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NEWS, NOTIONS
and the UPCOMING

OUR NEWS PAGE IS NOW ON SUMMER BREAK UNTIL THE END OF SEPTEMBER

July 22nd 2021

Pandanus Seed Pod with Shirley Sherwood. The Pandanus seed pod or Screw pine was purchased by Shirley Sherwood in 1995. There are a number of other study works in this series of seed pods, and this is the only precision piece that is painted in intense detail. In her video Dr Sherwood looks at this small work, that is shown rarely, but is much loved. Take a close look at the piece on the shirleysherwood.com website.

July 5th 2021

YOSOLA OLORUNSHOLA

A new writer for the Shirley Sherwood Gallery and the Kew Website

The highly talented and beautifully educated young writer Yosola Olorunshola has now written two pieces for the Kew website:

Structural Colour: More than Meets the Eye

In Pictures, a Botanical Rainbow

Yosola studied History and French at Oxford University, before completing a Master’s degree in Creative Writing at Royal Holloway, University of London, where she was awarded the College Master’s Scholarship and graduated with distinction.

Welcome Yosola! Your insightful thoughts on the works showing at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery are much appreciated and admired.

Please note that the Shirley Sherwood Gallery, at Kew, including the Naturally Brilliant Colour exhibition has now reopened and the maintenance issues are resolved.

12th June 2021
The Naturally Brilliant Colour Exhibition at Kew
The FIRST REVIEWS
The first comprehensive reviews of this show are up and running in both the UK and the USA. There is no need to wait for a review or basic information to appear on any compendium botanical art site.

Era Journal review by Matilda Sykes
and
PURE STRUCTURAL COLOUR for CNN NEWS by Eva Rothenberg
Structural Colour is such a vital part of our creative future that the knowledge is extending way beyond the art world and into the bigger picture.

4th June 2021
The VIRTUAL PRIVATE VIEW of Naturally Brilliant Colour Exhibition at Kew is now available on Vimeo and YouTube!
The virtual private view event of the show that took place on 17th May is now available to all. This has three parts, and gives you all the information including an explanation about Structural Colour by Andrew Parker and an interview given by Andrew Marr. It also includes the Kew Film made by the Kew film makers, when they came to my studio to see the work in progress. The length of this show is approximately 43 minutes.
Naturally Brilliant Colour at Kew Gardens

And, if you prefer, you can watch only the film made by Kew about the artwork - on YouTube:
Structural Colour Film

WHERE ART MEETS SCIENCE
THE EXCEPTIONAL AND EXTRAORDINARY
NATURALLY BRILLIANT COLOUR EXHIBITION AT KEW
SHIRLEY SHERWOOD GALLERY  
17th May to 26th September 2021

Set to be the biggest ever summer extravaganza at Kew, this is a marvel of a show, which is fundamentally a collaboration of science and art that has been over three years in the planning, by the Lifescaped director, scientist, artist and professor at the RCA, Andrew Parker. The virtual private view event with Andrew Parker in conversation with Journalist and BBC Presenter Andrew Marr, has now taken place and is the grandest that the Shirley Sherwood Gallery has yet to host. Andrew Parker’s extraordinary colour images are now on show alongside historic and contemporary artists and the story of Structural Colour in the natural world.

Three years ago, Andrew Parker requested a list of recommended artists from Shirley Sherwood in his search to find and commission an artwork using actual flakes of structural colour, a new development that represents the reality of this phenomena in the natural world. Following considerable investigation, I was invited to produce this work, and I chose to paint a Pollia condensata berry as it represents the most brilliant blue in the plant kingdom. Using newly developed flakes of structural colour, produced by Lifescaped.com, I set about creating an artwork that mirrors nature’s own brilliant colour. The actual berries were sourced by Shirley Sherwood from Africa, and sent to my studio so that I could have access to the actual unpreserved specimens with which to paint from observation, in natural light. Each berry is around 4cm in size, which I enlarged x12 to create a 120x90cm artwork that shows how structural colour is encoded into the flesh of the berry.

The Pollia condensata berry artwork, is described by Kew as … the world’s first botanical artwork using Pure Structural Colour.

The RBG Kew film crew came to my studio to film the artwork in progress in 2019. This can be seen at the show, as well as the artwork and associated process and experimental works.

