Hickman wins Churchill Fellowship

Illustrator and Botanist Ellen Hickman was one of just 13 Western Australians to be awarded a Churchill Fellowship last week.

The Fellowship will enable Hickman to travel overseas to to complete her research into the plant family Haemodoraceae whose WA equivalent is the kangaroo paw.

She plans to visit Brazil, Guyana, Venezuela, Cuba to draw the family in its natural habitat and to visit the United Kingdom to study past collections housed in the herbarium at Kew Gardens.

“These studies will be used for illustrations for a book I am doing in collaboration with Professor Stephen Hopper (director of Kew Gardens),” said Hickman.

She said she’s already completed studies of Haemodoraceae family members in South Africa and North America.

With a background in botany and fine arts, Hickman lives in the South West of Western Australia where she works as a botanist and an artist. She is featured alongside other members of the Western Australian Botanical Artists Group in Brush with Gondwana.