Some sad and exciting news at the same time. This post is to let our members and our followers know that our Founding President, Gaynor Dickeson has stepped down from this role to focus on her professional art and has also made a major decision to move to Norway with her husband Robin.
The move was a surprise for everybody including Gaynor and Robin and appears to be one of those lightbulb moments that pop up every now and again. This life changing move for Gaynor and Robin will be both exciting and challenging and we sincerely wish them all the best together with a heartfelt thank you on behalf of the members and followers of the Association of British Botanical Artists (ABBA).
Both Gaynor and Robin played a seminal role in establishing ABBA which grew out of a plan by the American Society of Botanical Artists (ASBA) to develop a world wide botanical art exhibition.
Gaynor realised that as one of the major proponents of botanical art, the United Kingdom needed to join this initiative and with Shevaun Docherty, Dianne Sutherland and Sarah Morrish put together a steering group to represent native plant botanical art from the United Kingdom.
Following the successful Worldwide Day of Botanical Art Exhibition in May 2018 Gaynor and Robin (ABBA's Founding Secretary), together with a small team, helped develop the structure of the new botanical art association based around a strong desire to support members regardless of their artistic ability, beginner to professional, or where they lived. This lead to ABBA's motto of "everyone - everywhere - every ability".
Since it's official inception in March 2019, ABBA has grown to have over 200 members from 17 different countries in just over 15 months, a great legacy.
Once again we would like to sincerely thank Gaynor and Robin for the key role they played in establishing ABBA and we hope we will enjoy their company as continuing ABBA members for the foreseeable future.
Vi ønsker dem lykke og lykke til i deres nye satsning og ser frem til å stille ut noe av Gaynors botaniske kunst i løpet av en nær fremtid.
("We wish them every happiness and success in their new venture and look forward to exhibiting some of Gaynor's botanical art in the near future.")
The ABBA Team
July 2020
Our New President
With Gaynor and Robins sad departure we would like to introduce our new President, Elaine Allison. Elaine is also a founding Member of ABBA after a chance contact with Gaynor at the Royal Horticultural Botanical Art Exhibition in 2018. Having just returned from Australia, Elaine was looking to engage with a national botanical art group and she saw ABBA as an exciting opportunity to contribute to a new group.
We sincerely wish Elaine the best in her new role and we are looking forward to some exciting ABBA initiatives!