One reason I've always drawn plants is that I'm fascinated with their individual forms. Each species is different in some essential way, and trying to capture what makes a hollyhock a hollyhock, a pansy a pansy, a maple a maple is a particular kind of challenge. You can draw the details of an individual flower or plant, but that's not necessarily "it." What gives each plant its character? Its busyness? Its solidity? The contrast of big round leaves and small flowers? A triangular aspect, or a tall straight one? Can that be set down in a few quick strokes? In different media, how can both the characteristics of species and individual plants be conveyed, the way the eye actually ranges over and recognizes them in a landscape, without getting caught up in minute details?
You could work on nothing else for a lifetime.
Yes, yes, absolutely. And yes you could spend a lifetime on nothing else. I adore accurate botanical drawings and paintings - one genre where precision does not equate to coldness, but if well done may reinforce the emotional and imaginative impact (not that I don't like more impressionstic or abstracted depictions of plants as well). These are lovely.
Posted by: Jean | July 13, 2010 at 06:40 AM
I suppose that's why I'm addicted to taking photos of flowers. Are these out of your garden?
Posted by: Jan | July 13, 2010 at 09:11 AM
Well, there's also the color and the sheer beauty of flowers. I know, me too! Thanks for your comments, Jean and Jan. The pansies are from my garden and the hollyhocks from my neighbor Olivier's.
Posted by: Beth | July 13, 2010 at 09:48 AM
Oh, so beautifully and freely drawn and coloured, Beth! And I second Jean's thoughts. LIke Jan too, I've become quite addicted to photographing and scanning flowers, especially macro. Strangely, I never did get into drawing or painting them.
Posted by: Marja-Leena | July 13, 2010 at 11:17 AM
I'm enjoying all your drawings here very much, they are just a perfect balance between looseness and control. You don't ever really know something in the way you do after you've drawn it, do you? And it stays with you somehow. Photography is wonderful of course, and photos can be a useful reference, but nothing beats that intense meditation on the subject that sitting in front of it and drawing provides.
Posted by: Lucy | July 13, 2010 at 12:37 PM
What Lucy said. Do you ever work in pastels?
Posted by: Hattie | July 13, 2010 at 02:47 PM
Gor-geosity, Beth!
Posted by: Claire | July 13, 2010 at 07:10 PM
Gorgeous. I really am enjoying all of your lovely drawings, Beth. Part of what I like, I think, is seeing things through your eyes. The details of the plants, the things you notice when you're out or even watching soccer in your own place, the little things are what make the drawings so compelling. Thanks for sharing them.
Posted by: Kim | July 16, 2010 at 09:43 PM
I love pen and watercolor, and you do such a fine job of it.
Posted by: Peter | July 19, 2010 at 11:14 AM