Éireannach: Celebrating Native Plants of Ireland

Front cover of the new book
Image courtesy of ISBA

As part of the exciting Botanical Art Worldwide Project, members of the Irish Society of Botanical Artists (ISBA) have mounted an exhibition of paintings depicting Irish indigenous plants at the National Botanic Gardens titled Éireannach: Celebrating Native Plants of Ireland, Glasnevin. 

Artists from a total of 25 countries are taking part in the worldwide project, which has been spearheaded by the American Society of Botanical Artists (ASBA), assisted by steering committees in each participating country.

Ireland has taken the project a step further by producing a book that features the 43 paintings in the ISBA exhibition, along with the story of each plant, researched and written by the artists themselves and edited by well-known author and wild plant enthusiast, Zoë Devlin, who was a mentor for the project. 

Marsh saxifrage Saxifraga hirculus in Ireland
Image: M. Long

Also included in the book is information and a sample illustration from each of the other countries, along with contributions from four of the organisations that work tirelessly to conserve Ireland’s native plant heritage - BSBI is, of course, one of those organisations. The book is available online at http://www.irishbotanicalartists.ie/shop/ for the pre-publication price of €20 until 27 May, after which it will revert to the full retail price of €25. 

The exhibition will run until the 27 May, and on the 18 May – the official Worldwide Day of Botanical Art – the ISBA will hold an open day at the exhibition, where artists will provide demonstrations of how they work; Zoe Devlin will provide a tour of the exhibition, and there’ll be a chance to see a digital presentation of paintings from all the other exhibitions around the world. 

For more details, check http://www.irishbotanicalartists.ie/projects/botanical-art-worldwide/