Coral Guest’s book is about naturalistic flower painting. In her book, she makes the distinction between this type of painting and scientific botanical illustration.
I asked her to explain how they differ.
Naturalistic flower painting is essentially an artistic endeavour that uses classical art processes to enable the artist to understand and describe the form of a plant when illuminated by natural day light. It is also an artistic philosophy that seeks to express the purity that exists in the world of flowers, which I term Beauty. In essence, naturalistic flower painting honours the plant kingdom in a way that is creative, using technical disciplines that require concentration and focus as well as spontaneity. The artist’s personality is present in the work, in the form of choices that are made to convey the beauty that is perceived. In this way I see it as a constantly evolving history that stretches back to Durer and beyond.
Scientific botanical illustration…
