Susan Frei Nathan - Fine Works on Paper, LLC

Beverly Duncan and Lara Call Gastinger are passionate botanical artists who document nature in all seasons using the sketchbook as their canvas. Based in the Northeastern portion of America these artists capture the ever changing plant life throughout the year. As plants and trees bloom and hibernate, their pencil follows the changing outline.

Duncan and Gastinger are commissioned by clients to follow plantings on their properties, documenting the growth from month to month as seen below:

Stamped Dated Page from Lara Call Gastinger's Sketchbook

A florilegium in sketchbook format is a personal record of a family’s plant-life, a bit larger than pocket-size, one can appreciate the book format to enjoy on the lap, display in a case near the front door of the home, changing pages ever so often, or in the living room for conversation. It enables the client to enjoy their plantings year round.

Beverly Duncan's Autumn Sketchbook Page

Stylistic interpretations of the plants create different aesthetic outcomes for these two sketchbook artists. Both are documentary, explanatory text surrounds the images explaining its growth cycle and dynamic performance. Whether in graphite drawings or watercolor, the results are jewel-like treasures.

Lara Call Gastinger, Week 14, Depending on the client's location, sketching can take place weekly, once a month or at the high point of each season.

Sketchbooks like these celebrate the beauty and immediacy of nature in a specific time. As our environment changes over time and plant survival is compromised, this holds as a record of plants for posterity.

Beverly Duncan's Summer Page

Last week I dined with eight of the botanical artists I represent at the ASBA Annual Conference in Chicago, IL.  During our dinner I learned what they listen to, drink and how they sit while painting.   They were very excited to share their preferences.  Regarding music,  Americana including Billy Bragg, Hank Williams, African inspired AM Roots, Sting, Diane Reeves, a variety of classical choices and Glen Gould Goldberg Variations.   They drink Green, Black, Chamomile and Mint teas, Coke,  Diet Snapple Lemon Tea, Cafe con Leche and the tried and true, a good ole cup of black coffee.  Finally, they paint on exercise balls, kneeling, standing up and sitting on a drafting chair.  I’m listening to the Goldberg Variations right now while writing this and enjoyed AM ROOTs very much.

HAPPY PAINTING!

Nature as art, here is a fabulous picture of Wisteria growing over and through a trestle on the Elizabeth Enders CT property.   I continue to say what surrounds you as an artist informs your art.   Happy Painting!

Enders Wisteria, Lyme, CT, 2012

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.

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.

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 Curator of Art and Research Scholar.

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.