I was born and raised in South Africa, where, soon after I began painting as a child under Betty Clur’s tutelage, botanical subjects found their way into my work. After all, I was surrounded by abundant indigenous and cultivated plant life.
After graduating as a teacher in Cape Town, I taught art at Rustenburg School for Girls in Rondebosch. It was just a stone’s throw from the world-famous Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens.
In the early 80s, after time in Toronto, London, Tehran, and Houston, my husband, my daughter, and I settled in Calgary at the foot of the Canadian Rockies. I completed fine arts courses at the University of Calgary and served as a director of the Alberta Crafts Council for four years. Nowadays, home is Chester Basin, Nova Scotia.
I discovered the work of contemporary botanical artists while on one of many trips to visit my mother in England during the late 90s. I had finally found my artistic focus. Fueled by a newfound enthusiasm for botanical art, I completed master watercolour classes with renowned botanical artists and teachers, Anne Marie Evans, Pandora Sellars, and Katie Lee.
I’m a member and International Ambassador of the Society of Botanical Artists, UK (SBA), the Botanical Artists’ Guild of Southern Alberta (BAGSA), the Botanical Artists’ Association of Southern Africa (BAASA), Société Française d’Illustration Botanique (Sfib), and the Florilegium Society of the Royal Botanical Gardens of Sydney.
I have exhibited in Canada, the U.S.A., the U.K., Bermuda, Australia, South Africa, and Italy. My work is in private collections worldwide, at the Hunt Institute of Botanical Documentation at Carnegie Mellon University, and at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
My botanical art teaching in graphite, coloured pencil and watercolour has taken me to numerous renowned locations, including the San Diego Natural History Museum, Filoli Gardens near San Francisco, University of Washington in Seattle, Los Angeles Arboretum, Santa Barbara Botanical Gardens, Huntington Gardens in San Moreno, Virginia Robinson Gardens in Hollywood, Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens in Cape Town, and the South African National Biodiversity Institute at the National Botanical Gardens, Pretoria, and France.
I have also taught at destination workshops in Italy, England, Morocco, Spain, Romania, and Newfoundland. In Calgary and Bermuda, I have developed progressive botanical art programs.
You can see more about my teaching at my botanical art education website: www.botanicalart.education.
I am on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/MargaretBestBotanical/
I am on Instagram at: @margaretbestbotanicalart and @bestbotanical.education