Garden Art Weekend
For its 200th birthday, the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney will host Garden Art Weekend, a spectacular festival celebrating both art and nature this weekend.
With a number of exhibitions from Australian and international botanic artists and illustrators, the festival showcases four free exhibitions including the annual Margaret Flockton Award, where 29 contemporary scientific illustrators vie for over $7000 in prize money.
Now in its 13th year, the Margaret Flockon Award commemorates the Garden’s first botanical illustrator in 1901. “She’s our illustrator,” said Catherine Wardrop, a botanical illustrator at the Royal Botanic Gardens and co-curator of the Margaret Flockton Award. “We’re very, very proud of Margaret Flockton… she is the standard that we aim for, and hopefully uphold!”
In fact, scientific botanical illustration is a “niche field” that few succeed in despite its importance. “Our role is to primarily illustrate rare, new and renamed species of plant to illustrate the important features that are used for identifying one species from another,” explained Wardrop. “There’s nothing that can replace a good scientific illustrator when it comes to clearly representing important features of a botanical subject. A photograph can’t do it; there’s too much ambiguity.”
With a range of free events and activities for all ages, Garden Art Weekend is the perfect family outing. Other exhibitions include the Ikebana – Into the Future lawn installations, with workshops on the art of Japanese floral arrangements; Botanica, the annual botanical art show; and Scott Sisters, a display of two 19th Century Australian scientific illustrators’ beautiful work.
Just don’t forget to check out the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney website to book a free activity session for the kids, such as classes exploring Aboriginal storytelling as well as the outdoor theatrical production, The King and Queen of Green! (ES)
April 16–17, 10am–4pm. Royal Botanic Garden Sydney, Mrs Macquaries Road (enter via Woolloomooloo Gates). For more info: rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au
BY EMILY SHEN
