Gallery
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aspect of this art well stoked. New truths were
revealed as I explored and researched amazing
flower parts both through the microscope and
botanical texts, while the forms and colours of
the jewel-like cells on the petals reflecting the
many dimensions of the colour blue and those
irregular shaped yellow anthers with splotches
of reddish brown floating at the end of tenuous
dark blue filaments, excited the artist in me. I
was under its spell, compelled to interpret
further with brush and paint – and as time went
by with touches of gold. The working page with
its many observational drawings inspired a work
based on concepts influenced by illuminated
works from the 15th century and also by that of
the old descriptive “botanicals”. The
gorgeously rich combination of the blue petals
and the intriguing orange-yellow anthers (some
specifically shaped to accommodate pollen
while others were purely for “show”) was
complemented further with the addition of a
double ruled gold border and gold ink figure
numbers creating the link not only to the various
flower parts throughout the work but also to the
creative endeavours of those artists and
illustrators from ages past who may have been
similarly excited contemplating and finally
creating works combining such gorgeous blue
with gold or else making sense of fascinating
plant structures.
Image area: 27.5x27.5 cm (11"x11")
Watercolor and color pencil on Fabriano Uno
watercolor paper
Margaret Saul © 2005