The fabulous book by Andrew Parker to accompanying the show, is available from the RGB Kew Bookshop. It contains all the details from the show and describes the nature of structural colour.

https://shop.kew.org/naturally-brilliant-colour

A BOTANICAL RAINBOW
Curated by Shirley Sherwood

In the corridor galleries that are adjacent to the main Nature’s Brilliant Colour exhibition in the main gallery, is a beautiful show that celebrates the rainbow of spectrum colours in the plant world. This exhibition is a collective of beauties from all over the globe by artists represented in the Sherwood Collection. It cannot be understated how important a show like is to artists who have no botanical art galleries in their own countries, many of whom have worked untiringly for a life time, some for over forty years, to eventually show their work in this gallery.

It has to be emphasised that the works here, that are so carefully hung, form an inclusive collective rather like an actual rainbow. For me, the star of this particular exhibition has to be the pair of associated works of Alcantarea imperialis from 2001 and 2002, by the Brazilian artist Sergio Allevato who studied both at Kew and at Goldsmiths College. I have known Sergio for many years and have huge respect for his integrity as an artist. He paints botanical works directly from life, bypassing the current trend for copying photographs.
And lastly, for those interested in my phenological work, this show includes a red hybrid tulip, which was my first phenological painting from 1996, and shows the odd effects of weather patterns upon tulip colour and growth.

IF YOU ARE VISITING THE SHOW PLEASE REMEMBER TO SELECT A TIME SLOT FOR YOUR VISIT KEW IN ADVANCE

MAY 2021
The New Website Cover image from the archive
Tulipa ‘Orange Favourite’
Rapid Colour Study 2003

PAINTER of FLOWERS
My work as a flower painter began in 1974, when I was a Fine Art (painting and art history) student at the original and extraordinary Chelsea College of Art, which is a part of London University. The original art college building was located just off the Kings Road in Chelsea, London. Now known as Chelsea College of Arts, it later moved to a larger building in John Islip Street, adjacent to Tate Britain on Millbank, London.

Flower Painting is one of the historic art genres, and my work is a part of its ever evolving history. This should not be confused with Botanical Art, which became popular as a post modern term in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Botanical Art was also used in the 18th and 19th centuries as a term of reference for the genteel art pastime of refined ladies.

I am often referred to or labelled as a botanical artist, and this happens without my consent as I am not a botanical artist, I am a flower painter.

For example, I have often been described as having taught botanical art classes at Kew. In fact, I have never taught botanical art classes at Kew. I have actually been a Flower Painting tutor at Kew. In addition, my Kew endorsed book, Painting Flowers in Watercolour - a naturalistic approach (A&C Black and Timber Press, 2001) was the result of a high demand for this teaching.

Those involved in botanical art have an ongoing debate within their community about the definition of botanical art. The responsibility for defining botanical art remains firmly with those people. This is not and never has been my task, nor is it my argument, it is theirs.

It is worth remembering that flower painting is a fine art and exists mainly in a fine art context, where it is respected and currently undergoing a substantial revival. This post only needed to be written because this website is read by many who are new to looking at flower painting and have asked me about the context.

I continue to quietly develop the harmless, peaceful and philosophical purpose of flower painting. Metaphorically, I travel in spirit with all the lovers of this genre, as I continue on my journey with this historic and ever-evolving art form.


UPCOMING SHOWS FOR 2021
Well it does actually look like what was not possible in 2020 is going to happen in 2021. As confidentiality rules and agreements now govern how much can be revealed about any major exhibition, before the time of official publicity, I can only say that May 2021 will begin to open up something spectacular happening at the Shirley Sherwood gallery this year. And in the Autumn, there shall be more long-awaited news of new displays at the fabulous Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. Watch this page for details. Thank you to all who have written to wish me well in the latest endeavours concerning phenology, and to those who have loved the lockdown online workshops - its been a great pleasure and an absolute delight.

