Lucy T Smith
Lucy T Smith is an Australian botanical artist and illustrator, resident for the past twenty-four years in the UK. Since 1999, she has worked as a freelance botanical artist for the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, producing botanical illustrations in both pen and ink, and watercolour. Her illustrations have been published in many scientific journals worldwide.
She has received many awards for her artwork, including the Jill Smythies Award for Botanical Illustration (Linnean Society), two gold medals from the Royal Horticultural Society, and First Prize (twice) in the Margaret Flockton Award for Botanical Illustration. In 2020 she was awarded the Botanical Illustrator Award for Excellence in Scientific Botanical Art from American Society of Botanical Artists.
As well as illustrating, she leads the teaching of the botanical illustration programme at Kew Gardens. She has previously taught for The English Gardening School, and the Chelsea School of Botanical Art, as well as given workshops for many amateur and professional groups.
Lucy takes on custom commissions. Notable commissions include a 90th birthday present for Sir David Attenborough. Lucy is a regular judge for botanical art exhibitions including the Society of Botanical Artists’ annual Plantae exhibition in London.
Lucy’s first how-to book “Botanical Sketchbooks, an Artist’s Guide to Plant Studies,” has just been published by The Crowood Press.
current projects
Pen and ink drawing of The Ham Lands Oak, September - October 2024
Study of developing acorns The Ham Lands Oak, 2022
exhibition: DRAWING ON HAM LANDS, ART AND INTERDEPENDENCE
As part of the Richmond Arts and Ideas Festival, some of my sketchbooks are on display at Ham Library alongside sculpture by Amanda Randall and a large charcoal drawing by Nicki Rolls. All are inspired by the nature and beauty of Ham Lands.
Ham Lands is a nature reserve in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames precious to many local residents, including myself. Many of the plants I have drawn in my sketchbooks come from this place. For this exhibition I am featuring several studies of an iconic local tree, “The Ham Lands Oak,” also know as the spreading oak.
Ham Library can be found at the corner of Ham Street and Ashburnham Road, TW10 7HR. Opening housrs are Mon, Fri, Tues 9:30am - 6:00pm; Weds 10:00am - 7:00pm, Sat 9:30am - 4:00pm; closed Thurs and Sunday. It is easily reached via the 371 bus from Richmond Station.
Black and white copies of the Ham Lands Map I created for this exhibition are available free from the Library, to help you find your own way to “The Lands.” Full size (A3) colour giclee prints are available on order, for purchase once the exhibition is over.
Colour giclee prints of this map can be ordered, available after the exhibition. Order forms available at Ham Library, or contact Lucy via email.
botanical sketchbooks
Many of Lucy’s botanical art and illustration students over the years have asked whether she had written an instructional book, and unfortunately the answer was always “no!” The opportunity to rectify this came when she was invited by The Crowood Press to write her first how-to book, the result of which is now available with the publication of “Botanical Sketchbooks, an Artist’s Guide to Plant Studies.”
This has been a great first book to write, as botanical sketchbooks cover a wide range of approaches and styles which suit both beginners and more experienced artists. The botanical sketchbook is a botanical artist and illustrator’s essential workbook: a place to capture and record plants from life, to investigate their forms, structures and colours as well as to hone artistic skills and approaches.
Using examples from her sketchbooks kept over 30 years as a botanical artist, plus many new studies created exclusively for this instructional book, Lucy explains how to start making your own plant studies.
You can find information about the book here on The Crowood Press website
The book is now published in the UK, and has just launched in the US. It is also available as an e-book from many outlets.
Take a look at some of Lucy’s sketchbook studies in the Botanical Sketchbooks Gallery:
The cover of Palms of New Guinea, out in February 2024, and one of its pen and ink illustrations, Calamus pintaudii.
PALMS OF NEW GUINEA (pong)
The Palms of New Guinea is the project that brought Lucy to London. It is an ambitious monograph in which an international team of authors, led by Dr. Bill Baker at RBG Kew, describes each of the 250 species of palms on the islands of New Guinea. Over a period of 24 years, Lucy has completed 250 scientific illustrations in pen and ink for the book, which has now been published (February 2024) and is available in the shops!
The brief for the illustrations was to combine beauty and design with rigorous scientific accuracy.
Lucy’s ambitious painting of the underside of a life-sized Victoria amazonica leaf
tHE VICTORIA WATER LILY PROJECT
After years of illustrating plants for Kew’s botanists, Lucy needed a project of her own. Her first introduction to illustrating water lilies came with painting the world’s smallest waterlily for Curtis’s Botanical Magazine in 2010. Inspired by 19th Century Kew artist Walter Hood Fitch’s work on Victoria, the largest water lilies in the world, Lucy initiated a project which would allow her to put into practice all of the skills learned during her time illustrating for Kew.
Related Blog Posts: Victoria Boliviana - a new species of giant water lily ; Painting the Victoria amazonica leaf
awards
The ASBA Award for Excellence in Scientific Botanical Art, 2020
Selected Awards
The 2020 Botanical Illustrator Award for Excellence in Scientific Botanical Art, American Society of Botanical Artists “Lucy T Smith, Modern Day Explorer” (2020)
The Hunt Institute for Botanical Illustration, 16th International exhibition (2018)
First Prize, Margaret Flockton Award for Scientific Botanical Illustration (2017, 2014)
The Honorary Sydney Parkinson Memorial Award, School of Botanical Art and Illustration, Denver Botanic Gardens (2015)
Second Prize, Margaret Flockton Award for Scientific Botanical Illustration (2013, 2008, 2005)
The Jill Smythies Award for Scientific Botanical Illustration, Awarded by the Linnean Society of London (2004)
Gold Medal, Royal Horticultural Society of London (2002, 2001)
University Medal, James Cook University of North Queensland (1994)
Exhibitions
The Wonderful World of Water Plants, Shirley Sherwood Gallery Kew, 2023
Lucy with the Palms of North Queensland in Berlin, 2011
solo exhibitions
2011 Palms of North Queensland, Botanischer Garten und Botanisches Museum, Berlin-Dahlem
2002 Paintings from “The Ship,” Marianne North Gallery, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, London.
2002 Calamoid Palm Fruits from the Kew Herbarium collection, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Library
1999 Palms of North Queensland, Pinnacles Gallery, Townsville, Qld Australia
1996 Palms of the Townsville Region, The Palmetum, Townsville, Qld, Australia
1994 Plants of the Melaleuca Woodlands, Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, Townsville, Qld, Australia
group exhibitions
2023 The Wonderful World of Water Plants, Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art, RBG Kew
2022 - ongoing Ellas Illustran Botanica Casa de las Ciencias de Logrono and other venues, Spain
2018 The Hunt Institute for Botanical Illustration, 16th International exhibition
2018 The Transylvania Florilegium, Romanian Cultural Institute, London UK
2018 Plans and Plants: The making of the Temperate House, Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art, RBG Kew
2017 Margaret Flockton Award for Scientific Botanical Illustration, Botanic Gardens Sydney (also 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2008, 2005, 2004)
2014 Inspiring Kew, Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
2011 From Eye to Hand, Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
2008 Botanica, Fruits of our Labour at Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney, Australia
2006 Artists’ Kew, Cambridge Cottage, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
2005 Microcosmographica, contributor for Mark Dion, South London Gallery
2002 Royal Horticultural Society Botanical Art Exhibition (also 2001)
2002 Paintings from “The Ship,” Marianne North Gallery, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, London.
1997 Dugongs of Hinchinbrook, The Alliance to Save Hinchinbrook, Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney