SFN Botanical Art: The Blog

The Magnified Eye: Contemporary Botanical Portraiture

susan — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 21:48:57 +0000

Fifty spectacular examples of contemporary botanical art by the finest painters in the world are currently exhibited at the Reeves-Reed Arboretum in Summit, New Jersey. Aside the paintings are magnifying glasses for closer inspection of the flawless dry-brush watercolor technique. The works embody the stylistic interpretation unique to the artists, mostly sharing knowledge of the plant in a classical plant portraiture manner with supreme elegance. Shown in an historic estate on the Arboretum grounds with beautiful gardens unfolding around it, an ideal place to view botanicals both painted and alive.

The Contemporary Still life

susan — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 23:05:55 +0000

I recently visited the Horticultural Society of New York to see a fabulous exhibition entitled “Nature Morte”. As Chris Murtha, Curator of The Hort writes in the press release, “This exhibition highlights three contemporary artists who utilize still life photography as a central part of their process. It honors and subverts the traditions of the still life and explores how photography in turn has influenced the genre.” I connected to the composition and clarity of Sharon Core’s work. It also reminded me of a work by Lizzie Sanders after Cotan (1560-1627).

Core’s Early American, Watermelon and Blackberries is intentionally appropriated from works by 19th century American painter, Raphaelle Peale. It defers to the past but celebrates the 21st century, both centuries mingling in the picture with an obvious nod to the viewer to decide which they prefer. I admire the use of photography in this genre, it pulls out the line of the objects so distinctly and closely compares to contemporary botanical painting where artists are practicing a traditional art form in modern times. The type of contemporary botanical art I gravitate towards celebrates the same ideas.

Sharon Core, Early American Series, Watermelon and Blackberries, 2009, Chromogenic print, 14 x 18 inches

Lizzie Sanders' Still-life after Cotan, 2008, watercolor on paper, 28 x 35 inches

Spontaneity in Botanical Art

susan — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 19:34:17 +0000

Elizabeth Enders botanical drawings are spontaneously executed with serious intentions. Enders new series of Petunias are über contemporary, appearing effortless and immediate, her unique stylistic interpretation comes from her long history of drawing and painting rooted in abstraction and language. The artist’s ability to pare back the information she receives from the specimen enables her to produce sophisticated, clean drawings of plants, purely defining her approach to botanical portraiture. Seeing a room of her botanical paintings hanging salon style conjures the feeling of walking through a garden at its peak with energy and motion. They are contemporary to the core and alive.

Article on the 19th-century Language of Flowers in the Bulletin of the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation

susan — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 23:13:39 +0000

Although Flora’s Lexicon, an exhibition on the “19th-century Language of Flowers phenomenon” is long over, it’s worth requesting a copy of the Hunt’s Bulletin,Vol. 23, No. 1, Spring 2011 which includes a well-researched essay on the subject by Catherine Hammond, Assistant … Continue reading →

Vignettes/Home Informs Art the Best

susan — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 23:00:44 +0000

Summer, July 2011, Arkansas, USA. Visiting with Kate Nessler was a magical experience, the Ozark Mountains are exquisite. Her most recent series of Edge paintings is derived from her organic planting style and the cut of her land. Most of her subjects or inspiration for her paintings come from outside her windows and along the dirt roads leading to and from her sweeping landscape.

Throughout Kate’s home are small vignettes built around a beautiful object, collections from trips (dried flowers, rocks) nestled around her drawings. Exquisitely arranged like her paintings, they evoke wonder.

Beauty

susan — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 13:05:28 +0000

Lately I’ve admired the work of Patricia Luppino, a botanical artist from New York. Her pencil and watercolor pieces capture nature at its most beautiful and vulnerable. She recently asked me for a portfolio critique where we moved into a lengthy discussion the motivation behind her stylistic interpretations. Here’s what she shared with me:

“I’m not certain that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but if it is, it seems that beauty may not always be in the beholder’s line of sight. As I hover in that invisible netherworld between middle and old age, with the specter of decrepitude ever looming, I’m saddened by obsession with youth and beauty. For what charitable cause, what grand idea, what contribution are these fortunate ageless few responsible? Can we once gaze past them at the craggy crone with the twisted spine and appreciate her wisdom, her grace, her spirit?

