British botanical art continues to this day and she is still collecting botanical work in Britain, and the rest of the world.

British Artists in the Shirley Sherwood Collection.pdf

British Artists in the Shirley Sherwood Collection.pdf

Timelapse from photographs taken by three botanical artists who painted a life-size watercolour of an Amorphophallus titanum (titan arum) which flowered for the first time in Scotland at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh on 26 June 2015.

A separate exhibition on the Victorian scientist, Joseph Hooker, will run concurrently in the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art. The exhibition will show a selection of his photographs, journals and paintings.

Joseph Hooker: Putting plants in their place

Admission to the British Artists in the Shirley Sherwood Collection exhibition is included with day entry to the Gardens. 

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