The Margaret Flockton Award

In the 17^th year of the Margaret Flockton Award for Scientific Botanical Illustration, our connection to artists from all over the world is keenly felt. 63 artworks were sent to us in February – a larger representation than any previous year. From Norway to Spain, the UK to the USA, Thailand to Bulgaria, 46 artists from 21 countries submitted works in a time before the world paused.

Astoundingly, the total number of entries in 2020 reflected as a 50% increase on previous averages, with countries Bulgaria, Switzerland and Norway represented for the first time. Ink was far and away the most favoured medium for illustrating, with pencil a distant second of the traditional forms, while digital and mixed media continue their slow rise in the ranks.

Due to the unprecedented number of excellent entries this year, the judges selected 4 for Highly Commended awards. The judges observed that, collectively, the 6 awarded images reflect very well the diverse range of styles and media that comprise the body of entries this year. Additionally, in recognition of the extraordinary global circumstances of 2020, the Margaret Flockton Award Committee and the Foundation and Friends of the Botanic Gardens will give $AUD500 for each Highly Commended work in 2020. 

The judges observed that, critically, quite a few artworks lacked signatures and dates. Lack of attention to submission requirements created an obstacle for some entries, with file size and file type exceeding standard journal publication recommendations (such images prove timely to download and manipulate for printing in botanical journals). While individual features may have been beautifully rendered, poor balance or confusion of details compromised otherwise lovely drawings.

2020 is a year like no other for us all. At a time when the Margaret Flockton Award Committee would be frantically co-ordinating the exhibition opening and award presentation at the Joseph Maiden Theatre, our international community is in lock-down, our sites closed, venues empty.

To all of our artists, from this year and all previous, we send our most sincere wishes and thoughts, while together we begin to recover and repair our communities after this hard time. May this year’s digital launch of the largest ever Margaret Flockton Award exhibition, with the wide array of botanical subjects, media and styles, be a space for you to intimately reconnect with nature and be quietly inspired to continue drawing, wherever you may be. Stay safe.

With its lovely line weight and faultless tonal stipple, Gastrodia sp.nov. is an exemplary scientific illustration. A complicated little plant, the artist was required to interpret the many minute forms from semi-translucent spirit material - a technical difficulty well surmounted. The interpretation of the full habit, married with the rendering of the fruiting stages led the judges to marvel at the curiosity of the little orchid. This of course is the ultimate achievement of a scientific botanical illustration – to interpret and inform with rigorous clarity, and to inspire memorable appreciation of the botanical subject so carefully rendered.

This was a promising competitor from the moment it landed in our Dropbox! Aesthetically stunning, Sansanee has kept a great clarity to her pencil work that can be challenging with the soft graphite medium. Two full habits showing stages of maturity, with fruit and foliage details to support, reveal the confidence of the artist and the passion she had to fully detail the work, yet without excess or confusion.

This represents a classic pen and ink illustration, with the careful arranging of many features and microscopic details into an exacting study of this new species from Brazil.

Displays a very traditional arrangement and the subtle graphite medium is utilized well, creating tonal and textural surfaces to savour.

The true beauty of the artist’s technique can only be appreciated via the high resolution scans that the judges had access to. What initially may seem a little botanically simplistic, the plate reveals its quality as each feature is realised in hyper-sensitive detail and a rendering of tone that appears simplified, but is in fact just gently perfect. In particular the clever rendering of the 3 phases of the fruit section caught the judges’ eye.

 

The very graphic and bold Nepenthes shows a very strong composition and balance of line weight, reflecting both the sinewy beauty of the habit and the drama of its predatory process.
 

All previous winners of the Margaret Flockton Award are eligible to enter, excluding the 2018, 2019 and 2020 first prize winning artists.

There are no entry fees for the Margaret Flockton Award and Exhibition.

Entries to be submitted late February (official cut off date to be confirmed).

Works must have been produced after February 2019.

Exhibition:
24 April - 9 May 2021, Joseph Henry Maiden Theatre, Royal Botanic Garden Sydney.
Dates TBC 2020 Australian PlantBank, The Australian Botanic Garden Mount Annan.
Dates TBC 2020, Visitor Centre at The Blue Mountains Botanic Garden Mount Tomah

Online Flickr gallery: from Mon 26 April 2021. 

All illustrations and paperwork must be submitted digitally. Original artworks and paperwork sent via the postal system will no longer be accepted.

