Vicki Lee Johnston - Botanical Art: 2012

Anne Marie Evans Workshop ...

In between all the chaos of the course I took up an invitation to attend a botanical painting workshop with renowned teacher Anne Marie Evans, who had flown from the UK to teach at the Botanical Art School of Melbourne. I had finished the final assignment and was in the midst of preparing for the long haul of diploma portfolio works - so yes, why not add a week of intense concentration and art for a change? I had to travel to Melbourne to attend the masterclass so include lack of sleep, time difference and staying with family in a confined area to the mix. It was an exhausting week but it was nice to catch up with old friends at the BASM and to meet new artists from many different areas and all walks of life.


Peonies - the challenging subject

My friend Sigrid Frensen had spoken often of Anne Marie and her teaching method - and although I could have done with a break from painting - it was a great opportunity to focus on technique, botanical structure and depicting plants in the most accurate and informative way to enhance the artwork. Anne Marie has a method referred to as her 'six stages of painting'.

Anne Marie spoke about the lack of art education specifically geared for botanical artists which refer to plant structures and how to show them in an informative way - making the viewer see the fundamental characteristics to each petal, leaf, stem etc., by its accurate portrayal. Her method assists the artist to ensure all aspects of the plant are well depicted in order to give the viewer as much knowledge as possible in the botanical illustration.

Anne Marie Evans is a wonderful teacher, a very elegant lady and very generous with her time and the phrase "...does that make sense" was heard often in her quest to ensure the student was on the same wave length. She spent a lot of time with each student and made sure that everyone was seen to. Anne Marie also ensures there is no talking in class, a welcome relief - with around twenty students it can get a little distracting so everyone benefits from a quiet classroom with only the teacher's voice to be heard.

We spent a lot of time drawing the flower, observing the overall shape and how the petals form and develop from the centre, also ensuring we depicted that well enough so that the viewer could understand clearly the structure. Anne Marie said to treat it as though you are showing the viewer something they have never seen before and that there is no doubt about what you have illustrated and its accuracy. Form was terribly important in the early stages of the painting and we spent a great deal of time working on showing the form in each petal.

Anne Marie is a wealth of information and reflected back to the early masters of botanical illustration - Redoute and Bauer among them - and used many pictures to give examples of how the form was shaped in a painting using great shadow and light. It was stressed often how important it is to go truly dark in the shadows as she felt that three dimensionality was missing in many contemporary botanical works. This was just a brief introduction to her method - and there are many techniques to assist in creating such form - most of which are covered in her well respected book.

I had also managed to secure a copy of "An Approach to Botanical Painting" - authored by Anne Marie and Donn Evans in 1993 and no longer in print. It is highly collectible and I was lucky to purchase one at a reasonable price from a fellow botanical artist.

It arrived from the UK the day before we left - I took it to Melbourne and Anne Marie kindly signed it for me, which makes it even more valuable, but I won't be parting with it any time soon! I need to spend some time going back over the wealth of information Anne Marie Evans touched on. We spoke quite often during the week and she has intentions of writing another book in the near future to add to this edition. I am always a diligent student and take on board what is being explained - no doubt her voice will be ringing in my ears as I progress with the diploma portfolio works over the next few months.

Anne Marie refers to quotes often (as do I) and this is one which resounded with me:

"There is scarcely a person so void of genius as to fail of success, if he apply earnestly to one branch of study and practise it continuously"

Leonardo Da Vinci

Final Assignment ...

It's difficult to believe it's been two years ... twelve assignments - and this is the final artwork before the most important part of the course - the diploma portfolio works. For now I am happy to breathe a sigh of relief I managed to get this far. You can see the familiar brown envelope in which our artwork travels across the globe - 'students work of no commercial value' always makes me cringe a little.

The assignment called for three or more flowers or berries and fruit brought together in a mixed composition. Continuing from my previous post I managed to include the final elements - being the strappy leaves of the society garlic, the stems of all the subjects and to refine the painting as much as time would allow. I can't believe I still have plenty of that blue painter's tape left - I use it to secure the paper to the perspex board and it clashes terribly with my painting - time to get a neutral coloured tape :) It is supposed to keep the artwork flat while working with watercolour.

As you can see here it doesn't work as well as hoped - but then I work quite wet and always end up with warped paper. I love to see the way the colour interacts with the wet paper - I am not so keen on working dry.

Back to my method of stretching artwork - I was organised enough to have two days spare to use this technique of flattening the artwork on completion.

Voila! Nice and flat - and no ugly blue tape. I could have done a better job of the stretching but rushed it a little and after talking to another artist have picked up a few more tips to assist with an even better result.

Now it's back to the drawing board. While this is our final regular assignment of the course - we now launch into the diploma works - three artworks required in half the time. They are also worth around forty per cent of our overall mark which is quite daunting. There are a lot of weary students around the world having to do some serious time management to meet the final course deadline in three months. Fingers crossed we have learnt enough along the way to help us all over the line. Thank you for your lovely comments and for being a great support - it makes the road a lot less lonely ...

