Botanical Collection

Christopher spent almost five years living and working in Sarawak. He would spend much of his personal time visiting Dayak tribes with whom he would travel into the rainforest to paint orchids, exotic plants and the flora and fauna of Sarawak. Extracts from some 200 of Christopher’s journals articulate some of his experiences while living in Sarawak.

A large part of the Botanical Collection include illustrations of orchids, many of which were entrusted by Christopher into the care of The Sarawak State Museum, the oldest museum in South East Asia. The paintings are frequently on exhibition in the Old Museum (Ethnology Museum) in Kuching.

Botanical illustration is the art of depicting the form, colour, and details of plant species, frequently in the form of watercolour paintings. The emphasis of Botanical Illustration is on science rather than visual art and highlights a plant’s particular distinguishing features which enable botanists to tell one plant from another.