Each artist may submit up to two illustrations. Only high resolution digital scans of black and white (for example pen and ink, graphite or scraperboard) illustrations and/or monochromatic, digitally rendered illustrations, either published or unpublished, will be considered. All illustrations must be intended for 2D printed output. Animated or 3D rendered works or images dependent on digital viewing, as well as photos and photo montage works, are not eligible for submission.

Entries are to be digitally submitted at 100% of original artwork size with an image area no larger than A3 (295 mm x 420 mm) and no smaller than (180 x 250 mm), EXCLUDING legend. Illustrations outside of these parameters will not be accepted. The digital canvas size may only be longer than A3 to allow for the legend. The illustration should include a small legend (with plant name and all lettered components), neatly written or typed at the bottom of the artwork, outside of the image area.

Only full plate illustrations will be accepted (inclusive of habit study and diagnostic features of the species). Inclusion of scale bars, whilst not compulsory, is highly recommended.

Note: eligible entries may be printed at 67% of original size to assess reproducibility at judging.

Due to limitations of space, a selection of works will be made for exhibition.
Illustrations selected for exhibition will be printed on high quality paper and framed in standard exhibition frames.

The Margaret Flockton Award Exhibition will display high quality prints of submitted digital files only. Original artworks are neither exhibited nor sold at the Margaret Flockton Award Exhibition. If artists wish to provide an email or professional website address for direct enquiries regarding sales/other from the customer, please enter details on the biography template and consent to their use via the entry form.

 On the entry form consent is sought for the following -

1. for the Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust to store and print one high resolution copy of each entry for judging and exhibition.

2. to allow high resolution illustrations to be reproduced and biographical information to be used by the Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust or the Foundation and Friends of the Botanic Gardens for the sole purpose of promoting the Margaret Flockton Award and Exhibition.

3. to allow low resolution illustrations to be created and watermarked with ‘MFA2021’ and biographical information to be viewed in an on-line ‘flickr’ gallery format created by the Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust and the Foundation and Friends of the Botanic Gardens.

4. to indicate that your original or digital print is available for sale.

5. for your contact details to be publicly displayed on your biography and exhibition label.

The Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust and the Foundation and Friends of the Botanic Gardens are the sole owners of the information collected from the entry forms and any other information submitted and will not sell or rent this information to others. Information will be shared for the sole purpose of advertising or promoting the Margaret Flockton Award and Exhibition. All care of artworks and rights of artists will be respected and no illustrations will be commercially reproduced from this process.

Create a folder to upload your completed forms (1-4) in your Dropbox account.
Label your folder as follows: SURNAME MFA 2021 (eg. WARDROP MFA 2021)


1. Complete my entry form
Each illustration must be accompanied by an entry form. When submitting this form you are agreeing to all of the conditions of entry. Please read all conditions carefully before submitting.
Incomplete entry forms may render entries ineligible. Please tick the checklist on the entry form to ensure all information has been supplied.
Please note: Label your entry form as follows: SURNAME entry form (eg. WARDROP entry form.docx)

2. Complete my label template
Each illustration is to be accompanied by a fully completed label template with the scientific name of the plant, medium, artist's name and the legend of the drawing. These will be printed and displayed with each work.
Please note: Label your label template as follows: SURNAME Plant name label template (eg. WARDROP Casuarina glauca label template.docx)

3. Complete my biography
The provision of biographical information, contact details and photo is completely optional.
Please note: Label your biography as follows: SURNAME biography (eg. WARDROP biography.docx)
see example biography.

A folder containing biographies of the contributing artists is compiled each year for visitors to refer to. For your biography a template has been provided on the link above with fields for your name, date and place of birth; education and career highlights; publication and exhibition history; website and email contact details. A scanned portrait or suitable passport photo of the artist is also to be inserted in the delineated spot in the template. Otherwise, a digital photo can be emailed separately.
Please limit the length of your biography to under two A4 pages.

NOTE: Original artworks are neither exhibited nor sold at the Margaret Flockton Award Exhibition. If artists wish to provide an email or professional website address for direct enquiries regarding sales/other from the customer, they must enter those details on the biography template and consent to their use via the entry form.

4. Supply a taxonomic description
A taxonomic description (either published or unpublished) must be provided with each illustration. The taxonomic description should be typed and submitted electronically. This will not be framed with the artwork but will be available in a separate folder during the judging and exhibition. Examples of such descriptions can be found in local Flora publications or on PlantNET, an on-line resource for the plants of New South Wales.
Please note: Label your taxonomic description as follows: SURNAME Genus taxonomic description (eg. WARDROP Casuarina taxonomic description.docx)

Digital submission - artwork

All illustrations and paperwork must be submitted digitally via Dropbox www.dropbox.com.

