It has been an intense semester and I have continued working on the botanical paintings for the project we are conducting with. The concept of taxonomies have become increasingly central to the work of Shanice and myself, as we act as collectors:
But we are also creating a collection of artefacts:
In this post I wanted to show a series of botanical tables, painted like in the old days, to represent a naturalistic catalogue about the plants that we can find walking around in Danish cities, in public parks and green areas surrounding the cities. In Denmark we are lucky, because there is great focus on keeping beautiful green areas close to the cities. Lots of trees, bushes, flowers, mushrooms, and of course cute animals as well, are a constant part of the landscape, without having to drive many kilometers towards the countryside. Some of these plants are even edible, it is common place to find hazelnuts, I have a series of lines of hazelnuts just beside my house, apple trees, tall cranberry and thick blackberry bushes are easy to spot when in season. The presence of these plants is providing beauty, lifting the spirits of citizens even when living in urbanised areas, inspiring art making, like in my case, feeding us and reconnecting us to the seasonal cycles. We do not just see the changing colors of leaves, but we experience the whole life cycle of nature, from leaves, to flowers, fruits and seedpods appearing to plant other trees. From top left - chestnut, acorn, linden. From bottom left - ginko biloba, sycamore or maple, birch, a classical Nordic tree. From top left: chestnut, poplar, acorn, hazelnut, linden. Center: sycamore or maple and birch. From left bottom: gingko biloba, magnolia, and I am not sure what the last one is, I will try to find out ;)
The colors are gained from: turmeric root for the yellow, onions for the flesh pink color, which is providing a delicate warm tone to the paintings, cranberries and blackberries and cabbage for the violet-blue, and finally coffee for the darker tones. Anyway the cranberries ink added in layers tend towards darker tones, turning into almost black, even more when mixed with coffee, while gaining a warmer nuance. Although I claim I am doing botanical paintings, in fact I am still exploring how living organisms mirror into each other. I tried to capture the lightness of the movement expressed by the forms of these seeds, some converging towards longneck birds ready to fly, gazing at far horizons to be reached. Thank you for stopping by Bertie xxx
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorFreelance illustrator and painter. Archives
May 2023
Categories |