TINY LEAVES
The Musical Artist With a Focus Upon the Natural World
has a new track for this month with a Coral Guest cover image
18th March 2021
I first heard the music of Tiny Leaves - aka the exceptionally talented Joel Pike - on Radio Three one January evening, during this recent lockdown. Enchanted by its reference to naturalistic atmospheres, this work is redolent of Joel’s own experience. This is music with a light-filled touch that is unique unto itself. I’m delighted to announce that Tiny Leaves is featuring my watercolour image of the plant Amaryllis ’Denver’ as the cover for his track of this month, entitled The Sweetness of the Morning. I’m delighted to be connected to the history of Tiny Leaves work as it echoes the timeless beauty of springtime with an experimental tonality. You can read the intriguing back story to this track on the Tiny Leaves Website
Here is the track cover:

NEW WORKS for 2021
29th December 2020
New works will continue to be available on a private page to bring an end to the ongoing previous years of plagiarism of new art works and language by artists who visit this site. Others not welcome here are owners of compendium websites that publish negative descriptions of flower painting. We regret that this needs to be said on this page.

In contrast, the artists who are welcome here are those whom Coral mentors, and those who remain respectful towards this work.

Apply to James via the contact page to see new work on the private page. This website eternally welcomes genuine collectors, curators, keepers, journalists, writers and the lovers of flower painting. Please state your purpose, and an inquiry form will be sent to you if we do not already know you. This process has been very successful during 2020, and so it will continue. This is a rapid turnover system and those who have genuine appreciation for the art of the flower painter are always welcome here and will continue to have immediate and unlimited access to Coral’s new work.

NEW COVER PAGE IMAGE
27th December 2020

15th December 2020
Reflecting on the Work Ethic
Having recently completed a new essay on the Phenology Cabinet artwork, I become acutely aware of how my work as an observational flower painter is inextricably bound-up with and inseparable from, natural light and weather patterns. This is in contrast to the work made by botanical painters and illustrators who work by artificial light. If you are interested in my work you are invited to observe and to understand the difference.

My observational flower paintings are a kind of visual survey or recording of the changing light as it manifests within the flora through prevailing weather patterns. Painting under artificial light has never interested me, and so my studio faces north.

9th December 2020
Working with Early Drawings

On rare occasions I may leave a spacetime drawing for some years before completing it. This work from 2011 was placed on my www.coralguestdrawings.com website as unfinished, and was then removed after it was plagiarized by a botanical artist. Half completed, it is now being continued and reworked. When complete it will be available for private viewing, as all my new work now is. Apply via the contact page.

Thanks go to those who have granted me copies of photographs of the work I exhibited in the New Contemporaries show at the Acme Gallery in Covent Garden in 1978, which was of a series of falling fabric, inspired by the 15th century painter Jan Van Eyck. There were many falling fabric drawings at art school, including three A1 drawings of red cotton falling from a white wall. Those works were stored in a house in Locksley Street in London E14. I moved to Wapping before collecting these drawings and when I returned they had disappeared from the studio. If anyone knows their whereabouts, or perhaps has them accidentally stored after all these years, I would gladly exchange them for a contemporary work. There are gaps in the archive from 1974-7, and all visuals and all documentation of sound collaborations, from the sound studio at Chelsea College of Art in Manresa Road, would be immensely welcome.

8th October 2020
The Voluntary Online Workshops Continue
The current voluntary series of online talks entitled Who Does the Doing? - A Preliminary Discourse on Visionary Painting is now underway. Thankyou also to all who have requested to be placed on the new waiting list for my talks and workshops if there is a further lockdown in 2021. If it happens, this new waiting list (now full) will be honored. Thankyou to everyone who has applied.

19th August 2020
THE ARTIST AS GARDENER
Or, how does a flower painter source their plants?

This issue is not something to be ignored: Where does a flower painter source their plants? All flower painters have to find their subjects from somewhere. Every act of acquisition of plant matter by any botanical artist in all modes of work and all disciplines, from expressionist to conceptual and from painter to illustrator, is in possession of a legacy of action to which their work is inextricably tied. Working from observation demands not only observation, but a measure of planning, logistics, and possibly years of horticultural work.

The invisible link to the plant and its background, represents the causes and conditions that are the (often silent) background of the plant subjects we work with. As an example, if plants are purchased there is a legacy of the people who are employed to grow the plants. Or, if an artist should travel the globe in search of plants there is a intense environmental legacy that cannot be denied, because absolutely everything is linked. Therefore, I have documented the origins of the plant life I source, because these links that are irrefutable are an aspect of the work and will always be present. This is the collective level where there can be no isolation or denial.