Submit completed forms (1-4) with up to two image files to Dropbox www.dropbox.com
Please note: Label each image file as follows: ARTIST SURNAME Plant name (eg. WARDROP Casuarina glauca.tiff)
Once you have created your account be sure to invite botanical.illustration@rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au to View AND Edit files in the shared folder where you have uploaded your image files.
The Margaret Flockton Award Committee will contact you to confirm your image files have been received.
 
Digital file specifications
One high resolution digitial file is to be submitted for each illustration. The file size should not exceed 200MB.

High resolution for judging and exhibiting:
No photos of artworks will be accepted - scanned original works or digitally created images only.

Ink line and stipple - Bitmap tiff @ 1200dpi
Pencil or Continuous tone - Greyscale (NOT colour) tiff or psd (NOT jpg) @ 600dpi (minimum).

Entries are to be digitally submitted at 100% of original artwork size with an image area no larger than A3 (295 mm x 420 mm) and no smaller than (180 x 250 mm), EXCLUDING legend. Illustrations outside of these parameters will not be accepted. The digital canvas size may only be longer than A3 to allow for the legend.

Whilst large file transfer sites such as Dropbox are reliable and secure The Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust and the Foundation and Friends of the Botanic Gardens will not be liable for any breaches of security associated with transfer of digital images and information associated with the entries in the Margaret Flockton Award nor will they be responsible for any loss or damage of files in transit.

Entries will be assessed in accordance with the following criteria: accurate interpretation and portrayal of plant characters and diagnostic features; technical merit; reproducibility; composition; artistic merit. See A Guide to Scientific Illustration for more information on judging criteria.

Works should be submitted as ready for publication and must be capable of being reduced to 67% of the original size without loss of detail. A major criterion of scientific illustration is that images should be clearly and simply reproduced through the printing process.

After judging or, in the case of exhibited works, at the conclusion of the exhibition period, all high resolution digital files and printed illustrations will be destroyed with the exception of the winning, second prize and highly commended works. These are to be stored for historical and publicity purposes only. With the artist’s permission (see entry form) low resolution jpgs will be available for on-line viewing from 6 May 2019.

First and second prize-winners will be paid by electronic transfer in Australian dollars soon after the awards are announced. Overseas artists will be paid by International Money Transfer in Australian dollars and will need to provide their bank account information upon request. Overseas artists should note their banking institutions may charge fees for international transactions

The science of botany requires plant taxonomists to describe plant species in both words and drawings, with botanists preparing a detailed description of the plant and the artist producing an accompanying illustration.

Taxonomic illustrations are normally published in scientific journals as highly detailed black and white drawings (primarily pen and ink, more rarely pencil) or digitally rendered illustrations (excluding photos and photo-montage), representing aspects of plant morphology essential for identification.

The Margaret Flockton Award is unique in art awards in that it recognises and promotes scientific botanical illustration as opposed to botanical art.
With the above in mind, the evaluation of entries is based on the following criteria:

• Accurate interpretation and portrayal of plant characters and diagnostic features noted in the botanical description
• Technical merit
• Reproducibility
• Composition
• Artistic merit

When considering these broad criteria, the following are also taken into account:

Precision and accuracy 
Correct botanical detail, all plant characters and diagnostic features must be accurately displayed.

Reproducibility
The image must be capable of being successfully scanned and reproduced (often reduced) without loss of detail. Very dense (black) or light detail may not reproduce well. A major criterion of scientific illustration is that images should be clearly and simply reproduced through the printing process. Illustrations must be capable of being reduced to 67% of the original size without loss of detail.

Good composition 
The plate should be laid out to give a balanced presentation allowing the overall effect to be aesthetically pleasing. This balance is best demonstrated by the careful placement of the primary subject. In other cases, balance may be the result of careful placement of the dissected details of the plant.

Use of scale bars, whilst not mandatory, is preferred
Great care should be taken in giving the correct scale of each feature. If possible, avoid using multipliers eg. 'x3' or 'x0.5' to indicate the size of features, as this becomes meaningless if the drawing is used in a publication and printed at a different size; the use of a scale bar is accurate regardless of changes to the size of the image.

Signature 
The signature should be neat, small and consistent, with the year noted.

For enquiries and further information

Lesley Elkan and Catherine Wardrop
The Margaret Flockton Award
c/- Illustration, National Herbarium of NSW
Royal Botanic Gardens & Domain Trust
Mrs Macquaries Road
Sydney NSW 2000 Australia
Telephone: 02 9231 8133
Email: botanical.illustration@rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au