Amazing Rare Things: The Art of Natural History

Interior, Lilac Iris
10" x 8", coloured pencils on HP
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

The strapline for the exhibition "Amazing Rare Things" is The Art of Natural History in the Age of Discovery. The exhibition is simply amazing and very beautiful. It has a dedicated microsite where you can see works in more detail and also see a tour of the exhibition introduced by Richard Attenborough. The website provides for image zoom facilities for individual drawings which allows you to see a phenomenal level of detail in each drawing.

I'd very much recommend this exhibition and microsite to anybody interested in botanical art and/or drawing animals and particularly wildlife. Works included are by:

Leonardo da Vinci

The unifying theme of Leonardo’s researches was an urge to understand the phenomena of nature. This would allow the artist to create a true image of the world, and indeed some of Leonardo’s most beautiful drawings of plants and animals were studies for his paintings and sculptures. (Royal Collection: Amazing Rare Things website)

Check out the images he drew of cats, lions and a dragon!

The Paper Museum of Cassiano dal Pozzo

Cassiano dal Pozzo (1583-1657) was secretary to Cardinal Francesco Barberini, the nephew of Pope Urban VIII, and he played an important role in the cultural life of Baroque Rome........... Cassiano did not produce the drawings himself; instead he commissioned artists to make meticulous studies of geological specimens, plants, fruit and vegetables, fungi, birds, fish and other animals, some of which were made with the newly-invented microscope. (Royal Collection: Amazing Rare Things website)

Alexander Marshal

Alexander Marshal (c.1620-1682) was one of a circle of gentleman gardeners, centred on London, for whom the cultivation of rare plants was essential to the study of the natural world...... Over a period of thirty years Marshal compiled a ‘florilegium’ (flower book) of 154 folios recording plants growing in English gardens. Of the numerous species depicted, many are exotic newcomers; others are native plants. Although Marshal was not a professional artist, his florilegium - the only English flower book to survive from the period - contains some of the most beautiful plant studies in botanical art (Royal Collection: Amazing Rare Things website)

Maria Sibylla Merian

Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717) was one of the greatest artist-naturalists of her time. at the age of fifty-two, Merian made an expedition to Surinam (Dutch Guiana) in South America. Her aim was to study the indigenous flora and fauna in their tropical habitat........
Most of Merian’s watercolours displayed here are de luxe versions (painted on vellum) of the plates of the Metamorphosis, together with some works produced independently of that publication. (Royal Collection: Amazing Rare Things website)

Mark Catesby

The English naturalist Mark Catesby (1682-1749) compiled the first comprehensive survey of the flora and fauna of south-eastern North America (then part of the British colonies)......
Believing that ‘artistic’ techniques of shading and perspective compromised objective truth, Catesby used instead what he termed ‘a Flat, tho’ exact manner’ to make a precise visual record of each creature and plant. (Royal Collection: Amazing Rare Things website)

The exhibition is currently on display at The Queen's Gallery, Palace of Holyroodhouse, in Edinburgh 2 March – 16 September 2007 and in 2008 will then move to The Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace, London (14 March - 28 September 2008).

You can order and buy the exhibition catalogue from the Royal Collection online shop.

Note: The image at the top is of the interior landscape of a pale blue iris. One for the Georgia O'Keeffe project - but I think I need to try simplifying and making images more sculptural and abstract.

Books:

• Amazing Rare Things - The Art of Natural History in the Age of Discovery David Attenborough, Susan Owens, Martin Clayton and Rea Alexandratos. 224 pages, 160 colour illustrations 20 x 25cm (8" x 10"). Hardback - ISBN 978 1 902163 46 8; Softback - ISBN 978 1 902163 99 4

Links:

• The Royal Collection
• Royal Collection - Amazing Rare Things exjhhibition microsite
  
• Making a Mark - Georgia O'Keeffe month: Macro Flowers (1st June 2007)
  

"Portals" - 2nd Fine Line Artists Exhibition in Ontario

Images from the Fine Line Artists Exhibition
(artists Gayle Mason and Nicole Caulfield)

"Portals" - the second exhibition by the Fine Line Artists Group can be seen at the Jitterbug Java Cafe and Roasting House in Waterdown, Ontario during the month of June.

