What Does A Botanical Artist Do?
What is a botanical artist?
I thought that I would start off with answering a very vague and very broad question. But perhaps it is one that many often ask? Heck even I question this sometimes!
In short a Botanical Artist is an artist who paints plants – that’s it, in a nutshell.
Well okay, that might be the quick & basic answer but there is a lot more to it than just someone who like to paint pretty flowers. To keep things on topic and relevant I’m going to be specifically talking about watercolour as the medium of choice.
What job does a botanical artist do?
When I started using watercolours to paint botanical subjects I never gave much thought into what this could be used for in the big wide world of art as a career. There is a whole range of things that fall under the umbrella of botanical art.
There is of course the very obvious one which is usually what starts people of in the subject of painting plants. Painting pretty flowers and expanding on a love of flowers & plants is what get many interested in the subject. Botanicals are also a forgiving subject compared to some such as portraits or landscapes so it is often an easier start for those who are starting out with watercolours. There is nothing wrong with this at all! if you’re content making nice art work and selling feel no shame. Many well known artists do this such as Anna Mason & Billy Showell who are both renowned for their amazing botanical pieces. But perhaps who want more? Or are you just curious? Is this fully sustainable as a career just painting pretty flowers?
What artist draws plants?
So yes there is more to the botanical art field than just drawing and painting please images. Taking it up a notch there is scientific botanical art. This is pretty close to what I just mentioned but it takes it to a different level. Scientific illustration is painting pretty flowers & plants BUT you focus less on the pretty and more on the accuracy. With scientific study it is more important that things match the real world accurately. Paintings need to be done to scale, either life size or scaled down but that have to be correct.
With my botanical pieces I don’t aim to be scientific, it doesn’t matter to me personally if my leaves are not in proportion to the plant or if certain parts of the plant are incorrect.
This doesn’t apply for scientific illustration as we are moving on from just pretty pictures. They have to be correct. These images are used for information books, scientific studies and education. Yes that rainbow, multi-coloured rose is stunning, is it realistic? No? Then it is not suitable for this particular topic. Don’t feel bad if like me you just want a nice painting, unless you want it to be scientific it feel free to go wild.
Commercial Flowers?
Commercial. This is often a word that artists like to stay away from. I don’t agree, you shouldn’t have to feel guilty for wanting to sell your art or go more commercial.
Commercial illustration steps away from the art aspect a little bit and walks towards graphics & marketing. It is important to remember that is still art!
Personally I feel commercial botanicals are overlooked. This is due to it being right in our faces so we don’t notice or it’s because of some art snobbery. Commercial botanical plays a big part in the world. Don’t believe me? Next time you go out to your local supermarket try this – take a look and see how many flowers, plants, fruit or veg illustration you see. You’ll be surprised at how much you find. Stuck? Okay I’ll help you out, here is what you can find botanical illustration on:
– Jams/jellies
-Honey
-Fruit & Veg labels
-Shampoo
-Shower Gels
-Cosmetics
-Laundry Detergent
-Homeware
-Other food packets such as those energy bars.
The above is often over looked and forgotten about. But all of these illustrations, whichever medium they have been done in is botanical art. Someone has been paid to design, draw and colour these. Just because it isn’t traditional or pretty it doesn’t invalidate it as botanical art.
The takeaway
These are just the main areas of botanical illustration. I wanted to share some of them as I feel it’s really easy to confine “botanical art” to artists like Billy Showell and with only having the purpose of it being nice to look at.
There are many areas of botanicals that you get into. That being said don’t feel guilty or pressured to do something that you don’t want. Want to be a commercial artist working digitally with basic shapes and patterns? This fine. It’s also fine if you only ever want to create pretty pictures.
I guess my point is no matter what style or goal you’re going for, if it’s plant based, it’s botanical art. For some examples of botanical art, check out my portfolio.
Itís hard to find educated people on this topic, but you seem like you know what youíre talking about! Thanks