All images © Vicki Lee Johnston

Mixed Flowers ...

The inspiration behind the choices made for this assignment came from my garden - in its prime right now at the heart of spring. One of my favourite trees is our Bauhinia variegata - known here as the butterfly tree, or orchid tree. You can see the picture of our tree here complete with the ladder still in place from my attempts at cutting the best stems to show the detail and structure of the flowers and leaves. The flowers are incredibly striking with showy stamens and the most beautiful strong colours.


Colour studies to match

The leaves are so complex - very prominent vein system and beautiful butterfly shapes .. hence the common name of butterfly tree.


First of the front facing flowers ...

These flowers were almost completed so that it would be easier to choose the other flowers to complement and not compete with the showy bauhinia. I chose 'Good Samaritan' rose buds as their colour was a beautiful rich raspberry red and the buds were a lovely form and shape which didn't overwhelm as a full blown rose might have. I also chose some scarlet rose hips to bring in a little more bright red.

I included the Tulbaghia violacea - society garlic - as it showed an interesting flowerhead shape and being such small flowers did not overwhelm the composition, yet still brought in variety to help fill the page. This would also bring in some strappy long, lean and different green leaves to contrast with the butterfly-shaped bauhinia leaf.

There's still a lot more to show on this one with a few more elements so once I have all the photos together I'll post the completed artwork ... it's a tough one as you have to choose the flowers as you go - much like gathering a bouquet from the garden. More work still to come ...

All images © Vicki Lee Johnston

Seeing ...

"There are two things in the painter, the eye and the mind, each of them should aid the other."

Paul Cezanne

This week I completed Assignment 12 and had a visit with my eye specialist. Very productive!

As a very young thing I had a few problems with my eyes – one of them turned completely in when I was a baby .. consequently I was just a toddler when I had eye surgery to correct. My absolute first life memory was of being at a children’s hospital – I must have been about three. I wore glasses for most of my younger life when the options weren't great - glasses were not a fashion statement and the term 'four eyes' was a familiar taunt.

One of my first pairs of glasses!

Unfortunately it didn’t go well at the time and as a teenager I had eye surgery again which resulted in my eyes being straightened. What I didn’t know is that the surgery corrects the appearance of the eyes but the problem with the eye/brain connection still exists – the failure of the eyes to work well in unison.

I have had troubles most of my life with my sight – I can focus on something, but very quickly the object moves … the eye starts to wander, just as when I was a child. At a late age I met with a very astute specialist who made glasses with prescribed prisms – which trick the eye/brain connection into thinking the eyes are working together. I have been using these glasses for three years – since I began this work. When I began my journey with botanical art I would choose easier subjects because my eyes could not hold focus on the multi petalled or very tiny objects - it was exhausting work and I often ended up with terrible eye strain and migraines. I was so keen to continue but I was concerned my eyes would just not cope with the finer detail.

Then and now ...

When I saw the specialist he was very impressed to see my eyesight had finally stabilized after years of deterioration. He also felt that the work I was doing with botanical art had improved the strength of my eyes with all the exercise they were getting. Such good news for me - sight is priceless and I have struggled so much with it – my eyes are finally settling down at a time when I really need them to and hope for many more years being able to draw and paint. I was a late starter, have a lot of ground to make up and hope to spend many hours painting studies of nature.

Getting started ...

I feel very blessed to think that having had so many problems with sight – I am still able to pursue a passion that depends on vision being as accurate as possible. Our eyes are too precious to take a chance with or cut costs on treatment - wearing cheaper magnifying glasses only magnifies a problem. I am so grateful to be on the path to seeing everything so much more clearly.

Perhaps that's why I choose bold subjects - it's a lot less effort to see them!

Bon Voyage assignment 12 - I will post the finished artwork soon.

Packing for a very special trip now ...


Work in Progress ...

UPDATE - 5 years on - my eyes have stabilised well. Mostly due to frequent visits with my eye specialists. I always take in my latest artworks and in particular the designs which include intricate work like dissections, close ups etc to show just how finite we need to work.

He found this most helpful and has been able to prescribe glasses with bifocal lenses, the main section at reasonable painting viewing distance and the lower section for extreme detail work. I also have another pair for general reading/painting at usual distance. I also use a hand held magnifier on occasion. I find this suits very well but it is also very important to do my exercises, learnt from a young age since the surgeries.

Taking frequent breaks, looking off to the distance and seeing more peripheral vision and long distance to give my eyes a break to the close work often incurred with painting and computer work.

I also make sure I have frequent exercise and include upper body work to ensure good blood flow to the eyes and brain as they need the oxygen to work well in unison. I also ensure I drink a lot of water as our eyes can become dry from constant staring at a subject, you just don't realise how long you look at details and wonder why your eyes are weary and dry. Blinking often is a good way to keep things fluid, you would be surprised how rarely we blink when focussing on fine artworks.

Many things combined can help with ongoing eye health, I learnt from a very young age how crucial sight can be and never take it for granted. I do believe botanical art has helped to strengthen and stabilise my progress with the exercise they are given, just like any muscles, but it also can be attributed to taking good overall care of your health. The eyes are the window to the soul and can also reflect our general health.

