 There is a growing interest in the United States in botanical art, which is art that features carefully rendered portraits of flowers and flowering plants. As one would expect, the popularity of botanical art is driven by the passion people have for plants and flowers. People have a real affinity for their incredible shapes, sizes, colors, and textures. "Some of our most popular fine art cards and prints feature botanical art," says Nancy Langmack, founder of Peconic Bay Originals. "People are incredibly inspired by a beautiful and emotive image of a flower. There are a myriad of reasons that a person connects with a particular botanical work of art. But whatever the reason, it is a wonderful thing to see when it happens."
The process of creating botanical art is fascinating, because it brings together art and science. Botanical artists work to instill both scientific accuracy and artistic sensibility in their paintings. While these two goals seem mutually exclusive at first, the best botanical artists achieve both simultaneously. On one hand, they are working to paint plants and flowers with incredible attention to detail. There is a need for exactness in their painting, so that their botanical subject can be recognized and distinguished from other species. At the same time, botanical artists are working to create a composition, capture the gracefulness and spirit of the plant, and express their awe and wonder at the unique beauty of this specimen.
Botanical painting is one of the oldest types of watercolor painting - it began in the 1400s! The first botanical paintings were used to document and identify herbs, flowers, and trees used for medicinal purposes. At that time, medicinal plants were the closest thing to medicine that existed. As a result, there was a great need to identify the plants correctly, and the botanical paintings served that purpose.
The next great wave of appreciation for botanical painting was in the 1700s and 1800s. By the 1700s, both flowers and art were considered symbols of culture and refinement, so there was a large demand for botanical art from cultured ladies of the time. The years 1740-1840 were considered the golden age of botanical art, when five famous botanical masters painted: Georg Dionysius Ehret, Nikolaus Joseph Jacquin, Franz Bauer, Ferdinand Bauer, and Pierre Joseph Redouté.
During this time, advances in printing and engraving made it possible to produce large quantities of colored botanical prints for the first time, so botanical art became affordable to a much larger cross-section of society. The popularity of botanical art increased dramatically.
Fast-forward to the present, and there has been a renewed interest recently in botanical art. Today's top botanical artists are so talented they have been compared to the botanical masters of the golden age. "We are thrilled to be associated with three very gifted botanical artists at Peconic Bay Originals," says Nancy. "They are Vicki Bloye Gainsburg, Kathy Cranmer, and Manabu Saito. Each has his or her own style of botanical watercolors, and they are all incredible."
Learn more about Vicki Bloye Gainsburg
Learn more about Kathy Cranmer
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Fine Art Prints
