Plants on Paper: A Potted History of Botanical Art
David Marsh
- Region:
- Anywhere
- Notice Period:
- Emergency (maybe less than one week's notice)
- Type:
- Professional/academic/Hobby/Rotary/sometimes charity
- Fee:
- Paid: 100 for online, but more if travelling depending on distance etc
- Category:
- Hobbies
- Updated:
- 30th January 2023
- Tagged:
- Gardens | Art History | Botany | Paintings
The representation of plants in art could be the subject of a course that runs for years… so this talk is just a quick dip into some of the amazing stories and treasures you can find compressed into an hour.
Botanical art used to have rather a dull & staid reputation probably because of the of invention of photography. After all when we have fantastic digital cameras and microscopes and can see things with them “for real” why would we want a drawing or painting where the artist chooses what we see instead?
Actully that is the best reason. The artist can show you what the camera can’t. Every part of the plant can be included, including buds, flowers leaves and seeds, even cross-sections and parts invisible to the naked eye.
This talk shows how botanical art has evolved over the past 1500 years, and why it is still essential to the identification and classification of plants.
And in case you think thats all a bit serious there are lots of beautiful pictures!
Views: 223 | Enquiries: 0About David Marsh
I've been lecturing "live" and on-line about every aspect of the history of gardens, landscapes, as well as plant hunting /plants/botany for more than 25 years to gardens clubs, U3A groups, and to museums like the V&A & across higher education. I discovered the subject because after a career as a head teacher I took very early retirement and went back into education full time on my own account. I did a four year diploma course in Garden History which led on to an MA in Historical Research and then a PhD at Birkbeck College, University of London on The Gardens and Gardeners of Later Stuart London.
I was a trustee of The Gardens Trust, the national campaigning body for the protection and support of our historic parks, gardens and designed landscapes and chaired their education committee from 2016 until 2023. I also write a weekly blog for them which you can find at thegardenstrust.blog
I've run courses on the history of gardens [and many other things] at Birkbeck and City Lit. I'm currently an honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Buckingham and run a Masters Course in Garden History as well as offering supervision to PhD students.
If all that sounds posh - rest assured I'm not!
Other Talks on SpeakerNet by David Marsh
- The Little Men in Red Hats
- Castles for Cows & Palaces for Poultry
- What Made Your Garden Grow?
- The Joys [and Problems!] of Making a Garden in France
- The History of the London Square
- The Opposite of Chelsea: The Garden Festival at Chaumont-sur-Loire
- The National Botanic Gardens of Burma
- Humphry Repton: Britain’s First Landscape Gardener
- Tools of the Trade
- Puzzle Pictures
- The Elephant in the Garden
- The History of the Cottage Garden
- The Tradescants
- The palaces of Tudor London and their gardens...and their beasts!
- The Great Geranium Robbery
- An Introduction to Tudor and Stuart Gardens
- The Loudons
- The Picturesque
- Moorfields: The Story of London's First Public Park
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