The science of capturing nature

BOTANICAL art combines the disciplines of art and science to accurately reproduce the essence of a plant either through paintings or drawings. The illustrations have been used for centuries to portray and identify the natural world of plants. The perfect lines, exquisite details and subtle colourings create a sense of timelessness in these passionate portrayals by devotees of the craft.
Where would we be without Banks' Florilegium, a publication recording the botanical collections made by Joseph Banks and his team of naturalists aboard James Cook's Endeavour. Banks is credited with introducing the Western world to the eucalypt, acacia and the banksia, a genus named after him.
A print from Banks' Florilegium will be included in an exhibition of 30 Australian botanic artists being held at Domain House Gallery in Melbourne's Royal Botanic Gardens. The Eternal Order in Nature: The Science of Botanical Illustration is being presented by the Friends of the Royal Botanic Gardens and coincides with the XVIII International Botanical Congress in Melbourne this month.

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Held every six years, the conference involves 4000 scientists from around the world discussing nomenclature – the naming of plants – botanical science and research on plants, algae and fungi.
The exhibition's curators, seasoned artist and teacher Mali Moir and fledgling botanic artist Amanda Ahmed, say it is a chance to showcase the work of the artists — some leaders in their field, others lesser known — and also the diversity of Australia's flora and landscape.
Moir, who began her career as a botanical artist in 1993 at the National Herbarium of Victoria, combines botanical and horticultural knowledge and has contributed pen and ink drawings for Flora of Victoria, Muel-leria and other scientific publications.
Each of the artists was asked to produce a series of small to large projects to challenge the nature of botanical illustration and the blurred lines between art and science. Part of the brief included a series of works or a work based on Australian natives or plants pertaining to the Australian landscape.
Ahmed's piece is a study based on an area of the Mornington Peninsula foreshore, where British explorer Matthew Flinders landed in 1802.
"My works are introduced weeds so I'm looking at changes to the landscape over the past 200 years and the changes in the area's biodiversity," Ahmed says.
She cites artist Lauren Black's works as amazing for their complexity and detail.
"One is a fossil that used to be in [mainland] Australia but is now in Tasmania," she says. "She's got it all mapped out in microscopic detail and there's a sense of narrative in her works. It's not about an Australian native as such but it was 33 million years ago."
There is also an interest in botanical illustrations post Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus, whose binomial system for classifying and naming plants is as important today as it was in the 1730s.
Well-known participating artists include Dianne Emery, Anita Barley, Celia Rosser, John Pastoriza-Pinol, David Mackay, Ian Clarke, Ellis Rowan and Jenny Phillips. A newcomer to the field, Kate Vlcek, is sure to cause a stir with her provocative coloured-pencil portrayal of a fungus, 'The Invitation' stinkhorn (Phallus mul-ticolour).
According to Vlcek, during the wet season in Darwin, this fungus pushes its way through the bark and leaves towards the light in a primaeval display of strength, a potent symbol of masculinity and fertility proudly displaying its engorged fruit, which hatches from an "egg" and is pumped full of water to produce its characteristic form.
"It is an evocative response to the feminine qualities of abundant moisture and warmth that encourages its growth," she says. "Although erotic in appearance, this stinkhorn fungus produces a brown, foul-smelling slime that contains its spores."
While photographs can capture the beauty of a flower or leaf, they cannot compare with botanical illustrations, Moir says. "You can see everything in botanic art, whereas a photograph loses a lot of personal contact and details."
Moir, who has chosen to depict three native plants in her work, says the exhibition is designed to showcase the old and new work of artists and to develop a deeper knowledge of botanical art and illustration and its strong basis in science.
For Ahmed, who is just embarking on the botanic-art journey, botanical illustrations display a great level of commitment.
"One of the things we highlight in the show is the professional and amateur status of the artists and the commitment they make to the genre, which is very considerable," she says. Many works are for sale but some are on loan from organisations including the State Botanical Collection at the National Herbarium.
The exhibition is open daily from
10am-5pm (8pm Wednesdays) until August 7 at Domain House, Dallas Brooks Drive, South Yarra.


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