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13 November 2019
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MY ENVIRONMENT The latest edition of The Village NEWS can be found online every Tuesday afternoon on ISSUU, a digital publishing platform for newspapers, magazines and more that was founded in 2006 in Denmark.
If you missed an edition, are looking for a specific article or further information on a topic, all of our newspapers can be found here: issuu.com/dwaal. FOUR YEARS AGO THIS WEEK - Trouble in our paradise - The heart of abalone issuu.com/dwaal/docs/hermanus_ news_10_november_2015 THREE YEARS AGO THIS WEEK - A step closer to new CBD - Schulphoek Road: the wall must fall issuu.com/dwaal/docs/the_village_ news_1_november_2016.co TWO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK - Whale Coast braced for a bumper season - Promising future for ORE issuu.com/dwaal/docs/the_20village_20news.compressed
ONE YEAR AGO THIS WEEK - New Overstrand land demands - Let ChillGuru show you Hermanus issuu.com/dwaal/docs/the_village_ news_1_november_2016.co www.pressreader.com www.issuu.com/dwaal
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Botanical artists: conservation allies By Dr Anina Lee
O
ver the years the Overstrand has been home to many supremely talented artists. And our fynbos has inspired many of them to render its splendour in artistic expression, none more than the band of talented botanical artists that call the Cape Whale Coast their home. Think of Margaret de Villiers, Vicki Thomas, Lynda de Wet and Barbara Pretorius. Whale Coast Conservation is therefore privileged to host Barbara Pretorius at its public talk on Tuesday 19 November at 17h30 at the Green House. The topic of her talk is “How Botanical Art can promote Ecological Conservation”. Barbara’s talk will highlight the revival of botanical art around the world as a valuable ally in the conservation of vulnerable flora. Botanical gardens and scientific institutions are offering courses in botanical art and organising international exhibitions. In South Africa botanical art is promoted by SANBI (South African National Botanical Institute) and BAASA (Botanical Association of Artists of South Africa). BAASA (South Africa) and galleries throughout the country organise regular exhibitions with the aim of promoting ecological conservation of indigenous species. Informal, as well as more formal workshops are organised by well-known South African botanical artists. Botanical art, floral art and scientific illustration What exactly is botanical art? How does it differ from floral art or scientific illustration? Barbara will explain the critical differences, with the aid of many examples through the ages. At the beginning of the Renais-
sance, with the rise of Humanism, greater interest arose in botanical art. Barbara will highlight the concepts with examples of work by the most famous artists of the time, such as Albrecht Dürer and Leonardo da Vinci.
About thirty years ago she started painting the indigenous plants of South Africa, mainly in water colours. In 2004 she held her first very successful solo exhibition at the home of well-known South African architect, Johann Slee.
During the 18th and 19th centuries world travel and exploration from Europe took off. Travellers included scientists, artists, and especially botanists. There was a great rush to collect specimens of the exotic flowers from far-flung places, such as South Africa. Barbara will illustrate her talk with examples painted by scientists such as William Burchell, John Herschel and Carl Thunberg – who collected specimens for the famous Swedish Professor Carl Linnaeus, the father of plant taxonomy.
Many other exhibitions followed, mainly in the Western Cape. Her next exhibition will be held in March 2020 at the Johan Slee gallery in Stellenbosch.
Barbara will explain how botanical art can be used to promote the conservation of plants in Hermanus specifically. We can learn from what has been successful in different parts of the world to further ecological education. The challenge for Hermanus is what we can do with the examples set for us. What do we already do and what do we still need to do? Barbara will show and discuss examples of endangered plants that she has painted from our area.
In 2005 Barbara was commissioned by the University of Pretoria to do a series of paintings of edible indigenous plants for a world-wide conference on alternative food sources which was attended by delegates from more than forty countries. There were about 16 works in this series, mainly of plants found north of Pretoria. Although line drawings and photographs of edible indigenous plants exist, mainly to illustrate scientific works on the topic, watercolour paintings of these plants are rare.
Aloe ciliaris
Pelagonium cucullatum
In 2006 Barbara and husband Stephan did the sensible thing and moved to Hermanus. She is now a Fellow of the Linnaean Society in London. Please join Whale Coast Conservation for this fascinating and beautifully-illustrated talk.
Protea sp.
About Barbara Pretorius Barbara Pretorius grew up in the Western Cape, among the fynbos. Some of her very first drawings and paintings were of the flowers, the mountains and the sea. She is largely self-taught, although there were lessons with an art teacher from the Michaelis School of Art in Cape Town when she was very young. Although she never stopped painting for pleasure, she studied languages and became a teacher, first for senior pupils in high schools and later for students at a Teachers’ Training College in Johannesburg. She retired in 2005, having been head of the first Afrikaans-medium private school in the country, Jan Celliers in Johannesburg.
Barbara Pretorius chatting to Karen McKerron at the opening of another local botanical artist, Margaret de Villiers’ exhibition at the FynArts Gallery earlier this year. PHOTO: Hedda Mittner
