Gillian Condy

Who is Gillian Condy?

Gillian Condy, born 5 December 1952 Nairobi, is a South African botanical artist. She has illustrated over 200 plates for Flowering Plants of Africa, contributed to various other South African National Botanical Institute publications and 8 plates for Curtis’s Botanical Magazine. She has illustrated two books by Charles Craib, Geophytic Pelargoniums and Grass Aloes in the South African Veld. She also contributed to the biographic section in the book South African Botanical Art:Peeling back the Petals.

She was born in Kenya, the youngest of three daughters of Thomas Roy Condy and Phyllis Mary Poulton, and spent her childhood in Uganda where her love for Africa and its plants developed. She received her training at Middlesex Polytechnic in London as a natural history illustrator and obtained a Master of Arts degree from the Royal College of Art for a project entitled "British Poisonous Plants".

She returned to Africa by way of Phuthadikobo Museum at Mochudi in Botswana with the International Voluntary Service and spent two years roughing it before moving to Lobatse. In 1983 she became resident botanical artist with the National Botanical Institute in Pretoria. She has retained her ties with Botswana through the design of 13 sets of postage stamps for that country since 1982.