The Florilegium

I am very proud to say I am one of the many artists who have had the privilege of being invited to be a member of the Florilegium Society at the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney.  

This special society is creating a collection of botanical paintings for the Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust, Sydney.  It has a growing membership of incredibly talented botanic artists from Australia and countries around the world.  Each member is invited to paint their chosen plant/s from a supplied list of significant plants held in the living collections of the three botanic gardens - to be accepted, each piece being of the highest standard & botanically accurate.   

This is a very unique collection, the first of it's kind by a botanic garden in Australia and it will be exhibited at times to highlight these beautiful plants and raise awareness of the work of the Trust.  

To help celebrate the 200 year history of Australia’s first botanic garden,  the works accepted into the collection to date will be published in a beautifully printed hardcover book in 2016 called The Florilegium, Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney Celebrating 200 years. Each artwork will be showcased in full colour on a double page spread accompanied by  historical & botanical text, and the artists biographies.  

To accompany this exciting publication an exhibition of The Florilegium works will be held at the Museum of Sydney from July to November next year.

To help fund the publication, the Florilegium Society is offering the opportunity to be a subscriber - with the subscribers name being included on a special page in the book to acknowledge their kind donation & support.  This offer ends at the end of October. 

For more details regarding all of the above, please refer to the article below taken from the recent Foundation & Friends "Gardens" Magazine or see the Botanic Gardens Website here.

Keteleeria fortunei - detail of the mature cone Painted by Linda Catchlove

© 2015 Foundation & Friends of the Botanic Gardens

I am thrilled to announce that my first botanical contribution to this wonderful collection was accepted this year
& will be part of the exhibition & will also appear in the publication.  So I am a very happy artist indeed!

My piece Keterleeria fortunei is a conifer native to Hong Kong & certain provinces of China. It has the most
gorgeous pastel green immature cones and wonderfully large woody mature cones (this was my favourite part to paint and what attracted me to choose to this plant).  I also found the seeds very beautiful to paint as well.
A detail of it appears proudly in the article above and the full painting is below.

Keteleeria fortunei - painted by Linda Catchlove