Growing plants myself and in collaboration with gardeners in the UK, has enabled me produce works that have a zero or very low carbon footprint. I consider this to be an aspect of what it is to be an observational flower painter and to have a lifelong interest in weather patterns and visual data collection, which threads through the landscape painting and the flower painting, such as the phenology work.

Many art collectors are now openly concerned with issues of how botanical artists source plants, and are asking artists meaningful questions to justify the sourcing that they practice. Naturally, this is entirely appropriate as absolutely all actions an artist performs is an aspect of their artwork. For me as a multi-disciplinary artist, a flower or landscape painting is the final outcome of a series of many decisions and actions. This is the concluding aspect that is seen by many people. Questions are now rightly asked by collectors and museums, and artists rightly think about the impact their work has on the environment and whom they support when they source plant life. There is a more serious post that touches on this issue on the sibling website that is focused on the landscape and visionary works.

I have at times been invited to paint plants that come from gardens that are owned by those who acquire the artwork. In such a process I may return to my studio with plant matter, as in the 1,000th Painting for the Shirley Sherwood Collection, which was commissioned in secret. On occasion, I may be invited to reside where I paint for the duration of a particular artwork. This allows me to work rapidly on large canvases and papers in a garden that is the source of the plant life that I am working with. The documentation of such processes makes for serious, but sometimes unexpectedly funny, reading. Much of my historic documentation is now present in my archive, to be released in the fullness of time.

20th JULY
As the current voluntary work comes to a conclusion….

Since March, twelve online workshops were given to a group of children who were in lock down. This has been a happy experiment with the spectrum rainbow, to encourage the fun of colour awareness in our immediate environment and in the natural world. The colour green in all its glory has been the champion of the incredibly creative inspirations of the children and their pictures that were drawn and painted. They have been creating their own unique art works based on the continued interest in the observation of green. Last of all, we all talked about how our eyes see colour, and we looked at basic photosynthesis and the amazing work of the chloroplast (which challenged my own little grey cells that had to summon-up the knowledge of my botany A Level from a very long time ago when botany could be studied as a separate subject from human biology). Its been a privilege and magical and happy time. Thanks go to all the kids and their parents for all the wonderful happy messages I have received.

Photosynthesis Series 2009
The Timeline of Minerals in the Life of the Winter Green - Cool Shadow
acrylic on canvas
122x91 cm

20th MAY 2020
In Memory of James B Sherwood 1933 - 2020

James Blair Sherwood passed away peacefully last night, at the age of 86. Many of you reading this will know him as the entrepreneur and art collector husband of Shirley Sherwood OBE, and today you will find praise for his many achievements in newspapers around the world. Those of you who are part of the Botanical Art fraternity will have seen him at almost every private view at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, and the worldwide exhibitions. His support of his wife’s passion for Botanical Art and the furthering of the genre was perpetual and unceasing. Jim was just as much the man behind the woman as Shirley was the woman behind the man, and as a team they built the Orient Express luxury Hotel chain (now known as Belmond). James Sherwood, an American and an Anglophile, was equally well known as the founder of Sea Containers as he was for acquiring and passionately reviving the magnificent Orient Express train. He collected the work of modern painters, and was a trustee of the Solomon R Guggenheim Foundation and a member of the Executive Committee of the Advisory Board of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection.
When I first met Jim, it was at the Sherwood’s London home in the mid 1990s. He knew I had studied to be an abstract painter, and invited me to view some works from his spectacular collection of abstract works. We continued the discussion on modernist painters in the National Gallery of Scotland, when the Shirley Sherwood Collection held a major show there.  On one occasion in Venice, I lunched with the Sherwood’s and enjoyed what was for me the most memorable meal of my life - fresh white truffle shavings with gnocchi. The three of us talked about the magical truffle and how it was found and harvested in northern Italy. I remember Jim fondly as someone with a sense of understated humour, and an extraordinary generosity of spirit. He was down-to-earth and always humble about his own achievements. James Sherwood’s support of the Botanical Art world, provided sponsorship that was unobtrusive and unwavering, for over thirty years. Characteristically jovial, Jim was always there to endorse the work of his wife, Shirley, and his family through the building and funding of the Shirley Sherwood Gallery and the Shirley Sherwood Collection. Loved and admired by many, he will be much missed and forever appreciated.

