Botanical art has long-played a fundamentally important role in plant science. It seems fitting, given the Victorian era of my recent book GREEN GOLD, that I’m teaming up with a very talented botanical artist.
Even in the modern world of easy-access digital imagery, there remains something compelling and magical about botanical art, as demonstrated by the stunning work of Nicola Macartney.
I’m really excited by my collaboration with Nicola Macartney, who will be depicting some of the plants collected by John Jeffrey — the main protagonist in GREEN GOLD. Many of these plants are now growing among the living collections in Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) and its three regional gardens across Scotland: Benmore, Dawyck, and Logan.
Nicola specialises in botanical illustrations. She began studying botanical illustration at RBGE in 2008, taking a range of classes and completing the RBGE two-year Diploma in Botanical Illustration in 2012. She has won a number of awards.
Nicola’s illustrations of a selection of John Jeffrey’s plants will form part of an exhibition planned at RBGE next year, alongside archival materials including letters, minutes and plant labels, together with specimens from the herbarium. Read more
I will be featuring more of Nicola’s GREEN GOLD artwork over coming months. Do check out Nicola’s online features at:
www.nicolamacartney.com and Facebook page
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial- NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.
