Claire Dalby

Joy Claire Allison Dalby (born 20 November 1944) is a British artist and book illustrator who mainly depicts botanical subjects and who works in watercolours, gouache and wood engraving.

Claire Dalby
Born (1944-11-20) 20 November 1944
St Andrews, Scotland
NationalityBritish
Alma materCity and Guilds of London Art School
Known forFlower painting, book illustration, wood engraving

Biography

Dalby, whose father was the respected watercolour painter Charles Longbotham, was born in St Andrews in Scotland.[1] She attended the Haberdashers' Aske's School for Girls at Acton in west London from 1955 to 1963.[2] Dalby studied art, specialising in engraving and calligraphy, at the City and Guilds of London Art School from 1964 to 1967.[2] She sought advice on the techniques of wood engraving from Joan Hassall.[3] In 1966 she had her first picture exhibited at the Royal Academy in London.[4]

In the same year, she was awarded a David Murray landscape studentship and spent time at Flatford Mill in Suffolk, where she met the botanist Kery Dalby. The couple married in 1967.[3]

Dalby exhibited at the Clarges Gallery in 1968 and in 1972.[5] A number of solo exhibitions followed including at Camberley in Surrey during 1975, at Halifax House in Oxford in 1987 and at the Consort Gallery of Imperial College in both 1981 and 1988.[1][2] Also in 1988 Dalby had a solo exhibition at the Shetland Museum in Lerwick.[1] She has participated in a number of group shows including exhibitions organised by the Society of Wood Engravers, the Royal Watercolour Society and the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers.[2] Dalby provided botanical illustrations for a number of books and created two wallcharts, illustrating over 500 different species of lichens, for the Natural History Museum.[2][6] In 1989 a collection of her botanical illustrations was published as Claire Dalby's Picture Book.[1] In 1994 the Linnean Society awarded Dalby their Jill Smythies Award for outstanding botanical illustrations and in 1995 she was awarded a gold medal by the Royal Horticultural Society.[6][7]

Works by Dalby are held in a number of British museums including the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.[1] The Royal Collection, the Fitzwilliam Museum and the National Library of Wales also hold examples as do the Hunt Institute and the Australian Biological Resources Study Centre in Canberra.[6]

Books illustrated
  • The Observer's Book of Lichens by Kenneth Leonard Alvin, 1s edition 1963; 2nd edition 1977 ISBN 0723215669
  • The Family Water Naturalist by Heather Angel & Pat Wolseley, Joseph, 1982.[2] ISBN 0718119126
  • Women Engravers by Patricia Jaffe, 1988.[6] ISBN 0860682250
  • Even the Flowers by Freda Downie, Gruffyground Press, 1989, with an engraved frontispiece by Dalby
  • Claire Dalby's Picture Book, 1989.[1] OL 19119506M ASIN B0081B75S0
  • Colour Identification Guide to Grasses, Sedges and Ferns by Francis Rose, 1991.[6] ISBN 0-670-80688-9
  • Crucifers of Great Britain and Northern Ireland by T.C.G. Rich, 1991.[6] ISBN 9780901158208
  • Flora of Australia, Volume 54, 1992.[6]
  • Images from Nature, Natural History Museum, 1998.[6] 2004 pbk edition ISBN 0565090291

Memberships

Dalby is a member of or affiliated with the following organisations;-

Dalby is also a member of the Society of Wood Engravers.

References
  1. David Buckman (2006). Artists in Britain Since 1945 Vol 1, A to L. Art Dictionaries Ltd. ISBN 0-953260-95-X.
  2. Alan Horne (1994). The Dictionary of 20th Century British Book Illustrators. Antique Collectors' Club. ISBN 1-85149-1082.
  3. Martynoga, Fi, "Claire Dalby", in Meikle, Mandy (ed.), Reforesting Scotland Issue 67, Spring/Summer 2023, Reforesting Scotland Ltd., pp. 32 & 33, ISSN 0969-1367
  4. Frances Spalding (1990). 20th Century Painters and Sculptors. Antique Collectors' Club. ISBN 1-85149-106-6.
  5. Peter J.M. McEwan (1994). The Dictionary of Scottish Art and Architecture. Antique Collectors' Club. ISBN 1-85149-134-1.
  6. Josephine Walpole (2006). A History and Dictionary of British Flower Painters 1650-1950. Antique Collectors' Club. ISBN 1-85149-504-5.
  7. "The Jill Smythies Award". The Linnean Society. Retrieved 29 October 2017.
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