Special Articles & Interviews | ArtPlantae Today

Archive for the ‘Special Articles & Interviews’ Category

Ruth Ava Lyons Discusses Painting in Oil, Using Gold Leaf

Posted in botanical art, Education, Learning Opportunities, nature, Special Articles & Interviews, Special Events on February 4, 2013|

Feature guest Ruth Ava Lyons paints in oil and prefers oil over acrylic. She also applies other media to her paintings. I asked what is it about oil that captures her attention. She replied:

Oil is a very seductive medium. It has a richness of palette that is hard to simulate in acrylic which sometimes sends a visual clue that it is man-made/plastic/synthetic. In my youth, I studied the old masters and became very fond of their techniques with oil…

Ruth discusses her use of oil, metal leaf, gold leaf and more

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Ruth Ava Lyons Creates Emotional Connections Between People, Plants and Nature

Posted in botanical art, Education, Learning Opportunities, Special Announcements, Special Articles & Interviews, Special Events on February 1, 2013| 26 Comments »

Ruth Ava Lyons is an artist living in Charlotte, North Carolina. The botanical images she creates are not like those found in botanical art, yet they make the same connections between plants, people and nature that botanical artists hope to establish with their audience.

Ruth’s images are vibrant, emotional and pull you into Nature’s landscape. She has completed several artist residencies. Most recently in the Everglades National Park Artist in Residence Program in Florida. This year she will travel to the Great Barrier Reef in Australia to complete an artist residency at the Heron Island Research Station, supported with a Regional Artist Project Grant. This project was made possible through the support of the North Carolina Arts Council, a state agency, the Blumenthal Endowment, and the arts councils in Cabarrus, Cleveland, Gaston, Iredell, Mecklenburg, Rowan, Rutherford, Union, and York (South Carolina) counties. Ruth is represented by Hidell Brooks Gallery in Charlotte, NC.

Ruth has graciously agreed to spend time with us this month to discuss her art and her experiences as an artist in residence.

Please welcome Ruth Ava Lyons as this month’s special guest!

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Anita Walsmit Sachs Forms the Dutch Society of Botanical Artists

Posted in botanical art, Education, gardening, general botany, Learning Opportunities, Special Articles & Interviews on January 16, 2013|

Anita Walsmit Sachs, her students and a colleague formed the Dutch Society of Botanical Artists. Why was this organization formed? Anita explains…

I became aware of the societies in England and America and was really shocked that in a country like mine, the Netherlands with its long history of flower painting and where there are so many breeders and flowers and where plants cost almost nothing, there was not such a society…

Learn more about the Society’s publications and their exhibition in a castle!

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Anita Walsmit Sachs Shares How She Draws Plants in Pen and Ink

Posted in botanical art, drawing, Education, general botany, Learning Opportunities, Special Articles & Interviews on January 14, 2013|

When drawing in pen and ink, what gets inked first?

Anita describes how she inks a botanical plate:

After tracing the habit of the plant and drawing all the details asked for by the scientist, I gather all the items and arrange them in my format of 24 cm x 36 cm, taking much care with the composition. Because I do not work with a computer and everything is done by hand, I try to avoid overlaps. This is because later on, after the drawing has been scanned, some elements of the drawing may be re-used in another format…

Learn More

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Collecting Visual Information in the Field

Posted in botanical art, Education, general botany, Learning Opportunities, Sketching & Journaling, Special Articles & Interviews on January 11, 2013|

Imagine that you are out in the field somewhere, discover a plant you just have to draw, but only have minutes to record information about the plant. What do you record?

I presented this scenario to Anita Walsmit Sachs.

She replied:

When you are in the field and meet an interesting plant, you can do one of two things — forget about it or try to describe the plant with words being as detailed as possible…

Read More

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Have you painted botanicals in oil?

Posted in botanical art, Education, Learning Opportunities, Special Articles & Interviews, Special Events on January 9, 2013|

In addition to creating botanical plates in pen and ink, featured artist Anita Walsmit Sachs works in watercolor and oil and has painted a 17th century style painting. Where is this painting now?

Readers, in how many media do you work? Have you ever created a botanical painting in the style of the Old Masters?

Join the conversation and share your stories

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Art, Botany and the Plants of Southeast Asia

Posted in botanical art, Education, History, Learning Opportunities, Special Articles & Interviews on January 7, 2013|

The conversation with Anita Walsmit Sachs continues. We touch upon one of Anita’s current projects and a link to the historic Ambonese Herbal.

ArtPlantae: In the article your wrote for the December 2012 issue of The Botanical Artist – Journal of the American Society of Botanical Artists, you mentioned you work with scientists whose research is dedicated to the plants of southeast Asia. Does any aspect of your research include plants described by Georgius Everhardus Rumphius in The Ambonese Herbal? The manuscript used to print The Ambonese Herbal is located in the library at the University of Leiden. Have you ever seen this historic text?

Anita:
The scientists of our herbarium work at the Flora Malesiana so plants described by Georgius Everhardus Rumphius must have passed my hands. In the library of the herbarium I have seen a copy of the books, which was very impressive. Also the story of his life is very impressive, his constant perseverance and dedication to his passion.

Join the conversation with Anita!