BOTANICAL ART TALKS

11 September 2025 - 7pm   RECORDING AVAILABLE

SEEING NATURE BY DRAWING

Vlada Repina

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How can a simple pencil sketch capture the essence of a plant? In this talk, Vlada will share how she explores this question through her Botanical Diary, where each illustration tells a story of nature’s beauty and complexity. Specializing in graphite, she will describe her focus on the texture, form, and fine details that make each plant unique. 

Vlada is a botanical artist from Ukraine, specializing in detailed botanical illustrations using graphite pencils. She graduated from the National Academy of Visual Arts and Architecture, Department of Graphic Arts. In addition to her work as an illustrator, she teaches the fundamentals of drawing, digital graphics, and classical painting. Vlada also shares her artistic journey through content creation, inspiring others to explore the beauty of nature through art.

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WEBSITE   INSTAGRAM​

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£12  RECORDING AVAILABLE (until 18 September)

25 September 2025 - 7pm BST

FROM CHALLENGE TO CHILL...

Mary Dillon

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Join Mary as she tells the story of two quite different paintings from her residency in the inspiring Oak Spring Garden Foundation. One pushed Mary out of her comfort zone and the other brought solace as she returned to it at the end of each day. Mary will share her motivation, her challenges and the wet, damp and dry watercolour painting techniques she used to create these two paintings.

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Mary has a fascination for botanical art as a personal process while at the same time striving for excellence in her art practice. Her work can be found in the collection of Dr. Shirley Sherwood and in the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation in Pittsburgh. Mary’s work was awarded  ‘Best in Show’ at the American Society of Botanical Artists 25th International Exhibition in New York. She exhibits her work widely and enjoys encouraging others to share her love for painting and plants through her teaching.

 

WEBSITE  INSTAGRAM 

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£12  (£9 if booked before 25 August). 

9 October 2025 - 7pm BST

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LEAVES ON VELLUM

Isabel Mischka

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Leaves are such a basic part of botanical art and often put aside as an annoying and complicated accessory that one has to deal with so they can get back to more exciting parts, such as fruits or flowers. But over the years Isabel fell more and more in love with how simple yet intricate they are – a love that she wants to share in this talk. Isabel talks about how she finds inspiration, prepares and mounts her vellum as well as her way of mixing and

applying color.

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Isabel Mischka is a botanical artist and teacher from Austria. A background in both fine art and agriculture led to her interest in botanical illustration. Her work centers around capturing the essence of plants in watercolor by focusing on the tiny details often overlooked in everyday live. She is also the founder of “KREATIVStudio SÜD”, a space for botanical art and illustration classes in Austria.

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WEBSITE  INSTAGRAM 

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£12 (£9 if booked before 9 September)

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23 October 2025 - 7pm BST

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 (£9 if booked before 23 September)

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 is a Fellow of the Society of Botanical Artists in London. Her 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.  Alice was born and raised in Italy. She has a degree in foreign languages and literature from the University of Verona. She 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. She currently lives in Concord, MA.

 

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)