BOTANICAL ART TALKS

23 October 2025 - 7pm RECORDING NOW AVAILABLE

SCRATCHBOARD DRAMA

Rhonda Nass

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Once a childhood activity, today's scratchboard artists have catapulted the medium's design, techniques, tools and final artwork quality to a professional level, with works welcomed by the fine art world. Rhonda will introduce contemporary scratchboard masters, share her own work, and reveal through demonstrations how contrasts in lighting, values, shapes, planes and textures created in scratchboard produces a drama in black and white which holds its own among any colour medium.

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Rhonda's high school art teacher's declaration, "You could never be an artist" was the impetus needed to begin a career in the field of art. A day after earning her Bachelor of Science in the Arts, she married Rick Nass, a fellow art student, and the following year birthed Ampersand, their illustration/art studio (now approaching its 50th year). Rhonda has self-published two books with her drawings and paintings held in private, corporate and international museum collections.

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WEBSITE  INSTAGRAM

 

£12 RECORDING NOW AVAILABLE (until 30 October).

6 November 2025 - 7pm GMT

PLANTS WITH ATMOSPHERE

Alice Rosa

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Through her botanical portraits, Alice encourages viewers to experience plants from new perspectives. In this talk, she will share her progress on a recent artwork, with a particular focus on creating depth through atmospheric perspective. She will explain how her work as an art conservator influences her approach and her coloured pencil techniques.

 

Alice Rosa's work has been exhibited in London, San Francisco, Boston and other locations across the USA.  She graduated with distinction from the Distance Learning Diploma Course of the Society of Botanical Artists and is now an SBA Fellow member. Alice was born and raised in Italy and currently lives in Concord MA. She has a degree in foreign languages and literature from the University of Verona and also holds a degree in art conservation from IVBC in Venice, where she specialized in the restoration of polychrome wood sculptures and paintings on panel. 

 

WEBSITE  INSTAGRAM

 

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£12 (£9 if booked before 6 October )

20 November 2025 - 7pm GMT

THE BOTANICAL ART
OF MARY DELANY

Deborah Lambkin

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In the last two decades of her life, Mrs Delany (1700 – 1788) created almost 1000 iconic botanical images. Distinctive, brightly coloured, intricately detailed collages on black backgrounds, her cutouts have continued to inspire artists ever since. Deborah will talk about the techniques, materials and methods thought to have been used by Mrs Delany. She will also closely examine some pieces of Mrs Delany’s work, to further explain their compositions, accuracy and aesthetic qualities. 

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Deborah works on a freelance basis for the Royal Horticultural Society and the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. She has been Orchid Artist to the Royal Horticultural Society since 2005 and is on the RHS Picture Advisory Panel.

In 2021 Deborah was awarded the Jill Smythies Award for excellence in scientific botanical illustration and in 2020 she received the Margaret Flockton Award 1st Prize. She is a fellow of Linnean Society of London.

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INSTAGRAM

 

£12 (£9 if booked before 20 October)

11 December 2025 - 7pm GMT

ARTISTS TOGETHER

hosted by Julia Trickey

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Three leading botanical artists compare notes on subjects such as recent projects, favourite tools, dealing with mistakes and top tips for students of botanical art. 

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SARAH MORRISH is an artist, tutor, naturalist and author who works in a range of media illustrating many aspects of the natural world and the surrounding environment.

LIZZIE HARPER​ is a freelance commercial botanical and natural history illustrator with a passion for the natural world and a real love for her work.

 

CHRISTIANE FASHEK is a coloured pencil artist whose recent work focuses on enlarged lichens and fungi.

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£12 (£9 if booked before 11 November)