For this exhibition we chose to have a theme and decided upon "Portals" which gave us some scope for interpreting this word. It's originally a fourteenth century French word which comes from the Latin 'portale' meaning a gateway and is often used as a word for a grand door or gateway - but it can also mean more. We went for interpretations involving doors, windows and bridges around the world rather than the computer version! As a result we have everything from horses looking out of stable doors (Gayle and Maggie!) to surreal illusions of bananas by Nicole!

Our very own Gordon Leverton, based in Hamilton Ontario, is organising this one and is doing a very fine job of having successful exhibitions in the local area so we hope this one will be as successful. If anybody is interested in any of the work then Gordon is the man to contact - his contact details are on the exhibition website.

The Jitterbug is a Specialty Cafe and Roasting House which displays art as well as serving fine tea, light lunch all day, breakfast and treats. Specialty coffee beans are fresh roasted most days, and are also sold retail. Waterdown is between Burlington and Hamilton, Ontario and this is a link to its location.

You can see the post about our first exhibition here Fine Line Artists - Small Works Holiday Show opens in Keene, New Hampshire

Links:

• Fine Line Artists
• Fine Line Artists - exhibitions
• Fine Line Artists - "Portals"
  

"Drawing a Head" - three in one

Drawing a Head 31st May 2007 (three images)
Maurizio - pen and ink; Natalia #1 - pen and ink; Natalia #2 - pen and ink.
All images approx. 18 " x 12" on Daler Rowney heavy white cartridge paper

copyright Katherine Tyrrell

In my "Drawing a Head" class last week I did three heads, two in pen and ink and one in pencil. Click on an image to see a larger version

I think all my studies of Whistler etchings during May's Whistler Month had got me in the mood for pen and ink and fine line drawing. I really enjoyed doing them and they went really fast. The chap with the dreadlocks took about 45 minutes and the two views of the female model took about 30 minutes each.

They are all quite large, approximately eighteen inches x 12 inches - I find it easier to draw fast when drawing large than when drawing small. How about you?

Kew Gardens in June

An Orangery Afternoon Tea

8" x 10", pen and ink and coloured pencil in Moleskine sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

I can highly recommend Kew Gardens in June. Yesterday it was full of flowers associated with Georgia O'Keeffe - arum lilies, poppies and irises. Kew also has a great glasshouse which has wonderful orchids which are another favourite O'Keeffe flower.

It also had masses of flowers more commonly associated with English Gardens - peonies, roses - although both of course came from elsewhere originally.

It's so much easier getting good photos of flowers when they are in some sort of shade as you then get the shading associated with the structure of the flower as opposed to that associated with the direction of the sunlight.

The Waterlily House besides having wonderful varieties of waterlily is now host to lots and lots of different varieties of chillis! Kew has apparently decided it's having a Mediterranean summer. This seems to be focusing on the different sorts of plants that it's now possible to grow given the extent of climate change to date. You can even listen to a podcast if you visit the website! I've included a link below to a society dedicated to water gardening.

We had 'interesting clouds' yesterday which ran the whole gamut of colours between violet and deep purple - but fortunately the rain held off. The sketch at the top is my view of the terrace outside the Orangery where they have small orange and lemon trees growing in what look rather like zinc tubs

Visiting the shop at the end I was extremely pleased to find (and buy) Georgia O'Keeffe Museum Collections (Hardcover) by Barbara Buhler Lynes (Author). This has been produced by the Georgia O'Keefe Museum as part of their 10th anniversary celebrations. More about this after I've had a read. My reading on the way down to Kew was Arthur Wesley Dow's book!

