About the Artist
June Calvert (nee Taylor) born 1st of June 1933, grew up at Valleyfield, Epping Forest in Northern Tasmania. Educated at Methodist Ladies College, Launceston and Clyde School, Woodend, Victoria.
June was always interested in handcrafts and artistic pursuits, never academia. She married in 1954, had two sons, divorced and moved to live in Launceston primarily to educate her children. She is presently living in a retirement village in Newstead, Tasmania.
In 2005, June enrolled in Adult Education classes of Botanical Art in Watercolour with Jenny Wilkinson where she enjoyed two terms but had nothing worth showing, so she thought. She then joined a group of painters and was encouraged to continue in the field of botanical art.
In 2007, she held her first solo exhibition showing 20 paintings at Mr Wooby’s Restaurant courtesy of John Addison & Mary Dallas who encouraged artists to exhibit there. They did not charge a commission on sales, which was just as well because 13 paintings sold at the opening.
Four more solo exhibitions ensued; two at the Exhibition Hall at Campbell Town Showgrounds in 2009 and 2010 showing 40 and 44 paintings respectively. June’s third exhibition was held at Masonic Peace Haven in Launceston at the invitation of the Chairman Mr Ian Green, hanging 44 paintings.
In February 2013, June’s fifth solo exhibition of Botanical Watercolours was held at the Salamanca Arts Centre, Sidespace Gallery, Hobart - 70 paintings were on display. This exhibition specialised to a degree in Hellebores, which are currently the people’s choice. Out of the eleven Hellebores shown, eight were sold. Commissions for 6 paintings resulted, three of which were for Hellebores.
Cards in sets of eight with envelopes are printed from original paintings. Sets 3 & 4 show a mixture of flowers and sell for $12 per set, set 5 consists of Hellebores only and sell for $13 per set.
June prints these sets of cards so she can retain memories of paintings that have sold.
Commissions can be accepted upon request at the artist’s discretion and may be mailed unframed at the customer’s own cost, as can the sets of cards.
It should be noted that botanical art is a very slow and exacting undertaking, so please be patient.