Historic botany-art exhibit launched at SU Botanical Gardens

The launch of the first permanent botanical-art collection, the James and Shirley Sherwood Botanical Art Collection, in the Stellenbosch University Botanical Gardens (SUBG) on Friday 8 May was a bittersweet occasion owing to the loss of a leading botanist in the wake of this milestone moment and the fact that SUBG was opening its doors to both botany and art lovers alike.

The collection showcases various botanical artists and scientific illustrators producing drawings of some of the SUBG’s most rare, indigenous plants.

Art curator Karen Steward said the first seeds for the art collection were planted by the late Dr Donovan Kirkwood.

“He made a plant list, an accession list based on the most critically endangered and rare plants in the SUBG collection, identified as priorities for illustration. He and Annarie [Senekal] worked really hard over quite a few months, creating a list with flowering times so artists could coordinate their schedules around the plants.”

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Different species

Kirkwood died last August in the Jonkershoek mountains pursuing his passion, gathering botanical specimens.

Senekal is current acting SUBG curator and along with the garden’s team, she helped the artists understand the biology, life cycles and other scientific aspects of the plants they chose to sketch.

Species such as the marasmodes are extinct in the wild, but since the SUBG team is working to propagate and reintroduce the flower into its natural habitat, the artists had a unique opportunity to see them.

Kirkwood’s contribution to the collection was highlighted throughout the day and his father, Eddie Kirkwood, cut the ribbon to the gallery space. An earlier drawing of his is also part of the collection.

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Among the artists who answered the call from the SUBG was Sibonelo Chiliza, Julie Ah-Fa and Daleen Roodt.

Roodt, a KwaZulu-Natal-based botanical artist, chose to work on vellum, made of calf skin, giving her illustrations a dreamy feeling.

“It is very different than working on paper, which is absorbent,” she explained. “Working with vellum is almost like painting on glass, so you have to work very dry and build up layers of paint on top of each other.”

Despite the time-consuming process, Roodt said the jewel-like effect of the work and its ability to change as light during the day changes is what she wanted to create.

The aim of the collection is to draw more art lovers to the botanical world and vice versa. Senekal said projects for the collection are already in the works, but meanwhile some of the best botanical artists’ work can be viewed.