Exhibition Report · Online · May 2026
Pinguicula
at “Unusual”, ABA Gallery
Pinguicula · Alpine Butterwort · Fiurdelin · ABA “Unusual” Exhibition · May 2026
A Pinguicula illustration has been selected for “Unusual” — the 16th exhibition of the Association of Botanical Artists, a UK charity dedicated to the art and science of botanical illustration. The exhibition is now open in the ABA Gallery and runs throughout May 2026. The brief was simple: submit something “Unusual” — in subject, composition, colour, or the way light behaves on a surface. A carnivorous alpine plant felt like an honest answer to that brief.
Fiurdelin’s Pinguicula (Alpine Butterwort) has been selected for “Unusual” — the 16th exhibition of the Association of Botanical Artists — now open in the ABA Gallery, May 2026.
| Exhibition | “Unusual” — 16th ABA Exhibition |
| Organiser | Association of Botanical Artists · UK Charity #1202676 |
| Venue | ABA Gallery (online) |
| Date | May 2026 |
| Work selected | Pinguicula (Alpine Butterwort) — digital illustration, Adobe Fresco |
| Theme | Unusual — subject, composition, colour, or light |
| Gallery | assocbotanicalartists.com/unusual |
A Carnivorous Plant
is Unusual by Nature
When the Association of Botanical Artists asked members to think about something “Unusual” for their submission, the brief touched on exactly what makes the plant kingdom so consistently surprising: nature has already done the unusual work. Pinguicula — the butterworts — are carnivorous. Their rosette leaves are coated in glistening mucilage glands that trap and digest insects and small invertebrates. A plant that catches prey is unusual enough. An alpine one, thriving in the cold, nutrient-poor soils of mountain meadows and wet rocky ledges across Europe, is more unusual still.
The Alpine Butterwort (Pinguicula alpina) grows at elevations where little else tolerates the conditions. It supplements the nitrogen it cannot extract from impoverished alpine soils by digesting whatever lands on its leaves — gnats, springtails, small flies. The flowers are white with a yellow throat, held on slender scapes above the lime-green rosette. Everything about the plant is delicate and precise, and everything about it is quietly predatory.
“A plant that catches prey is unusual enough. An alpine one, thriving in cold nutrient-poor soils, digesting whatever lands on its leaves — that is the kind of unusual the brief was asking for.”
From a botanical illustration standpoint, the challenge is exactly what makes it interesting. The glandular hairs that cover the leaf surface — each one tipped with a visible droplet of sticky secretion — demand close observation and careful rendering. The pale flowers are translucent in direct light, the leaves faintly succulent. Illustrating a Pinguicula is an exercise in showing what is small, precise, and easy to overlook: which is, in the end, what the discipline of botanical illustration has always been for.
The ABA Gallery —
A Specialist Context
The Association of Botanical Artists is a UK charity founded to promote and preserve the art of botanical illustration as both a scientific practice and an art form in its own right. The ABA Gallery hosts rotating exhibitions of members’ work, each built around a theme that pushes the practice in some direction — subject matter, technique, interpretation. “Unusual” is the 16th in that series, and it is a generous brief: it asks illustrators to make an argument about what botanical illustration can do that other approaches cannot.
Exhibiting with the ABA carries a specific weight for anyone working in the tradition of natural history illustration. This is a community that takes accuracy seriously — that understands the difference between a picture of a plant and an illustration of one, and why that difference matters. Showing alongside other botanical artists who share that rigour, under a brief that explicitly invites the unusual, makes for a very different conversation than a general contemporary art context.
The Pinguicula illustration has already been shown in other settings this year. The EXTINCTION: Save the Planet 2026 exhibition placed threatened species in a conservation-focused international context. The YICCA 2026 exhibition in Milan places a natural history illustration in a contemporary art context. The ABA Gallery is different from both: a specialist community, a peer audience, a conversation about the practice itself rather than its position within other art worlds.
Pinguicula · Alpine Butterwort · Digital illustration, Adobe Fresco · 2025–2026
The Pinguicula Print
The Pinguicula (Alpine Butterwort) illustration is available as a print from the Fiurdelin collection.
Get the print on Etsy →
or
Browse the full collection →
About the Exhibition
Association of Botanical Artists — “Unusual”, 16th Exhibition
The Association of Botanical Artists (ABA) is a UK registered charity (#1202676) dedicated to promoting botanical illustration as both art and science. The ABA Gallery hosts regular online exhibitions of members’ work. “Unusual” is the 16th exhibition in the series; members were asked to consider something unusual in subject, composition, colour, or light. The exhibition is open in May 2026.
