Michael Canning’s botanical paintings stand as an allegory for a natural world under threat, observes Sue Hubbard
There is a quiet stillness to Michael Canning’s paintings of plants and flowers. Mankind has always been fascinated by flora, both for its beauty and as a source for healing and knowledge. In the 18th century Linnaeus and his contemporaries sought to construct new systems for interpreting the interrelationships of the natural world and botanical publications proliferated. From the Renaissance to the present day botanical illustration has remained one of the principal methods by which plants have been taxonomised.