painting
Captivated by Natural Beauty
They may be of flower-visitors rather than the flowers themselves, but these butterfly paintings by Robin Gregson-Brown are definitely worth sharing! I look forward to the next set of works which include the botanical scenery for his moths and butterflies.
About 30-40% of the visitors to the Manchester Museum’s Entomology Department are art or design students and professionals, who come over to get inspired by the variety of insect shapes, colours and patterns, and to talk to the museum curatorial staff about what interests them. Museum’s curators are especially pleased when such visits result in […]
via Captivated by natural beauty: Robin Gregson-Brown and Lepidoptera — Entomology Manchester
Is that Richard Buxton’s nose?
Rummaging through a box at the back of the herbarium earlier today we came across this lovely painting of a botanist (nothing like having a fern in the lapel to demonstrate your occupation!).
Looking at a display panel in the herbarium, we thought the man in the portrait looks rather similar to the daguerreotype of Richard Buxton aged 65 (on the right). What do you think?
Richard Buxton (1786 – 1865) was a very interesting man, born in Prestwich and apprenticed to be a children’s shoemaker, he decided to teach himself to read. From there, he moved on to educating himself about the plants he found growing around him, firstly by reading Culpeper’s Herbal, before reading more scientific texts which explained the Linnaean system for classifying plants. He became a renowned local botanist and wrote floras of the plants found around Manchester. We are proud to have plant material collected by such a remarkable man in our herbarium collections, and so we have some out on display in our Manchester Gallery.
Today I had a really good chat with the artist Lucy Burscough about possibilities for future arts and health projects and I thought I’d share this wonderful painting of a Papaver somniferum seed head from her blog. I love the beautiful glaucous green of the ripening seed head. You can also see the work under construction in another of her posts here.
It’s been a real pleasure to paint one of my favourite things that grow in the garden, a Papaver somniferum seed head. Spending the time to really look at it’s structure and mix it’s colours, both muted and vivid, has made me appreciate it’s beauty even more. I hope you enjoy the results too.
Acrylic on canvas, 24″ x 20″, November 2012 Available For Sale
Herbology Manchester 