View Pinguicula in the ABA Gallery · Read the ABA exhibition announcement · assocbotanicalartists.com
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Association of Botanical Artists?
The Association of Botanical Artists (ABA) is a UK registered charity (number 1202676) founded to promote and preserve botanical illustration as both a fine art and a scientific practice. It maintains an online gallery of members’ work and organises regular themed exhibitions. “Unusual” is the 16th of those exhibitions.
What makes Pinguicula “Unusual” as a subject for botanical illustration?
Pinguicula are carnivorous plants — they trap and digest insects on their glandular leaves to supplement the nitrogen they cannot obtain from nutrient-poor alpine soils. A carnivorous plant is unusual in itself, but the Alpine Butterwort is particularly so: it thrives in cold, wet, high-altitude conditions where most plants struggle to survive, and its mode of nutrition is the opposite of what we typically associate with the plant kingdom. Illustrating it accurately means rendering the glistening mucilage droplets on each leaf, the translucent quality of the flowers, and the precise geometry of the rosette — details that reward close observation and careful hand-drawing.
Where can I see the Pinguicula illustration?
The illustration is currently showing in the ABA Gallery at assocbotanicalartists.com/unusual. The same work is available as a print on Etsy and through the Fiurdelin collection.
How does the ABA exhibition fit with the other shows Fiurdelin is in this year?
The ABA Gallery is the only specialist botanical art context in the 2026 programme — a peer community of illustrators who share the same commitment to accuracy and observation. The other 2026 exhibitions place natural history illustration into broader art contexts: YICCA 2026 is a contemporary art contest in Milan; the Gallerium shows (Life Forms and EXTINCTION) are international online exhibitions with Artsy distribution; the Boji hair+gallery shows in Tokyo were physical but closed in March. The ABA exhibition is different because the audience already understands what botanical illustration is and what it demands.
Where is this botanical art printed and how is it shipped?
Prints from the Fiurdelin collection are fulfilled through Redbubble’s global production network, with manufacturing facilities in the US, UK, EU, and Australia. Each order is printed at the facility nearest the customer, which shortens delivery times, reduces shipping costs, and lowers the carbon footprint compared to shipping from a single international location. The Etsy listing ships the same digital file for local printing on demand.
Exhibition Report · Online · May 2026
Pinguicula
at “Unusual”, ABA Gallery
Pinguicula · Alpine Butterwort · Fiurdelin · ABA “Unusual” Exhibition · May 2026
A Pinguicula illustration has been selected for “Unusual” — the 16th exhibition of the Association of Botanical Artists, a UK charity dedicated to the art and science of botanical illustration. The exhibition is now open in the ABA Gallery and runs throughout May 2026. The brief was simple: submit something “Unusual” — in subject, composition, colour, or the way light behaves on a surface. A carnivorous alpine plant felt like an honest answer to that brief.
Fiurdelin’s Pinguicula (Alpine Butterwort) has been selected for “Unusual” — the 16th exhibition of the Association of Botanical Artists — now open in the ABA Gallery, May 2026.
| Exhibition | “Unusual” — 16th ABA Exhibition |
| Organiser | Association of Botanical Artists · UK Charity #1202676 |
| Venue | ABA Gallery (online) |
| Date | May 2026 |
| Work selected | Pinguicula (Alpine Butterwort) — digital illustration, Adobe Fresco |
| Theme | Unusual — subject, composition, colour, or light |
| Gallery | assocbotanicalartists.com/unusual |
A Carnivorous Plant
is Unusual by Nature
When the Association of Botanical Artists asked members to think about something “Unusual” for their submission, the brief touched on exactly what makes the plant kingdom so consistently surprising: nature has already done the unusual work. Pinguicula — the butterworts — are carnivorous. Their rosette leaves are coated in glistening mucilage glands that trap and digest insects and small invertebrates. A plant that catches prey is unusual enough. An alpine one, thriving in the cold, nutrient-poor soils of mountain meadows and wet rocky ledges across Europe, is more unusual still.
The Alpine Butterwort (Pinguicula alpina) grows at elevations where little else tolerates the conditions. It supplements the nitrogen it cannot extract from impoverished alpine soils by digesting whatever lands on its leaves — gnats, springtails, small flies. The flowers are white with a yellow throat, held on slender scapes above the lime-green rosette. Everything about the plant is delicate and precise, and everything about it is quietly predatory.
“A plant that catches prey is unusual enough. An alpine one, thriving in cold nutrient-poor soils, digesting whatever lands on its leaves — that is the kind of unusual the brief was asking for.”
