David Mackay, Botanical Artist Home    .    Gallery    .    Exhibitions    .    Workshops    .   Contact About the Artist David Mackay is a professional botanical artist with over 35 years experience. His work has been shown in many solo and group exhibitions including ‘Treasures of Botanical Art’ (the inaugural exhibition at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art in Kew Gardens, London in 2008), ‘Botanica - The Masters Exhibition’ (one of the most outstanding exhibition of botanical art in Australia to date, comprising work by 17 invited Australian artists at the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney in 2006), ‘Botanical Artists of the World’ (a selection of work by 20 invited artists from around the world at the Tryon Gallery in London in 2001) and many more in London, Tokyo, Washington DC, Pittsburgh, Denver, Sydney and elsewhere. David’s work is described in various publications, including ‘Drawn from Life - the Development of Botanical Illustration of Australian Plants’ by Ed Wilson, ‘Australia: 300 Years of Botanical Illustrations’ by Helen Hewsen and ‘Treasures of Botanical Art’ by Shirley Sherwood. David has illustrated well over 100 scientific reference books and papers; some 5000 of his drawings and paintings have been published. He has also authored or co-authored over 20 botanical publications of his own. A combination of art and science is intrinsic to David’s work and, indeed, essential to its successful creation. A statement by the renaissance artist, Albrecht Durer, resonates strongly with David: ‘Be guided by nature’ he said. ‘Do not depart from it, thinking that you can do better yourself. You will be misguided, for truly art is hidden in nature and he who can draw it out possesses it’. David regards his work as a celebration of nature through which he can express and share his love of the botanical world around us. When he was the first person to ever draw the Wollemi Pine, shortly after it was discovered in 1994, he experienced some of the excitement that botanical artists must have felt during the ‘golden age’ of European exploration and discovery in the 18^th and 19^th centuries. He is very aware, though, that today’s botanical artist is often more likely to be painting a species for the last time (before it goes extinct) rather than for the first time. This spurs him on to greater effort in depicting some of the finer, rarer and more beautiful aspects of our fragile, natural world. His work is represented in public collections in Australia, Papua New Guinea and the USA as well as in private collections around the world. He has painted numerous private commissions for collections in Australia, the United Kingdom and the USA, and public commissions for a number of institutions in Australia and Papua New Guinea.  He has taught classes in scientific illustration and botanical art at the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney and continues to teach small-group workshops and one-on-one tuition in his studio just out of Armidale, New South Wales. David lives in the countryside with his wife, Caroline, and two daughters, Ellis and Hilary. For more complete biographical notes on David Mackay, including lists of exhibitions and publications, click here.