BIO/CV
Coral G Guest In her studio 2020
Biography
Coral G Guest is an English painter, and essayist. She is known for her works on the flower kingdom and her visionary monochrome drawings on spacetime landscape, gravity and the angelic presence. Since 1974 her focus has been upon depicting that which is currently unproven.
The criteria for the work is unusual and time specific. I observe the subject matter in the tranquility of the moment, surveying a vision, a landscape or an individual flower with inner observational awareness. Constructed spontaneously, through the use of a variety of materials and media, the drawings act as a visual interpretation of ongoing conscious and unconscious moments.
Coral G Guest's creative education is rooted in abstraction, colour theory, and the academic practice of observational painting and drawing via the spontaneous use of the bush. In the1970s she studied experimental drawing, perspective formulas, life and anatomical drawing at the pioneering Harrow School of Art with Margaret Priest and Ken Howard OBE RA. Thereafter, she trained in Fine Art (Painting) and Art History at Chelsea College of Art and Design (London University), with the two outstanding painters of their generation Ken Kiff RA and Sean Scully RA. Guest was awarded the Chelsea Drawing Scholarship in her first year and the Chelsea Travel Scholarship in her final year. Turning down a place as an MA student at Chelsea, she journeyed to Japan where she trained in the practice of large brush calligraphic painting and meditation at Seitai-ji Soto Zen Temple in Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan, remaining in seclusion for one year, after which she began her meditational works on the natural world.
In 1991, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew took the unprecedented step of inviting her to work as Flower Painting Tutor at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, where she taught until 2002. Paving the way with new naturalistic techniques and unexplored working methods, Guest earned her reputation as an artistic innovator within the cloistered arena of the plant kingdom, where she pioneered the development of new techniques for the emerging Botanical Art genre by adapting methods of landscape painting and absorbing ideas on spacetime, gravity and phenology to the painting of landscape and flora.
Recent years have seen Guest representing the world of Icelandic mineral kingdom, through its process of evolution and environmental change. This has developed in parallel with the practice of a deeply personal devotional and visionary work based on the notion of universal and fundamental purity that is free from discrimination towards race or creed, as the spiritual aspect of humanity. Seemingly disjunct, these disparate areas of work are united by Guest’s continued interest and focus upon worldwide weather patterns and their implications. Guest has traveled carbon neutral since 2007, having relinquished all plane travel.
CV
b. 1955 London
Education
1978-9
Calligraphy Seitai-ji Yamanashi Prefecture Japan
1974-7
BA Fine Art and History of Art Chelsea College of Art & Design London
1972-4
Foundation Diploma Harrow College of Art London
Awards
1986
Royal Horticultural Society Gold Medal
1984
Royal Horticultural Society Gold Medal
1977
Chelsea College of Art Travel Scholarship
1974
Chelsea College of Art Drawing Scholarship
Major Collections
2019
The Department of Paintings and Drawings, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
Three works
2019
The Andrew Parker Collection
Eight Works
1992 - 2019
The Shirley Sherwood Collection of Botanical Art
Nineteen works
2000
The Royal Horticultural Society, Lindley Library
Three Works
1986
The Hunt Botanical Institute, Pittsburg, USA
One Work
Landmark Commissions
2019
Commissioned by Lifescaped.com to produce the worlds first Structural Colour painting
2018
Commissioned to paint the 1,000th painting for the Shirley Sherwood Collection - Davidia involucrata, the Pocket Handkerchief Tree
Selected Group Exhibitions
2021
Naturally Brilliant Colour
Shirley Sherwood Gallery RGB Kew
2021
Botanical Rainbow, Shirley Sherwood Gallery RGB Kew
2019
Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art
Shirley Sherwood Gallery, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew
2017
Sketch Open, Rabley Drawing Centre Wiltshire
British Artists, Shirley Sherwood Gallery RBG Kew
2016
A Collector’s Collection by Shirley Sherwood, Strawberry Hill House Twickenham
Works from the Shirley Sherwood Collection Singapore Botanic Gardens
2014
Botanical Art in the 21st Century, Shirley Sherwood Gallery RBG Kew
2013-14
Botanical Art into the Third Millennium, Museo Della Graphica Pisa Italy
2013
The Legacy of Rory McEwen, Sherwood Gallery, RBG Kew Hidden Treasure, Sherwood Gallery RBG Kew
2010-11
Gallery Artists, Tryon Gallery London
