Malcolm Ian Howie Explained

Malcolm Ian Howie
Birth Date:26 March 1900
Birth Place:Creswick, Victoria, Australia
Death Place:Frankston, Victoria, Australia

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. He was often accompanied on his preaching engagements by the botanist James Hamlyn Willis, who had married Malcolm's sister, Mavis Eileen Howie. An accomplished debater, he wrote "verse and short plays," and entered the Royal South Street Society literary competition in 1933, winning second place.[2]

By 1926 Howie was employed as a commercial painter, supplying artwork featuring birds and wildflowers, for calendars and suedework. 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.[3] Approximately 200 watercolours of fungi, produced between 1931 and 1935, have survived.[4] Paintings by Howie are held in the State Botanical Collection of Victoria, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria.[5] A further 84 paintings are held by the University of Melbourne Herbarium.[6] [7]

Publications

Howie's watercolour illustrations of fungi and ferns were published in the following works:

Exhibitions

His work has been posthumously exhibited, particularly in Melbourne. Exhibitions include:

Influence

Howie has also been cited as an inspiration for The Red Room Company poet Bonny Cassidy.[19]

Examples of paintings

Notes and References

  1. Book: Willis, James Hamlyn (Jim) (1910–1995) . James Hamlyn (Jim) Willis (1910–1995) . 2019 . . . 4 February 2022 . "He accompanied Malcolm and his sister Mavis Eileen Howie to preaching engagements and on wildflower collecting excursions.".
  2. Barrett . Charles . June 1936 . A Painter of Fungi . The Victorian Naturalist . Melbourne . Brown, Prior, Anderson Pty. Ltd. . 28 January 2022.
  3. Web site: The study of Australian fungi: The twentieth century . . Australian National Botanic Gardens and Australian National Herbarium, Canberra . 4 February 2022.
  4. Web site: Malcolm Howie Watercolours . . 6 February 2019 . . 4 February 2022.
  5. May . Tom . Autumn 2014 . Bringing Mushrooms Alive: Malcolm Howie Watercolours in the State Botanical collection . Botanic News . Melbourne . The Friends of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne, Inc. . 28 January 2022.
  6. Book: Clarke. I.C. . 1990 . The history of the herbarium, School of Botany, University of Melbourne . History of systematic botany in Australasia . https://archive.org/details/historysystemat00shor/page/12/mode/2up . Melbourne, Australia . Australian Systematic Botany Society . 13–21 . 9780731684632 . 15 February 2022.
  7. Web site: Howie, Malcolm Ian (1900–1936) . 10 June 2015 . Council of Heads of Australasian Herbaria, Australian National Herbarium, Biographical Notes. . . 28 January 2022.
  8. Willis . J.H. . June 1934 . The Agaricaceae or Gilled Fungi: Some Species Common in Victoria . The Victorian Naturalist . Melbourne . Brown, Prior & Co. . 28 January 2022.
  9. Book: Pouliot, Alison . 2018 . The Allure of Fungi . Clayton South . CSIRO Publishing . 124 . 9781486308576.
  10. News: . 14 April 1934 . Wild Nature Notes . The Weekly Times . Melbourne . 15 February 2022.
  11. News: . 20 January 1937 . Wild Nature Notes . The Weekly Times . Melbourne . 15 February 2022.
  12. Book: Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne . 2008 . Curiosity Cabinet . South Yarra . Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne . 4 .
  13. Web site: Hidden in Plain View : the Forgotten Flora. . State Botanical Collection of Victoria Library . . 28 January 2022 . "The exhibition comprised principally original works of art, specimens, and other objects from the State Botanical Collection, plus some material borrowed from private individuals. The exhibition toured to: Horsham Regional Art Gallery (9 January-4 March 2007); McClelland Gallery and the Australian Garden, Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne (7 April-11 June 2007); Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery (20 August-7 October 2007); Gippsland Art Gallery (13 October-11 November 2007); Domain House, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne (24 November-17 December 2007); National Museum of Australia, Canberra (13 March-9 June 2008); Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston (16 August-16 November 2008); Gordon Gallery, Geelong (25 February-8 April 2009); Museum of Economic Botany, Adelaide Botanic Garden (5 June-30 September 2009).".
  14. Web site: The eternal order in nature : the science of botanical illustration / curated by Mali Moir and Amanda Ahmed . Deakin University Library . . 9 June 2023 . Catalog of an exhibition held at Domain House, Dallas Brooks Drive, South Yarra, from 18 July to 7 August 2011.
  15. Sanger . Sandra . McDiarmid . Pam . Spring 2013 . From the Forest to the Foreshore . Botanic News . Melbourne . The Friends of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne, Inc. . 28 January 2022.
  16. Web site: From botanical illustrations to research: Watercolours from the University of Melbourne Herbarium . 27 March - 28 June 2015 . . . 28 January 2022 . "The watercolours, also from the Herbarium, were produced by gifted commercial and natural history artist, Malcolm Howie (1900–1936).".
  17. Web site: University of Melbourne Herbarium . 2 June 2022 . . . 3 June 2022 . "The exhibition also features the beautiful fungi watercolours by Malcolm Howie and botanical models from our collection.".
  18. Web site: Overlooked species on our doorstep. . Rhonda Dredge . 7 September 2022 . Southbank News . Hyperlocal News Pty Ltd. . 9 June 2023 . "Twenty watercolours from the collection at the University of Melbourne Herbarium are currently on show in Still Life at the Buxton Contemporary in Southbank.".
  19. Web site: New Shoots: Bonny Cassidy Draws Inspiration from the Herbarium . 2017 . The Red Room Company . 24 February 2022 . "I decided that Howie's life and images would feature in my poem as perhaps a narrative or ekphrastic allusion.".

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