ArtPlantae Today

Botanical artist, Rayma Peterson, is one of three artists whose work is now on view at the Leighton Art Centre, Gallery and Museum. Sixteen of Rayma’s paintings capturing the plants of Alberta’s foothills, mountains, and wetlands in their native habitats will be on display through July 31, 2010. When asked how she documents plants in their natural environment, Rayma replied:

Exploring and botanizing in the spring, summer, and fall are my favorite activities. I look for close up scenes that almost jump out at me with their uniqueness and beauty, and try to share my visual experience of these scenes with the viewer. I want to show people the exquisite beauty that is underfoot in western Canada. I also take pains to ensure that the painting is botanically correct; that is, I only show plants growing together that would normally do so in a given habitat. I enjoy painting flowering plants, but also enjoy depicting their more humble relatives that may be easily overlooked, such as fungi, lichens, mosses, and even algae. My favorite habitats are calcareous springs and fens, foothills, grasslands, sub-alpine and alpine areas, wetlands, and tide pools.

I sometimes paint a habitat with my botanical subject prominent, and leave a white or very faint background towards the top. Thus I combine the habitat painting with the plant portrait to create my own style or genre. I will explore an area, taking extensive photographs, composing with my camera. Later in the studio, I combine elements and plants from various photographs, as long as they could be found in close proximity with each other in a microhabitat.

Rayma has a BSc. in botany and a BEd. in art and science. She has spent much of her life in the field, primarily in central and western Alberta. Her work is featured in Today’s Botanical Artists, by Cora B. Marcus and Libby Kyer (2008), as well as in Trees of Wagner Natural Area by the Wagner Natural Area Society, text by Patsy Cotterill (2010).