2024 Yoko Harada - American Society of Botanical Artists

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Yoko Harada

Lizzie Sanders New Artist Award

Story by SUSAN CUMINS

Yoko Harada had been an ASBA member for years when she submitted her first painting to an ASBA exhibition. That was in 2023, for the 26th Annual International, where her depiction of Arisaema kishidae was awarded the Marin Art and Garden Center Best in Show Award. That painting illustrates her passionate interest in the rare and endangered Japanese plants that are the focus her work. Botanical art was perhaps a natural segue following her career in accuracy-intense, international news publishing in Japan, where she resides.

That painting’s exceptionally high standard of design and execution, coupled with precision and accuracy, led to her being recognized with ASBA’s Lizzie Sanders New Artist Award. Yoko’s lifelong interest in painting blossomed when, in 2010, she was in London for business and met with Elaine Searle at the Chelsea Flower Show. She immediately began what would be five years of private/distance learning study in the UK with Searle, who encouraged her to enroll in the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh’s (RBGE) Diploma Course in Botanical Illustration. Yoko graduated with distinction in 2018 and was recognized with RBGE’s Top of the Class award.

Mentor Lizzie Sanders, left, and Yoko at the RBGE graduation ceremony.

“I attended Lizzie Sanders’s workshops at RBGE and was thrilled when she came to my graduation event there,” says Yoko. “I am deeply honored to receive the award named for her. I had the privilege of attending Lizzie’s workshops during the RBGE course in Scotland and will always cherish her kindness and valuable guidance.” After Lizzie passed away in 2020, her children, Robin Sanders and Toby Sanders, funded the award to recognize and encourage artists whose work had first been juried into an ASBA international exhibition within the previous two years. Yoko is the third recipient award of this award that honors the extraordinary example set by Lizzie Sanders, a longtime ASBA member. “Since graduating, I have been studying with Mieko Ishikawa in Tokyo,” says Yoko. In 2022, she was honored with a Gold Medal and the Best Botanical Artwork Award at the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Botanical Art and Photography Show. She spent three years working on her six award-winning paintings in the RHS exhibition.

In 2024 her artwork was accepted for the ASBA and New York Botanical Garden’s Fifth Triennial Exhibition, Curious Allies. Her work won Best in Show at Botanical Art Thailand held at the Bangkok Art & Culture Centre and was accepted for the 17th International Exhibition at Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, Pittsburgh. Two of her artworks have been accepted for Botanical Art Worldwide 2025, Japan and she has been selected to participate in the Botanical Artist in Residence program at Oak Spring Garden Foundation.

For a complete list of exhibitions and collections that hold her work, visit yokoharada-botanicalart.com.

Susan Cumins recently relocated to Los Angeles where she is active with ASBA's Botanical Art Guild of Southern California.