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| Eucalyptus leucoxylon subsp. megalocarpa © Christine Battle 2010 |
This evening saw the preview of an exhibition of botanical art by Christine Battle, held at
The Backyard Gallery, in Tetbury, Gloucestershire. This is her first solo exhibition and is all the more remarkable for the fact that she only started painting plants in 2006. Her progress has been rapid!
I first met Christine when, while researching
New Trees, I visited her remarkable young arboretum at Congrove in South Gloucestershire (see my post of
20 March 2011 for more on this). Shortly afterwards she asked me for advice on her portfolio for completing the Diploma in Botanical Illustration from the English Gardening School, and said she'd like to do a series of paintings of rare trees. In the end she chose a selection of unusual species from
New Trees, and prepared plates of them as though they would appear in the book. This series won an RHS Gold Medal when exhibited at the Malvern Flower Show last year, and the plate of
Eucalyptus leucoxylon subsp.
megalocarpa (above) was awarded an Honourable Mention in the show of the American Society of Botanical Artists show that has just finished in New York.
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| Christine Battle (L) and Harriet Tupper, Chairman-Designate of the International Dendrology Society, with some of Christine's New Trees paintings. |
The Backyard Gallery, home-base of Ken and Elisabeth Hancock, has done Christine's work proud in this exhibition, hanging her originals and prints very crisply against red walls, where they look stunning: if passing through Tetbury between now and 8 December it is well worth a visit. More images of Christine's art can be found on her
website.
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| Preview at The Backyard Gallery, Tetbury, fortified by the remarkably good Jenkyn Place sparkling wine. |
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Betula maximowiczianum leaf, painted on vellum
© Christine Battle 2010
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Posts
Lovely. I aspire to this level of work, I have been learning for two yeas and have a long way to go
ReplyDeleteI was lucky enough to see the juried show of the ASBA you mentioned--Christine's work is magnificent!
ReplyDeleteI have never seen Christine Battle’s work nor have I ever heard about her. I is, in fact, quite amazing.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting about it as I intend to follow her progress.