Grateful ...

“Your time here is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And, most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary”.

Steve Jobs

I was just thinking about when I first found out I had been accepted onto the SBA Course. It came at a time when life was great, the kids had grown up – work was good and family were all healthy and happy. I was looking for something more – wanting to develop my basic art knowledge and create a space just for me.

That was two years ago. An awful lot has happened in a very short period of time. At this time of year the notices will be going out to accept the next intake of students from around the world and they will make the decision to embark on twenty-seven months of intense study and commitment to a course dedicated to botanical art.

Had I known what was ahead of me perhaps I wouldn’t have gone ahead with the added stress of almost full-time study and practical learning – on my own – nobody to advise or direct at the times most needed. However my advice to the new students is different as each month passes … I really have no advice other than “how much do you want to challenge yourself?”. There are easier ways to get through the course – by just getting by, doing the minimal requirements and scraping through. Then there is the more difficult option of truly wanting to learn – albeit on your own – just how capable you are of discovering how to depict nature in a scientifically accurate yet artistically appealing way.

I’m tired. I’ve managed to complete eleven assignments under some of the most challenging times of my life. Why did all the dramas happen when I undertook this course? I felt like it was my time to grow and learn. I know so many others who are struggling to get through each day, let alone adding this workload to the stress of their lives. At least I had something to take my mind off things and just focus on what was in front of me. In some of the most gut wrenching situations I was forced to sit in front of a pretty flower and make some sense of it. Sometimes it was the only thing that did make sense, that I had some control over.

Two years – it was this date two years ago my mother was in intensive care fighting for her life, three weeks later my daughter was in emergency the day after she turned 21 … then it was my son at the ripe old age of 19 to nearly lose his life … so many other traumas in between I can’t begin to tell you and won’t bore you with the details. Suffice to say I came close to giving up. We are a positive and strong family and if we can survive these challenges we will rise to any challenge life has in store for us. We are fine now – all of us. Healthy and happy and looking forward to a bright future with strength beyond compare.

So for me – while it added to the stress and the workload – it was a blessing in disguise. I am nowhere near finished. I still have the last assignment to complete and then we move onto the final Diploma Portfolio artworks – three masterpieces to be completed in three months. They are worth 40% of the overall mark … the final works truly are the pièce de résistance – and when you hope that all the efforts to learn and develop over the years of study have paid off.

Sometimes you have to quieten all the noise and the only thing you can focus on is what is directly in front of you. I am so grateful – so indebted to my own instincts and wisdom to choose a path that would find me seated in front of something so beautiful and make me focus on the ‘now’.

“Come forth into the light of things, let nature be your teacher”.

William Wordsworth

Graceful ...

It's spring here in Westerm Australia and the best time of all ... the garden is really starting to take off and more so with the latest additions.

I've felt pretty flat lately because we miss our beloved Gracie so much. I went looking for these roses - her namesake - and wanted to plant them in an area of the garden she wasn't often allowed - it isn't properly fenced off and would have been too easy for her to disappear. She loved this area when she ventured into it - and would sit and survey her surroundings for hours.


Planting more roses

We have a large garden which comes in handy, considering all the plants and cuttings I need to study for botanical art. We're constantly working on different areas of the property to improve and generate more growth - and it's a huge undertaking. I managed to find four of these rose bushes and they now have a new home in our garden.

I was so happy to see they have already started flowering - they're a really lovely scent of warm cinammon and honey. My friend Jessica at Inky Leaves suggested the pattern of the petals was much like Gracie's beautiful apricot/cream coloured fur ... now I will think of that every time I see them blooming, a beautiful reminder.

Also, our dear friends gave us this beautiful rose bush - "Gift of Grace" - they adored our Gracie too and spent a lot of time with her - our dogs were best of friends.

And - it's flowering already ... so lovely. So we now have a 'Graceful' garden bed to enjoy.

As for the botanical art distance course - well, we're now onto our final assignment before the diploma portfolio works. The current assignment is a composition of mixed flowers. You'd think that would be easy - considering it's springtime.

Once again, it's harder than it seems. I was going to include wisteria - our vine is stunning, but there are so many petals and stems and colour hues and even though it is a gorgeous subject, it wilts as soon as you cut it. After weeks of drawing, hayfever and colour studies it's back to the drawing board ...


Always with us xxx

Working from Photographs ...

This is Assignment 11 in the Society of Botanical Artists Distance Learning Diploma Course. After previous assignments working from real life - the botanical subject in front of us, sketching, colour studies, compositional drawing and painting the artwork ... this assignment was a chance to use our design skills. The criteria asked us to compose a greeting card using only our own photos, bringing them together in a style to suit a more commercial environment. Once completed we had to send the photos with the artwork to show how we had constructed the completed card design.

Moving along from my last blog post where I had completed the botanical subject - the Pierre de Ronsard roses, I began to incorporate the architectural elements into the composition.