It has been calling my name for YEARS and yet I have never quite had the courage to begin. Botanical illustration. Not your everyday kinda hobby.
What is botanical drawing or illustration? It's the art of representing a plant - and often the various parts and phases of the plant's lifecycle - in a scientifically accurate way.
Let's back track a little about me and drawing.
My father is from the long lineage of Breugels - painters and artists by trade. Pretty famous, my most people's standards, and work hanging in many of the great galleries of Europe. All my family has an artistic streak. My uncle, Coen van Breugel and his wife, Anneke Vincenten, were both decorated by the Dutch King in April 2020, for their life-long service to the Dutch art community.
But we grew up away from Holland for most of my childhood and my father had (when he was alive) a particularly critical streak. He was also a cruel and vicious man. He was quick to point out the flaws in everything, and had a way of shaming you for being wrong.
I remember being 15 years old and winning a Technical Drawing prize from the Victoria Government in Australia, which came with a small financial bursary. My parents and the nuns from school instantly informed me that I wouldn't be drawing anymore, since architecture wasn't seemly for ladies and that I'd simply be preparing to get married. That was in 1978.
And so I stopped drawing. Started telling myself I was terrible at it. Told everyone else I was too. For a short while in my later 30s, I did a term of art therapy - it was more about therapy than art and I finished most sessions with a terrible headache.
Ad now 20 more years have passed.
It still calls me and fascinates me. And I have decided - thanks to the Weekend Challenge - to begin.
How to start? This coming week I will be buying some drawing materials for myself as a christmas gift. And looking to see what's out there in terms of materials for a staged approach to building skill.
I really like the look of this book: The Joy of Botanical Drawing.
Accord-based illustrator Wendy Hollender got her start with botanical drawing 22 years ago, when she was working as a home furnishing textile designer, creating patterns for everything from wallpaper to dinnerware. "I used to look at old botanical illustrations as reference—everybody does—and I was envious," she says. "I was very creative and good with color but not good with realism back then."
So Hollender hunted around and found a course at the New York Botanical Garden, and within several months of classes, they hired her on as an instructor. In the two decades since, she has traveled the world giving classes in her colored pencil and watercolor method, while working as a freelance botanical illustrator for projects and publications ranging from Martha Stewart Living to the New York Times. Source
Do I believe in Santa dropping gifts? I believe more in the power of gifting myself to begin to unlock an artistic outflow that speaks to my soul.
It's almost New Year and the time could not be better to set a new tone, start a new hobby, and to commit to something creative.
Grateful to The Weekend Challenge for inviting me to explore this long-unfinished idea, and to challenge myself. Excited.
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Oh that's so amazing. I absolutely adore botanical illustrations. I (guiltily) tore up an old herbal book for the plates to frame and put on my walls. I'd love to see your progress here - amazing! @riverflows
I'm sorry I took so long to get to this - Christmas is a busy time, isn't it?
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Yes, I can imagine doing exactly that - and it's through the lack of good botanical illustrations of local plants here that I decided to look. Having found just so very little, I had that niggly thought.... "maybe I should be the one?". Planning some special time with Ploi to go and buy art materials and she will wrap them for me.
I'm expecting (after a suitable learning curve) to have some great new content for @theherbalhive in 2022.
I'm so excited about it. You are definitely one of my fave herbies on HIVE and botanical drawings are next level!!!!
👍👍👍☘️
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