The Shirley Sherwood Award for Botanical Art
The Shirley Sherwood Award is an accolade presented once a year in recognition of an artist’s contribution to Botanical Art. The prestigious award includes a prize of £10,000 and a dedicated space in the Shirley Sherwood Gallery at The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew to display a selected artwork for a year.
2023 - Beverly Allen
Dr Sherwood and team are delighted to announce Australian artist Beverly Allen as the recipient of the 2023 Shirley Sherwood Award for Botanical Art.
Beverly is a spectacular artist with bold and confident compositions. Full of clarity, vivid colour and spectacular detail, her paintings beautifully capture the splendour of the natural world and have earned her both the RHS Gold Medal and the inaugural Gold Medal for Botanical Art by the New York Botanic Gardens.
After graduating with a BA in Fine Arts from Sydney University, she turned to botanical illustration in 1997 and co-founded the Florilegium Society at the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney in 2005, whose members have since donated over 150 portraits of plant specimens. Extending her support worldwide, she is an Honorary Member of the Chelsea Physic Garden Florilegium Society and the Botanical Art Society of Australia, as well as a Patron of the Hampton Court Palace Florilegium Society.
Beverly has exhibited frequently at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery and the Museum of Sydney. She has artwork in numerous collections such as the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, the RHS Lindley Library, the Isaac Sutton Collection, the Kew Gardens Herbarium Library and, of course, the Shirley Sherwood Collection.
She made headlines with her stunning 'Strelitzia' painting, chosen for the cover of Dr Sherwood's latest book, 'Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art'. This piece, along with 'Strelitzia nicolai', will grace the walls of the Shirley Sherwood Gallery at Kew Gardens over the coming year.
You can see more of Beverly's work on the website here.