Deborah Lambkin (born 1970) is an Irish botanical artist who has been the official Orchid artist for the

Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr (Nort ...

Career

Deborah Lambkin was born in 1970 and trained in the National College of Art and Design. She spent a number of years living in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

and working as an artist. She worked for Motive Advertising and Design which she left in 1998 to focus on her own art. She then moved to London where she began working for the

's Orchid committee in 2005 as the official artist. She has been commissioned to create the art for a number of magazines including Curtis's Botanical Magazine, books and exhibitions. She is one of only two Irish artists to win a gold medal at the RHS exhibition, the other being

Wendy F. Walsh Wendy Felicité Walsh (9 April 1915 – 3 March 2014) was an artist born in Cumbria who lived and worked in Ireland and was a prolific botanical illustrator. Early and personal life She was born Wendy Felicité Storey in Bowness-on-Windermer ...

. Her work is on display in the National Trust. Lambkin was awarded the 2020 Margaret Flockton Award (awarded annually by the

Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney The Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney is a heritage-listed major botanical garden, event venue and public recreation area located at Farm Cove on the eastern fringe of the Sydney central business district, in the City of Sydney local government a ...

) "for excellence in scientific botanical illustration") for her illustration of the new

orchid Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowering ...

species ''

Gastrodia agnicellus ''Gastrodia agnicellus'' is a species of orchid in the genus ''Gastrodia'', found in Madagascar and described in '' Curtis's Botanical Magazine '' by Johan Hermans in 2020. It has been said to be "the ugliest orchid in the world", with "brown, f ...

'' which was named partly in her honour: "the species refers to the woolly covering on the rhizome, the ear-like petals and also alludes to the name of the botanical artist who brought the new species to life in her drawing." Latin ''agnicellus'' means "little lamb" or "lambkin".

Awards, Exhibitions and books

* 1998 RHS Grenfell Silver medal. * 1999 gold medal for her collection of eight paintings of nerines at the February's Winter Series Exhibition at the Royal Horticultural Society in London. * 2014 World Orchid Conference Botanical Art Exhibition * 2002. E. C. Nelson et alii ''The virtues of herbs of Master Jon Gardener''. Dublin: Strawberry Tree. * 2019 The Jill Smythies Award from the Linnean Society * 2020 Margaret Flockton Award for "excellence in scientific botanical illustration"

Career

Awards, Exhibitions and books

References

Further reading