Botanical Artist to Exhibit at Tupare

Botanical artist Susan Worthington's work has won an appreciative audience straddling social and geographic boundaries - from everyday Kiwi postage-stamp users to the royal patron of an exquisite publication which features three of her paintings.

And with her work to be exhibited at Tupare in New Plymouth later this month, Taranaki people have an opportunity to see why the Stratford-born artist is so highly regarded.

Worthington's Plant Portraits will be on show from 22 to 29 November in a most apt setting - the beautifully restored Chapman-Taylor home amidst Tupare's lush, landscaped grounds and gardens.

Also on display for the first day of the exhibition (22 November) will be a copy of Volume 2 of the Highgrove Florilegium, a painstakingly produced publication featuring work by Worthington and other leading botanical artists depicting for historical record the plants that grow in Prince Charles' organic garden at Highgrove, England. The Prince has signed each copy of the Florilegium, which sells for £11,000 a copy. Proceeds go to his charities.

Worthington was initially asked to submit one work for the Florilegium. Its editors deemed it "a most beautiful, sensitive and refined painting" and asked her to do two more. Two of her works depict rhododendrons, (R. 'Scarlet Wonder' and R. x ponticum 'Purple Splendour') with plants from Pukeiti used as "models". Her third painting is of an English horse chestnut.

In a more everyday setting, Worthington's work also appeared in a 2004 stamp issue by NZ Post. The set included this country's first "scratch and sniff" stamps, which featured her paintings of Magnolia 'Vulcan' bred by the late Tikorangi horticulturalist Felix Jury, and Rhododendron 'Charisma' grown at Pukeiti.

Her botanical art has been exhibited throughout New Zealand and in Birmingham, Oxford, Kew, and London in the UK. She has been awarded four medals at Royal Horticultural Shows in London and Birmingham.

Worthington was also the artist in residence at Pukeiti during this year's Taranaki Rhododendron and Garden Festival.

Botanical art is an exacting discipline and has been enjoying a resurgence in recent years. To create the magic that is botanical illustration, the plant's flowers and leaves are measured and drawn accurately, leaving nothing out. After transferring the drawing to fine watercolour paper, the colours are carefully matched and deciding on the composition is the next step. As the artist is often working with dying models, there is sometimes not much time to record and paint a plant.

The Tupare exhibition will be open from noon to 4pm daily from Sunday 22 to Sunday 29 November, with Susan Worthington in attendance daily from 1.30pm to 2.30pm. Entry is free.

ENDS

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