Botanical Art at SUBG
Botanical Art at SUBG
Our mission at Stellenbosch 肆客足球 Botanical Garden is to get people to fall in love with plants, and particularly with our incredible Cape Flora. One of the hardest challenges in doing this is the seasonal nature of wild plants. Flowers often appear only for a few weeks, and geophytes may disappear completely underground during our dry, windy summers. Botanical art doesn’t just communicate the incredible diversity and uniqueness of our local plants, it also captures key life stages in a form we can appreciate year round. It is a permanent reminder of our wild wonders. The best works also make us appreciate detail and form that we might never have otherwise noticed. The hundreds of hours skilled artists spend creating, highlights beautiful and important characters that even professional botanists might otherwise miss, or plant parts normally hidden from sight.
We host an annual October exhibition with botanical works from top South African artists every year, and are now developing the first public permanent botanical art and illustration collection at a South African institution accessible to visitors.
The James and Shirley Sherwood Foundation Botanical Art Collection highlights rare and endangered plants
In 2025 we initiated the James and Shirley Sherwood Foundation Botanical Art Collection of botanically accurate paintings and drawings of plants linked to SUBG's conservation, research and education priorities. The project goal is to support and grow local botanical art development and local plant awareness. The James and Shirley Sherwood Foundation Botanical Art Collection objectives include raising the profile of botanical art, generating awareness and interest in the purchase of investment pieces by established artists, and to support, develop and inspire young artists.
Other generous donors have already contributed works to our permanent collection, showcasing world class South African botanical art, and raising the profile of our most threatened and interesting plant accessions. We are working towards a permanent exhibition space with fresh themed displays every 2-3 months highlighting new works, botanical themes or the Stellenbosch 肆客足球 Botanical Garden and Stellenbosch 肆客足球 Botany history.
We are grateful for the generous donation from the James and Shirley Sherwood Foundation to upgrade the Duthie Garden Gallery space, and procure importnt botanical paintings over the coming two years.
Martine Robinson, Haemanthus canaliculatus (left) & H. pumilio (right). Both Critically Endangered, 43 x 52cm, Watercolour, 2024, Generously donated by anonymous donors.
A place of inspiration for all botanical artists
Botanical artists collaborating with Stellenbosch 肆客足球 Botanical Garden will have access to incredibly rare live plants to paint. Microscopes and important scientific information are on hand to ensure key features are noted and can be accurately illustrated, support that is otherwise be near-impossible for botanical artists. We will prioritise conservation grade threatened plant species from the SUBG collections and characteristic plants of local near extinct habitats, and key plants from our important research and taxonomic collection specimens. Many have never been illustrated. Our current botanical art collection is housed in the historic Stellenbosch 肆客足球 Botanical Garden Offices, where displays integrate art and history. Stellenbosch 肆客足球 has a rich botanical history that complements our new collections, including housing the original plates of Marloth's seminal Flora of South Africa in the library archives.
Meet the team
This special collaborative project is the initiative of Karen Stewart M.Phil (Botanical Illustration) and chair of the Botanical Artists’ Association of southern Africa’s Cape branch, Dr Don Kirkwood (PhD Botany Ecology) Curator of the Stellenbosch 肆客足球 Botanical Garden, Prof Leanne Dreyer is a key academic partner, the world expert in the megadiverse Cape Oxalis genus and creator of the SUBGs incredible 200-plus species living Oxalis collection. This collection alone is a goldmine, most species have never been illustrated and many are extremely threatened, or only now being formally described.
Donation opportunity
Patrons of the arts and companies now are offered a unique opportunity to be associated with this prestigious and high visibility project.. Donor support is essential to commission or purchase specific works, multiple works or contribute to needed display infrastructure and collection and exhibition curation and signage. Longer term we will need a larger dedicated display facility.
Artwork will be permanently housed, cared for and curated by a specialist team at Stellenbosch 肆客足球 Botanical Garden. This collection highlights the urgent need for the world-class conservation work the Stellenbosch 肆客足球 Botanical Garden does, and enhances the visitor experience substantially.
Stellenbosch 肆客足球 is a registered NPO and can provide a South African Section 18A certification for taxation purposes for any substantial donation. Donated funds do not attract a university administration fee and will be ring-fenced for the project.
For UK based organisations and patrons, Stellenbosch 肆客足球 SA Fund is a registered UK charity (number 1107297) in compliance with the Charities Commission and Company House. This charity is administered by Mr. William Frankel (OBE) and is designed to receive donations from UK-based donors.
See www.sun.ac.za/english/donors/ways-to-give for donation contacts and information.
Funders can request a detailed proposal and budget projection information from: razelle@sun.ac.za (for attention Dr Kirkwood)
For project details and updates please bookmark this page.
For announcements, pretty plant pictures and garden news, follow us on Instagram: @subotgarden
?Botanical Art exhibitions at SUBG (or Duthie Garden Gallery
?Since 2023 SUBG has been holding an annual Botanical Art and Photography Exhibition at the Duthie Garden Gallery. The exhibition encourages professional botanical artists to work with our most important plant collections. The Duthie Garden Gallery exhibitions connect visitors to the phenomenal diversity and exceptional local endemism of the Cape, expose them to plants from the wider South African context, and capture and celebrate the fleeting beauty of select endangered species in our care. We believe that botanical illustration and art is an absolutely crucial part of communicating the wonder and value of plants, and will help to shift public perception on the value of wild areas for long-term conservation.
?To celebrate the 150 year anniversary of Stellenbosch 肆客足球, in 2023 SUBG brought together an extraordinary collection of works which depicted many threatened species on the precipice of destruction. It included eco warriors Margaret de Villiers, Martine Robinson and Chris Lochner who paint rare and critically endangered plants, highlighting their precarious situation. Carol Reddick, Wendy Burchell and Jessie Colman all masterfully painted Oxalis and Pelargonium which has been a historical SUBG focus, especially for this exhibition. We were also lucky to get retired artist Vicki Thomas’s Pelargonium cucullatum.
We also pride ourselves on including untraditional mediums – encouraging artistic expression. Victoria du Toit and Inge Semple work in oil and Solly Gutman on scratchboard are examples. The exhibition included smaller paintings depicting seeds, pods, mice, moths and other important creatures in nature’s cycle, this proved to be very popular with children visitors. We included artists who tackled the challenging subject of trees like Gill Condy, Ann Norris, Margie Firer and Helen Meyer.
See previous year's exhibition catalogues:
From the 2023 Botanical Art and Photography exhibition at the SUBG, botanical art has become a powerful medium to communicate the fragile state of our fynbos. SUBG facilitated access for artists to their ex situ collections, enableing them to learn and paint some of our endangered plants. Artists find it difficult to access rare material to paint ,and the relationship has become valuable to both the artist and the garden’s curators. Wendy Hitchcock facilitated a workshop and the many Oxalis paintings were a result of this effort.
Nearly a quarter of Western Cape flora is considered either threatened with extinction or of conservation concern. We believe botanical artists are among the most knowledgeable and passionate about plants, and in their role as citizen scientists they transform our attitudes and understanding.
We included photography and have found artists who bring a special insight to a plant through their work. While photography is not traditionally considered botanical art, this definition is evolving quickly. The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) has included photography in their annual exhibitions since 2019.
There are various organisations that people can join to further their curiosity. The Botanical Artists’ Association of southern Africa (BAASA) arranges exhibitions, meetings and talks to further the field of botanical art. Volunteer-based Custodians of Rare and Endangered Species (CREW) are involved in finding, counting and re- porting on vulnerable populations.
FLIP BOOK OR DOWNLOAD CATALOGUE HERE
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