Contemptuous of youth and beauty in its many forms, I’m seldom moved by a stunning painting or a stunning flower. Does it really need to garner even more attention? Show me instead the gnarled root, the dried seed head, the buried bulb who all seem to call out ‘behold me, you will see, if you care to behold, that I am beautiful too.”

Since we experience four seasons on the East Coast of America, I used to crave seeing living plants in the depths of winter. However, with works by Pat Luppino and Kate Nessler, my need for green has greatly diminished, in its place is the beauty found in roots and sweeping fungus. It’s solitude, privacy and gracefulness speaking volumes, in its stillness there is so much movement. Beauty comes through these natural forms, forcing recognition and leaving lasting impressions.

April 2011 Lecture and Portfolio Reviews in Southern California

susan — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 22:46:00 +0000

Please visit http://bagscblog.com/ for a review of the lecture I gave on “Is My Work Salable” and Collecting to the Botanical Artists Guild of Southern California in April 2011. They have posted the event on their great site.

Studio Visits

susan — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 23:06:48 +0000

Late May - lettuces, onions and pole beans sprouting

Visiting artists studios provides me with the opportunity to see the mind of the artist at work. Viewing botanical art specimens composed or scattered on the artists tables pulls me into their world of aesthetic choices. Touring their carefully planted gardens knowing these specimens were selected for their beauty both in the garden and its potential on the page is an exciting experience. The last few weekends I have visited Beverly Duncan in Ashfield, Massachusetts (western Massachusetts) and Carol Woodin in Accord, NY near New Paltz. Both visits were equally informative: learning what grows in and surrounding their studios shows compositions within nature which inspire its voice on paper. Beverly takes long walks to observe the regional habitat and carefully documents her findings in her Ashfield Compositions. These compositions are derived from artfully composed specimens with the immediate documentation needed for accurate coloration and speak to her love and pride of place.

Ashfield Composition-Honeysuckle, Grape Vine and Ants

Carol Woodin finds country farm life a perfect place to paint and reflect on botanical art choices globally. Her most recent subject, the Cobaea scandens is from a visit to Quito, Ecuador. She also finds great joy in selecting regional plants from her garden or local botanical gardens. Not only is she an amazing painter, but a wonderful cook who is inspired by the edible plant-life and truly lives and breathes the farm to table experience. Arriving at 10:30 AM to her home, we were welcomed with freshly baked blueberry scones, a veggie (asparagus, basil and tomato) filled fritatta with home fries. Besides being by far one of the best meals I will eat all year, the asparagus was fresh from the farm and her grill before adding to the egg mixture. This attention to detail comes forth in every aspect of her highly-cultured life.

Cobaea scandens - Cathedral Bells

Botanical Prints

susan — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 00:24:28 +0000

Recently I visited the studio of Monika de Vries Gohlke, a German born botanical artist who has applied the art of printmaking to botanical portraiture. Monika works from real life specimens while engraving her copper plates from her home garden in Brooklyn as well as from inspirational plant-life found at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Her work is infused with a European sensibility with a strong consideration for composition and romanticism, referencing the great German, Dutch and French 18th and 19th century master botanical artists. Especially with the application of aquatint engraving, the dichotomy of sharpness in the line and edge with softness of subject constantly challenges the eye and feeds the emotions. These are masterfully printed original works on paper with a unique stylistic interpretation, definitely contemporary and distinctly her own.

Financial Times-FT.COM Article

susan — Thu, 26 May 2011 15:12:58 +0000

Exciting mention of Lizzie Sanders and Kate Nessler’s work as part of Prince Charles’s Highgrove Florilegium in “The Prince’s Prints” by Tim Richardson, published on May 21, 2011.