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KAYOKO MIYAZAWA Botanical Artist
RHS Gold Medalist
SBA Fellow
Hunt Institute Permanent Collection
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Notes & Tutorials

About me

I studied glass art and worked as a glass artist, exhibiting in solo shows and international exhibitions. It was a fulfilling period, yet in time I found myself drawn to pause and reflect on my relationship with making.

I discovered botanical art in 2007, during my time in the United Kingdom. One day, walking through the corridor of the language school I attended in London, I noticed a notice for a botanical art class. Having studied flower arranging and tea ceremony in Japan to support my glass work, I was looking for a way to continue something connected to plants and flowers. I joined the class on a whim — and it changed everything.

I went on to study under the artist Masumi Yamanaka, an official botanical artist at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. The more I drew, the more deeply I was absorbed into the discipline of precise observation and representation. Through the long, dark London winters, botanical art became the richest part of my day.

In 2011, I was awarded a Gold Medal by the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) for a series of works on Sarracenia. My work was subsequently selected for the 14th International Exhibition at the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation at Carnegie Mellon University, and entered their permanent collection. I also participated in Flora Japonica, a joint exhibition between Kew and Japanese botanical artists, exhibiting paintings of Citrus unshiu and Iris laevigata. In 2025, I was accredited as a Fellow of the Society of Botanical Artists (SBA).

Botanical art is not simply watercolour painting. It is a practice defined by close, sustained observation — and by the challenge of conveying the essential character and presence of a plant without background, through composition alone. It is here that an artist’s eye and individual vision come to the fore. My grounding in glass art continues to inform this practice: I am particularly drawn to expressing transparency, translucency, and the behaviour of light — qualities that allow me to evoke the delicate textures and atmosphere inherent in plant forms.

For each work, I explore not only the plant itself but also its historical and cultural contexts. Understanding the long relationship between plants and human civilisation deepens my engagement with each subject and gives the work greater resonance.

I am now active as a botanical artist, and run my own classes in Tokyo — including in the Ginza area — while also serving as an instructor at the NHK Culture Centre.

Kayoko Miyazawa

Profile

Main career as Botanical artist

2007 Moved to the UK　
2011 Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Gold Medal, London
2013 Pittsburgh, USA Hunt Institute 14th International Exhibition of Botanical Art
2014 Kyobashi, Tokyo Miyazawa Kayoko Botanical Art Class Exhibition
2016 Nagasaki Huis Ten Bosch Art Museum
2016 Royal Kew Gardens, London, UK Flora Japonica
2017 Flora Japonica, National Science Museum, Ueno, Tokyo
2018 Makino Botanical Garden, Kochi
2019 Artists Gathering in Flowers Keio Plaza Hotel
2022 Portland, USA Gifts from Japan at Portland Japanese Garden
2025 SBA (Society of Botanical Artists) Fellow Member2

Main biography as Glass artist

1995 Contemporary Glass Art Exhibition
1995 Kunstmuseum Hamburg, Germany
1996 Kajima Construction Kitashinagawa Apartments Lighting Objects
1998 Art Antugue Dusseldorf, Hannover, Germany
2000 Solo exhibition, Tokyu Art Craft Salon, Tokyu, Japan
2001 Completed Ceramics Course, Columbus College of Art and Design, USA
2004 Solo exhibition Tamagawa Takashimaya Art Salon
2004 O Art Museum, Japan-Korea Contemporary Art Exchange Exhibition
2005 Fuchu Art Museum, Fuchu Biennale
2005 Contemporary Art Hino Exhibition
2006 Mitsukoshi Honten　

Many other group exhibitions

Botanical Art for Your Home

Kayoko Miyazawa’s botanical artworks are available as high-quality giclée prints in a range of sizes. Each print is made to order with care and attention to detail.

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