0n Sunday, 18th May, at the stunning RBSA Gallery in Birmingham, a host of botanical artists and guests gathered to celebrate the result of 2 ½ years of planning and painting for the Botanical Art Worldwide Exhibition 2025. Out of 50 paintings that had been submitted, 34 paintings by 29 artists from the UK and Wales were selected to be hung in the physical gallery to showcase their interpretation of crop diversity – “looking back for our future”. It was the day when all the other 33 countries around the world simultaneously held their own events to mark an incredible achievement by hundreds of artists. Both members of the Eden Project Florilegium Society that had submitted paintings, Rock Samphire by Carey Kaack and Salsify by Pat Richards, were exceedingly pleased to have their paintings selected and both attended the big day.
The two guest speakers were Helen Allen and Martin Allen, (not related) and they picked out a few paintings that they really liked and explained why. Carey’s was selected for mention due to her great back story to the history of the Rock Samphire as an ancient, foraged crop in Cornwall, and Pat’s was selected as Martin Allen had never seen the flower before. Helen Allen is one of our judges for the Archives for the EPFS and she was really pleased for us both.
The exhibition in Birmingham was on for a week before and a week after the main event, and everyday artists were on hand to answer questions and hold demonstrations. Carey Kaack went up on Saturday to steward, demonstrate, and meet members of ABA and BSBA, the main organisers of the event, which was a great opportunity to get to meet people that had previously only been seen in virtual meetings.
Such an amazing event it was proving to be, that other events were also held around the country; The Eden Project holding an exhibition in collaboration with The Eden Project Florilegium Society, and Kew Gardens holding talks and demonstrations with 6 paintings from the Birmingham exhibition being chosen to be made into posters to advertise the event at Kew. Both Carey Kaack’s Rock Samphire and Pat Richards’ Salsify were selected for this honour. The exhibition at the Eden Project is on until July.
There is an online recording of all the paintings submitted to the UK and Welsh exhibition as well as an online video of all the countries exhibitions. It was a monumental achievement and hopefully has pushed Botanical Art further into the limelight.
There is also a beautiful catalogue printed down in Cornwall by St. Austell Printers which can be bought from the ABA website.