From a botanical illustration standpoint, the challenge is exactly what makes it interesting. The glandular hairs that cover the leaf surface — each one tipped with a visible droplet of sticky secretion — demand close observation and careful rendering. The pale flowers are translucent in direct light, the leaves faintly succulent. Illustrating a Pinguicula is an exercise in showing what is small, precise, and easy to overlook: which is, in the end, what the discipline of botanical illustration has always been for.
The ABA Gallery —
A Specialist Context
The Association of Botanical Artists is a UK charity founded to promote and preserve the art of botanical illustration as both a scientific practice and an art form in its own right. The ABA Gallery hosts rotating exhibitions of members’ work, each built around a theme that pushes the practice in some direction — subject matter, technique, interpretation. “Unusual” is the 16th in that series, and it is a generous brief: it asks illustrators to make an argument about what botanical illustration can do that other approaches cannot.
Exhibiting with the ABA carries a specific weight for anyone working in the tradition of natural history illustration. This is a community that takes accuracy seriously — that understands the difference between a picture of a plant and an illustration of one, and why that difference matters. Showing alongside other botanical artists who share that rigour, under a brief that explicitly invites the unusual, makes for a very different conversation than a general contemporary art context.
The Pinguicula illustration has already been shown in other settings this year. The EXTINCTION: Save the Planet 2026 exhibition placed threatened species in a conservation-focused international context. The YICCA 2026 exhibition in Milan places a natural history illustration in a contemporary art context. The ABA Gallery is different from both: a specialist community, a peer audience, a conversation about the practice itself rather than its position within other art worlds.
Pinguicula · Alpine Butterwort · Digital illustration, Adobe Fresco · 2025–2026
The Pinguicula Print
The Pinguicula (Alpine Butterwort) illustration is available as a print from the Fiurdelin collection.
Get the print on Etsy →
or
Browse the full collection →
About the Exhibition
Association of Botanical Artists — “Unusual”, 16th Exhibition
The Association of Botanical Artists (ABA) is a UK registered charity (#1202676) dedicated to promoting botanical illustration as both art and science. The ABA Gallery hosts regular online exhibitions of members’ work. “Unusual” is the 16th exhibition in the series; members were asked to consider something unusual in subject, composition, colour, or light. The exhibition is open in May 2026.
View Pinguicula in the ABA Gallery · Read the ABA exhibition announcement · assocbotanicalartists.com
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Association of Botanical Artists?
The Association of Botanical Artists (ABA) is a UK registered charity (number 1202676) founded to promote and preserve botanical illustration as both a fine art and a scientific practice. It maintains an online gallery of members’ work and organises regular themed exhibitions. “Unusual” is the 16th of those exhibitions.
What makes Pinguicula “Unusual” as a subject for botanical illustration?
Pinguicula are carnivorous plants — they trap and digest insects on their glandular leaves to supplement the nitrogen they cannot obtain from nutrient-poor alpine soils. A carnivorous plant is unusual in itself, but the Alpine Butterwort is particularly so: it thrives in cold, wet, high-altitude conditions where most plants struggle to survive, and its mode of nutrition is the opposite of what we typically associate with the plant kingdom. Illustrating it accurately means rendering the glistening mucilage droplets on each leaf, the translucent quality of the flowers, and the precise geometry of the rosette — details that reward close observation and careful hand-drawing.
Where can I see the Pinguicula illustration?
The illustration is currently showing in the ABA Gallery at assocbotanicalartists.com/unusual. The same work is available as a print on Etsy and through the Fiurdelin collection.
How does the ABA exhibition fit with the other shows Fiurdelin is in this year?
The ABA Gallery is the only specialist botanical art context in the 2026 programme — a peer community of illustrators who share the same commitment to accuracy and observation. The other 2026 exhibitions place natural history illustration into broader art contexts: YICCA 2026 is a contemporary art contest in Milan; the Gallerium shows (Life Forms and EXTINCTION) are international online exhibitions with Artsy distribution; the Boji hair+gallery shows in Tokyo were physical but closed in March. The ABA exhibition is different because the audience already understands what botanical illustration is and what it demands.
Where is this botanical art printed and how is it shipped?
Prints from the Fiurdelin collection are fulfilled through Redbubble’s global production network, with manufacturing facilities in the US, UK, EU, and Australia. Each order is printed at the facility nearest the customer, which shortens delivery times, reduces shipping costs, and lowers the carbon footprint compared to shipping from a single international location. The Etsy listing ships the same digital file for local printing on demand.