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"A boy from Invercargill", he bills himself. Well, Bryan Poole is a long, long way from Invercargill these days.
Living in London and working as a botanical printmaker, Bryan Poole has collections of his work held in the prestigious institutions such as the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Exhibitions in posh Knightsbridge, with collections of your work held in the Natural History Museum, London, and the Hunt Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, USA.
Bryan has worked as an artist for most of his adult life. He has been working in the United Kingdom since the early 1980s for a variety of clients (including The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), The Natural History Museum and publications of the Royal Horticultural Society) as a specialist botanical artist.
His formal training as a botanical artist stems from his association with The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. |
Bryan Poole in his Studio
The completed print: Iris germanica, Bearded Iris
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Bryan Poole - New Zealand Botanicals
Tecomanthe speciosa, Three Kings climber |
"Bryan Poole follows in a long line of fine botanical illustrators. Unusually, he has the gift to be able to combine traditional methods of illustration and reproduction with a very modern approach to botanical art and design. His appealing and distinctive work adds hugely to the wide range of talent found amongst botanical artists today" says Dr Christopher Grey-Wilson, former Editor of 'The Kew Magazine' |
Cordyline australis, Ti Kouka, Cabbage Tree |
Bryan's work in botanical printmaking was inspired by his admiration for Sidney Parkinson, an unsung hero in Bryan's view. Parkinson was draughtsman on Cooks' voyages. "He was a fantastic draughtsman and illustrator who lived a brief life; all he achieved was done under the most arduous of circumstances. We don't know we are born today. A traffic jam, a delayed flight; think about being on the Endeavour trapped in the Great Barrier Reef with nothing but the genius of Cook to rely on", exclaims Bryan. |
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Phormium tenax, Harakeke, NZ Flax | |
