Flowers and plants have long fascinated artists, serving as both subjects of study and sources of inspiration. To hone their skills of observation, artists look to botanical subjects to study the effects of form, colour, and light and to translate the beauty and fragility they see in nature into poignant works of art. Drawing from the RMG’s Permanent Collection, this exhibition brings together a selection of floral and botanical artworks that encourage a closer examination of the natural world.

Despite similarities in their subject matter, some of the artists shown here present precise studies with fine details, while others take a more expressive approach. William Blair Bruce’s sketches, for example, offer attentive renderings of apricot blossoms, corn stalks, and forest foliage, whereas Yvonne McKague Housser’s painting Jack in the Pulpit (1946) focuses on a more formal exploration of shape and light. For Bruce, sketching outdoors was a way to explore spiritual and emotional resonance. He wrote about how everyday scenes can reveal deeper connections between life, ecology, and the human spirit. His botanical sketches, then, function less as scientific studies and more as meditations on nature. Whatever the artists’ intent, the sketches, paintings, and photographs in this exhibition invite us to pause, look closely, and rediscover the quiet wonder found in flowers and plants.