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Malcolm Ian Howie (1900–1936) was an Australian self-taught commercial and botanical watercolour artist and Methodist local preacher.[1]
Life
From the age of 16, Howie was unable to walk due to Spinal muscular atrophy.[2][3] He was often accompanied on his preaching engagements by the botanist James Hamlyn Willis, who had married Malcolm's sister, Mavis Eileen Howie.[1] An accomplished debater, he wrote "verse and short plays," and entered the Royal South Street Society literary competition in 1933, winning second place.[4]
By 1926 Howie was employed as a commercial painter, supplying artwork featuring birds and wildflowers, for calendars and suedework.[4] By 1931, James Hamlyn Willis and Ethel McLennan had encouraged Howie to expand his repertoire to include fungi, and his paintings increasingly appeared in scientific publications.[4][5] Approximately 200 watercolours of fungi, produced between 1931 and 1935, have survived.[6] Paintings by Howie are held in the State Botanical Collection of Victoria, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria.[3] A further 84 paintings are held by the University of Melbourne Herbarium.[7][8][2]
Publications
Howie's watercolour illustrations of fungi and ferns were published in the following works:
- James H. Willis. 1934. The Agaricaceae or 'gilled fungi'. Some species common in Victoria. Victorian Naturalist 50: 264–298.[9][8]
- Richard W. Bond and Charles Barrett. 1934. Victorian ferns: descriptions of all the species occurring in the State (Melbourne: Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria).[4][8]
- James H. Willis. 1941. Victorian fungi: a key and descriptive notes to 120 difference toadstools (family Agaricaceae) with remarks on several other families of the higher fungi. (Melbourne: Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria).[1][10]
- A series of paintings were published in The Weekly Times Wild Nature Notes column.[11][12]
Exhibitions
His work has been posthumously exhibited, particularly in Melbourne. Exhibitions include:
- Hidden in Plain View: The Forgotten Flora Australian touring exhibition curated by Teresa Lebel, Josephine Milne, and Karen Beckmann, from 2007 to 2009.[13][14]
- The Eternal Order in Nature: the Science of Botanical Illustration at the Domain House and Gallery between 18 July and 7 August 2011.[15]
- Artists' depictions of Natural History: Fungi, Ferns and their Allies at the Domain House and Gallery in October 2013.[8]
- From botanical illustrations to research: Watercolours from the University of Melbourne Herbarium at the University of Melbourne in 2015.[16]
- Still Life at Buxton Contemporary in 2022.[17][18]
Influence
Howie has also been cited as an inspiration for The Red Room Company poet Bonny Cassidy.[19]
Examples of paintings
References
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