Brigid Edwards, Pseudotsuga menziesii. Pic © Dr Shirley Sherwood
Exhibition: The Art of Plant Evolution, The Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art, Kew Gardens, Richmond, August 22 2009 – January 3 2010
Thanks to Darwin most of us know the theory of the evolution of humans, but how many of us know about the evolution of plants? Now the Shirley Sherwood Gallery at Kew Gardens is hosting an exhibition of botanical paintings to illustrate just how plants have evolved over time.
The exhibition features 140 works from more than 80 international artists and all are taken from Dr Shirley Sherwood's comprehensive collection. The series of plant portraits, curated by Dr Sherwood and Dr W John Kress, curator and research scientist at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC, are arranged in the latest evolutionary sequence.
Kimiyo Maruyama, Diospyros kaki. Pic © Dr Shirley Sherwood
Highlights of the exhibition include a magnificent lily by Coral Guest, paintings from the Delmonte family and a specially commissioned painting of the Wollemi Pine, one of the oldest and rarest trees in the world.
A selection of plant fossils, which are up to 370 million years old, are on loan from the Natural History Museum and will accompany the paintings so visitors can experience the evolutionary process up close.
The exhibition comes at a fitting time as it coincides with Charles Darwin's 200th birthday celebrations. Darwin was a close friend of Kew's first directors, Sir William and Sir Joseph Hooker and a selection of Darwin's correspondence will be on display, including letters from his voyage to Patagonia and a rare sketch of an orchid specimen.
For more details, opening times and prices, visit Kew online.
