South African botanical artist wins at the Royal Horticultural Society exhibition in London in June 2024
There was elation with the news that Daleen
Roodt was awarded the highest accolade, a Gold Medal, at the Royal
Horticultural Society’s (RHS) recent Botanical Art and Photography exhibition
in London. In addition, one of her paintings was awarded Best Artwork on Show,
and she won the votes for the People’s Choice Award. This is a remarkable
achievement on a stage that artists describe as “the Olympics of botanical
art”.
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| Daleen Roodt with her award standing in front of her paintings at the RHS exhibition in London in June 2024. (Photo credit to RHS/Matt Chung) |
Daleen’s journey into botanical art started
quite unexpectedly in 2008 at the University of Pretoria, studying a module in Plant
Morphology and Identification. Curious about the structure of a flower she had
found on the university campus, she approached Prof Braam van Wyk with a small
sketch she had made. He immediately recognised her talent and asked her to do
scientific illustration for him, for UP and SANBI. This started her on the road
to scientific illustration, an activity that she continues today. Attending a workshop presented by Gillian
Condy (former SANBI botanical artist at the herbarium in Pretoria), it all came
together and Daleen realised that botanical art was her passion. The rest is
history.
Getting acceptance of artwork for the RHS exhibition is not easy. An artist has to submit a portfolio of recent work, to be assessed by a panel of judges as demonstrating the required level of excellence. The selected artists are then given a period of five years to complete a portfolio of six paintings. Progress is assessed annually, and artists can submit their completed portfolio at any stage during those five years. Daleen’s application was successful. She also applied for and received the Dawn Joliffe Art Bursary from the RHS in support of her project. This bursary helped her with the costs of staging an exhibition and travelling to paint plants in their natural habitat.
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| Satyrium rhodanthum with amethyst sunbird (Chalcomitra amethystina). This is one of Daleen's gold medal award-winning paintings that were displayed at the RHS exhibition in London in June/July 2024. |
Daleen is fascinated by orchids and the
intricacies of their pollination strategies, so it was no surprise that she
chose South African indigenous orchids and their pollinators as her subject
matter. Over three flowering seasons she studied and painted orchids in their
natural environment. While the focus of each painting is an orchid and its
pollinator, Daleen also includes smaller plants that grow with the orchid in
its natural environment. In addition to the fieldwork, she spent 1200 hours
painting. The largest work, a 1.4 m life size painting of Eulophia
horsfallii and the one for which she was awarded Best Artwork on Show, took
360 hours to complete. The painting process was not without difficulties as
Daleen experienced a major setback in April 2023 when she fell while out on a run,
severing the nerves and tendons in her left hand. Surgery and intensive
rehabilitation followed.
The RHS exhibition, held at the Saatchi gallery in London, is regarded as one of the most prestigious exhibitions of botanical art in the world. The selection for this year’s exhibition included art works of 22 world class botanical artists and 18 botanical photographers from South Africa, Korea, Japan, Singapore, Italy, Portugal, Australia, USA, UK and Sri Lanka. The works are judged on botanical accuracy, technical skill, exact colour reproduction, attention to detail and aesthetic appeal. Daleen received the top award, a remarkable achievement for this largely self-taught artist. Through depicting the natural environment in her artwork, she aims to increase the exposure to and awareness of biodiversity as well as the threat of habitat destruction and the importance of conservation.
Daleen lives in Hillcrest on the outskirts of eThekwini. She is a member of the KZN Botanical Art Association of South Africa (BAASA) and when time allows, presents workshops for its members. Some of her artwork is on show at the Grootbos Florilegium and currently at the Fifth New York Botanical Garden Triennial exhibition.
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| Daleen in the field doing preparatory work for her painting of Satyrium rhodanthum |
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