Botanical Illustration

["James Purchase" <jppurchase@rogers.com>]

Folks,

With the recent and ongoing discussion of "Aquascaping as Art" which has
taken place on the APD, I'd like to get some input and feedback on a related
topic.

Botanical illustration has a long history in both botany as a science and in
the fishkeeping hobby. There are many really beautiful botanical
illustrations (as opposed to photographs) of aquatic plants in older books.

I'm wondering if there is any interest among the subscribers to the APD and
the membership of the AGA in botanical illustration as an "art form", and/or
if any of you actually do it, either as a hobby or professionally.

Why my interest??? Several reasons...., aside from the fact that I really
like it myself.

While it hasn't been "officially announced" as of yet, I'm back handling
this year's AGA International Aquascaping Contest. I'm seriously considering
including "Botanical Illustration" as a category in the Contest, if there is
sufficient interest in it. If there are hobbyists out there who like to
paint and or draw their aquatic plants (fish too I suppose) it might be nice
to include them in the Contest as a separate category.

Additionally, TAG could always use (and benefit from) having a bank of
botanical illustrations for inclusion in its pages.

So what do you say - if we include such a category in this year's AGA
Contest, are any of you likely to enter? Does anyone think that professional
artists (i.e. those associated with Botanical Gardens, etc.) might submit
enteries if given the opportunity?

Is the idea of including such work compatible with the Contest? This is
after all, about YOU - what do YOU want to see???

James Purchase
Toronto


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