10th MAY 2020
In Memory of Natale Rusconi
The Legendary Manager of the Cipriani Hotel in Venice

In 1997, I became the first artist to give Botanical Art Masterclasses in the exclusive Orient Express Hotels, at the request of Shirley Sherwood. In 1998 and 1999, the classes were given at the Cipriani Hotel, famously located on the Guidecca in Venice, a place where celebrity and royalty retreated and where the paparazzi could not gain access. The Cipriani was the first hotel that the Sherwoods acquired, and Dr Natale Rusconi was its manager for 30 years before retiring at the age of 81, in 2007.
Dr Rusconi, with great kindness and wonderful humor, took me under his wing and welcomed me as one of the Cipriani family at this fabulous hotel. He had extraordinary stories to tell about Merle Oberon, Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, Franco Zeffirelli and Gore Vidal, to name but a few. A man of charming intelligence he studied medicine and then literature for his PhD. Much loved in Venice as the maestro and legendary manager who enabled Julia Child to have a cookery school at the Cipriani Hotel, he loved the arts and collected the work of Robert Rauschenberg. He was engaging in conversation as well as impartial in his associations with all who visited this dazzling hotel. Natale Rusconi, who passed away in February, at the grand age of 93, is someone I remember with great fondness as do so many of the visitors to the Cipriani who had the good fortune to meet him.

APRIL to MAY 2020
Colour for Kids
As the voluntary teaching takes a leap into the rainbow…..

As the online voluntary teaching for kids continues, we have been looking beyond the rainbow and for the young creatives it has been a fun and laughter time in discovering the principles of colour and how to mix new colours from those found in the rainbow. A budding new artist is never too young to begin to experiment with the very simple fundamentals of colour mixing. Tints and shades were the order of the day and such things, when discovered, are a revelation filled with delight. The workshops have been great fun, not least because many colours sound so hugely funny when you first hear them spoken, for example glaucous - which is a greyish-bluish- green colour named after Glaucus, who was a mortal who became immortal by eating a magic herb, and turned into a greek god of the sea. 

Volunteering on Mothers Day 2020

A call went out this week, by a private group of 7 artists, asking for more painters to volunteer for a special Mother’s Day project. I was very happy indeed to participate. We became an online project arena of 12 artists and 60 women over the age of 70, who were all social distancing today. All the invited artists gave their teaching as a gift, in the form of a Mothers Day tutorial.

Today has been a very special day with my group of mothers drawing with what ever materials they had, including biro and felt pens, on surfaces such as cooking parchment and paper plates. Everyone depicted fruits and veges from their own kitchen.

Its been such a very moving day filled with so much fun and laughter. There were some joyful moments when the mothers forgot the difficulties of solitude, and how much they missed their families. So many messages of good will have come in this evening. The day has been filled with blessings, the unconditional love of Mothering Sunday brought everyone together. Thank you dear ladies, for some wonderful memories.

MARCH 8th 2020

In Honour of International Women’s Day

The exceptional legacy of traveling women artists of the past will perhaps stand eternal as the pinnacle of historic carbon neutral travel.

READ about the RGB Kew contribution to International Women’s Day.

FEBRUARY 2020

The CORAL GUEST BLOG CLOSES

After 15 years of work, the coralguest.blogspot.com is now closed, having come to the end of a long and inspirational journey. The blog is now archived for the future.Thanks go to the readers and the followers as well as the sites who have shared the posts.

SELECTED VISIONARY AND OBSERVATIONAL WORKS

View selected monochrome Drawings on the sibling website that are devoted to Guest’s visionary and observational work.
New work can be viewed on application, from April 25th 2020.

LAST FEW WEEKS

Until March 15th 2020 ~ Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, which includes the 1,000th Painting of the Shirley Sherwood Collection, painted by Coral G Guest.

SEPTEMBER 2019

Coral with the Davidia involucrata work in progress 2018
Copyright The Shirley Sherwood Collection

The documentation of this life-size precision work, associated colour studies and preliminary drawings, is featured in the final chapter of the new book Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art by botanical art collector, botanist and philanthropist, Shirley Sherwood OBE.

This landmark publication is a monograph of the artworks in her collection, which spans thirty years of global acquisition as an independent collector.

Order Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art:

from Kew
from Amazon UK

Page Initiated September 2019