Malcolm Ian Howie

Malcolm Ian Howie (1900–1936) was an Australian self-taught commercial and botanical watercolour artist and Methodist local preacher.

[2][4] He was often accompanied on his preaching engagements by the botanist James Hamlyn Willis, who had married Malcolm's sister, Mavis Eileen Howie.

[3] An accomplished debater, he wrote "verse and short plays," and entered the Royal South Street Society literary competition in 1933, winning second place.

[1] By 1926 Howie was employed as a commercial painter, supplying artwork featuring birds and wildflowers, for calendars and suedework.

[1] By 1931, James Hamlyn Willis and Ethel McLennan had encouraged Howie to expand his repertoire to include fungi, and his paintings increasingly appeared in scientific publications.

Example of an illustration by Howie, featuring blue pincushions (Brunonia australis) and running postman (Kennedia prostrata). Originally painted for, and published by the Weekly Times in 1934.
Example of artwork painted by Malcolm Howie, held by the State Botanical Collection, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria.