Margaret Flockton Award
View details of Margaret Flockton Award 2010
The Margaret Flockton Award commemorates the contribution Margaret Flockton made to Australian scientific botanical art.
The Friends of The Gardens is pleased to sponsor, with the support of the Maple-Brown Family, the Margaret Flockton Award for Botanical Illustration. Through its members, the Friends is committed to funding projects that embellish and enrich the four estates of the Botanic Gardens Trust. In supporting this Award, the Friends help the Trust and its staff to continue to pursue excellence in all that they do. The Friends also holds an annual exhibition of botanical art: Botanica, see Friends Special Events.
2009 Winners
The winners of the 2009 Award were announced at the opening of the Margaret Flockton Award Exhibition on 9 April in the Red Box Gallery at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney. The works were judged on botanical accuracy, technical and artistic merit and reproducibility.
First Prize of $5000 - Sandra Burrows a freelance botanical illustrator and field botanist from South Africa, for her pen and ink illustration of Asparagus elephantinus. This is the first time Sandra has entered the award. Congratulations!
Second prize of $2000 - Klei Rodrigo Sousa, a freelance botanical illustrator from Brazil, for his pen and ink rendering of Orthophytum heleniceae.
The judges also felt five illustrations were worthy of being highly commended. They were:
Sandra Burrows - freelance botanical illustrator and field botanist, South Africa - Acacia latispina.
Rosemary Wise - botanical artist in the Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford, United Kingdom - four species of Pouteria (P. coriacea, P bangii, P. stimulans, P. bracteata).
Rosemary Wise - botanical artist, Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford, United Kingdom - Four species of Pouteria (P. sapota, P. baehniana, P. polysepala, P. buenaventurensis)
Mali Moir - botanical, scientific and natural history artist, Victoria - Doryanthes palmeri.
Prof Rod Seppelt - Principal Research Scientist and Botanist with the Australian Antarctic Division, Tasmania - Calyptopogon mnioides.
2009 Judges' Comments
The judges for the 2009 award were Hannah Finlay, scientific illustrator at the University of NSW, Dr Trevor Weekes, Senior Lecturer/Convenor for Natural History Illustration at the University of Newcastle and Dr Peter Weston, Senior Principal Research Scientist at the Botanic Gardens Trust. They spent several hours viewing the 40 entries and where unanimous in their decision.
Below are their comments which aim to assist artists in their future illustration making.
Hannah Finlay - Scientific Illustrator, University of NSW
- Firstly just to say that I thought the standard of work over all had improved on last year. However I thought some entrants could enhance their entries in future, by concentrating more on producing lines which are consistent in width, (using pens like Rotring would go along way to solving this problem) and using stipple to show the texture and form of each element.
- Secondly, the other big area which could be improved is the composition and overall layout of works. I think some entries could be improved by entrants paying more attention to the size and dominance of the different plant elements according to their importance in the description of the species. Also making sure that things are neither too crowded, or conversely, too widely spaced from one another to create an image which is easy to read but also looks aesthetically pleasing.
- Thirdly, illustrators need to remember that these illustrations should always show the parts of the plant which the scientific description has highlighted as key features i.e. the features that differentiate the species from its relatives.
- Finally, I was very pleased to see people had sent work from all over the world, and am hoping that this might lead to a greater diversity in subject matter in future years as it would be interesting to see new exotic plants in the competition.
Dr Trevor Weekes - Senior Lecturer, Natural History Illustration, the University of Newcastle
- The entries were of a very high standard with several outstanding works. It was pleasing to see works from all over the world confirming the status of this award.
- The winning entries demonstrated all the essential qualities necessary to create an outstanding work.
- There was a broad range of works all demonstrating varied levels of competency and some very challenging compositions. In most cases the work, as well as being botanically accurate was aesthetically pleasing.
- The less successful works seemed to be the combination of line (ink) and graphite.
- Some entrants included the reduction print which was very useful for the judges to ascertain the works reproduction qualities.
Dr Peter Weston - Senior Principal Research Scientist, Botanic Gardens Trust
- As the scientist on the Margaret Flockton judging committee, I assessed the entries as sources of morphological and/or anatomical information, under the assumption that they would be published accompanying a morphological description. The questions that I asked of each entry in scoring them were:
1. Does the drawing look like a realistic portrayal of the living plant that it is supposed to represent?
2. Does the drawing accurately simulate the 3-dimensional shape of the parts that were drawn?
3. Is the drawing consistent with the accompanying morphological description?
4. Does the drawing clearly display any diagnostic features listed with the accompanying description?
- The scientific standard of entries this year was quite variable but very good overall. The most common weakness among lower scored entries was a failure to accurately simulate the 3-dimensional shape of some structures, especially swollen organs such as some fruits and stems. The awarded and highly commended drawings were excellent representations of their subjects, which must have delighted the botanists who commissioned them.
2009 Highly commended |
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Margaret Flockton Award 2009 winners
Click on images to enlarge
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2009 First Prize of $5000:
Asparagus elephantinus by Sandra Burrows from South Africa.
Detail
2009 Second prize of $2000:
Orthophytum heleniceae by Klei Rodrigo Sousa from Brazil.
Detail
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