Private Art Collection by Lynda de Wet

Authors: 
Lynda de Wet
Publisher: 
Private

Celebrated award winning artist Lynda de Wet started serious botanical drawings when commissioned to document the complete flora of a private reserve on the west-coast of South Africa. These historical plates have been scanned with high-fidelity and reproduced here on CASABIO for the first time. It is an astonishing accomplishment, both finding this many plants and depicting them within a handful of years.

Lynda was born in South Africa and holds a Fine Art Diploma from the Michaelis Art School, University of Cape Town. She worked recording the Sandveld Fynbos of the West Coast and received gold medals from the Kirstenbosch Biennale and Royal Horticultural Society in London. Her paintings can be found in various collections including Brenthurst Library, the RHS Lindley Libraries and the Shirley Sherwood Collection at Kew Gardens. She has paintings that have been accepted for the ‘Grootbos Florilegium’. 

Her recent paintings frequently take many weeks or even months to create. She likes to work with a combination of colour and pencil to depict not only the habit of the plant, but the main interactions that take place with each plant.  

Much gratitude is extended to both the keepers of the documents and in particular the artist herself for making these historical and beautiful paintings available to us. They are a tremendous contribution to the flora of the West Coast.