2010
Mutis Collection, Sherwood Gallery RBG Kew
2009-10
The Art of Plant Evolution, Sherwood Gallery RBG Kew
2009
Jubilee Exhibition, Tryon Gallery London
2008
Treasures of Botanical Art, Sherwood Gallery Royal Botanic Gardens Kew
2006
The Shirley Sherwood Collection, Seiji Togo Museum of Art Japan
2005
Treasures from the Royal Horticultural Society, Ueno Museum Tokyo
1000 years of Botanical Art, Ashmolean Museum Oxford
2004
Photosynthesis, Royal Albert Museum Exeter
2003
A Passion for Plants, Smithsonian Museum Washington USA
2002
A Passion for Plants, Denver Botanic Garden Colorado USA
2001
Marciana Library, Venice Italy
Botanical Artists of the World II, Tryon Gallery London
1999
Gallery Artists, Tryon Gallery London
1998
Botanical Artists of the World I, Tryon Gallery London
Works from the Shirley Sherwood Collection, Yasuda Kasai Gallery Tokyo Japan
Kirstenbosch National Botanic Gardens, Cape Town South Africa
1997
Art from the Shirley Sherwood Collection, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art
1996
Botanical Artists, Kew Gardens Gallery RBG Kew
1996
Artist’s Prints, Sloane Graphics London
1995
Sunday Times Watercolour Competition Mall Galleries London
1994
Nature's Harvest, Kew Gallery RBG Kew
1991
Orchid Paintings, The Hunt Botanical Institute Pittsburgh USA
1990
Creation Festival, Nature in Art Gallery Gloucestershire
1986
Botanical Art, Royal Horticultural Society London
1986
Plant Drawings, Sotheby’s London
1985
Society for Wildlife Art Inaugural Exhibition, Guild Hall London
1985
6th Int. Exhibition of Botanical Art, Hunt Botanical Institute Pittsburgh USA
1984
Botanical Art, Royal Horticultural Society London
1978
Young Contemporaries, Acme Gallery London
Selected solo exhibitions
2006-14
Phenological Study Work, artists studio and garden
1993
Study Works, The Pump House Battersea Park London
1990
HV Allinson Gallery New York
1986/8
Oliver Swann Gallery London
Lectures and master classes
2019-2020
Online Voluntary Workshops during the Covid 19 Pandemic
2003 - ongoing
Private Mentoring
2002
Master Class 5 Day for Shirley Sherwood, Keswick Hall Charlottesville USA
1999
Master Class 5 Day for Shirley Sherwood, Cipriani Hotel Venice Italy
1999
Lecture Fruit Painters of 18th Century Europe, Cipriani Hotel Venice Italy
1999-02
Sketching in the Field Summertime Classes, RBG Kew
1998 Master Class 5 Day for Shirley Sherwood, Cipriani Hotel Venice Italy
1997
Master Class 5 Day for Shirley Sherwood, Reid’s Hotel Madeira
1994
Masterclass at Monet’s Garden, Giverny France, for The Artist magazine
1994
Contemporary Flower Painting Lecture, for The American Horticultural Society
1994
Colour Theory and Abstraction in Painting, 3-day class for NIA Gallery Gloucestershire
1991-2002
4 Day Workshop Painting Flowers in Watercolour RBG Kew
Online Interviews
2017
Botanical Art - An Interview with the Plantcurator.com
Musical Track Covers
2021 The image of the Study Work of Amaryllis ‘Denver’ becomes the March’21 Track Cover for The Sweetness of the Morning by musician Joel Pike aka Tiny Leaves
Television
2004
BBC4 Wales Painting Flowers Series, with Monty Don directed by Ceri Sherlock
1997
BBC1 Out and About Series on location at RBG Kew
Books Published and Selected Writings
2021
Naturally Brilliant Colour
Author: Andrew Parker, 112 pages, 280 x 240 mm, paperback, ISBN 9781842467336. Kew Publishing, 2021
2017
SKETCH Drawing Prize Exhibition Catalogue Rabley Drawing Centre
2013
Botanical Art in the 21st Century
Author - Shirley Sherwood, RBG Kew Publications
2013
Botanical Art into the Third Millennium
Authors - Shirley Sherwood & Lucia Tongiorgi
Exhibition Catalogue - Museo della Grafica, Palazzo Lanfranchi, Pisa
2013
Rory McEwen - The colours of reality
Authors - Martin Rix, RBG Kew Publications
2011
A Tulip Anthology
Author - Ron Van Dongen, PQ Blackwell,Publishers
2009
The Art of Plant Evolution
Authors - WJ Kress & Shirley Sherwood, RBG Kew Publications
2008
Treasures of Botanical Art
Authors - Shirley Sherwood and Brian Rix, RGB Kew Publications
2006
Artists in Britain since 1945
Author - John Buckman, Art Dictionaries Ltd
2005
A New Flowering
Author - Shirley Sherwood, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
2002
A Passion for Plants
Author - Shirley Sherwood, Weidenfeld & Nicolson Publishers
2001
Painting Flowers in Watercolour - A Naturalistic Approach
Author - Coral G Guest in association with the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew
A&C Black Publishers (hardback UK)
Timber Press Publishers (softback USA)
2000
January Article - The Golden Section The Artist Magazine
1997
Contemporary Botanical Artists
Author - Shirley Sherwood, Cassell & Co Publishers
Commentary
2004
Tate Modern - Commentary on Monet’s Water Lilies
for the Audio Guide to the Monet display on the 3rd floor
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