I've also found the sort of book I'm after - but I definitely can't afford this one - "One Hundred Flowers by Georgia O'Keeffe" edited by Nicholas Calloway!

You can see the range of botanical books produced and sold online by Kew at Kewbooks [www.kewbooks.com]

Links:

• Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
• Mediterranean summer at Kew
• The Waterlily House
• Kew Books - online sales of publications by the Royal Botanic Garden, Kew
  
• International Waterlilly and Water Gardening Society
  

Georgia O'Keeffe Month: Macro Flowers

White Tulip
8" x 8", coloured pencils on Saunders Waterford Hot Press paper
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

I'm going to be spending June studying Georgia O'Keefe as per my plan for 2007.

I adore flowers and images of flowers and enjoy the process of developing artwork based on a flower or flowers as much as looking at the end result. In developing my own work I've become increasingly drawn to the notion of exploring the flower through focusing on the structure of a single bloom. I now want to see how I can develop further and this is what this month will be all about. Naturally, in wanting to learn more about how best to do this, I've become very interested in the work of Georgia O'Keeffe - hence Georgia O'Keeffe month!

Last year I was very fortunate in being able to visit the Georgia O'Keeffe museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico and was able to see a lot of her work first hand. The museum is dedicated to perpetuating the artistic legacy of Georgia O’Keeffe and to the study and interpretation of American Modernism (1890–present). It is celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2007 and is consequently arranging a variety of anniversary events. Anybody in the area or visiting might like to check out this page on the museum website.

So now for a bit of background, although a number of the sites listed below provide more thorough biographies for those who are interested. Georgia O'Keeffe is one of the most famous women artists - mainly due to the popularity of her flower images. She was born near Sun Prairie, Wisconsin on November 15th 1887 and died in Santa Fe on March 6th 1986 at the age of 98.

Her talent was recognised from a young age and at the age of 9 she decided to be an artist. Her formal studies and training involved stints at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and New York's Art Students League. She then spent two years being a freelance commercial artist followed by an extended period, from 1911 through 1918, she taught at schools in Virginia, South Carolina, and Texas.

On one of her summer vacations, she took some classes in Virginia which exposed her to the theories and ideas of Arthur Wesley Dow. These stress the importance of developing a personal style through paring forms down to their essentials of line, colour and 'notan' (dark and light patterns) to create harmonies.

Dow developed a personal style that assimilated the influences of Japonisme, synthesism, and Impressionism. His work is distinctive in its simplification of colorful forms that read as flat shapes on the two-dimensional surface (Georgia O'Keeffe Museum "Arthur Wesley Dow and American Arts & Crafts)

I came home from Santa Fe with a copy of "Composition" by Arthur Wesley Dow (with a new introduction by John Mashick - details below). I'm intending that part of this month should involve a thorough study of the theory which was a big influence on O'Keeffe's work. (I'm finding the impact of the art of East on artists that we have been studying to be absolutely fascinating.)

In 1915 O'Keeffe destroyed her earlier work, and embarked on a series of spare, elegant, and extremely radical charcoal drawings and watercolors that led directly to experiments with total abstraction.

More about what happened next in the next post. In the meantime, here are some links to sites which tell you more about Georgia O'Keeffe and have images of her work.

• Georgia O'Keeffe Museum
• About Georgia O'Keeffe
• Research Centre
• location
  
• Museums and Galleries:
• National Gallery of Art, Washington
• American Art@the Phillips Collection
  
• Women in History: Georgia O'Keeffe
  
• Wikipedia - Georgia O'Keeffe
  
• Artcyclopedia - Georgia O'Keeffe
• Artchive - Georgia O'Keeffe
• Encyclopedia of World biography - Georgia O'Keeffe
• PBS - American Masters: Georgia O'Keeffe
• Ellen's Place - Georgia O'Keeffe (an extensive fan site)
  

I have a problem with posting her images in this blog. Basically since she's not been dead for 70 years her work is not copyright free and in the public domain. However her drawings and paintings of flowers are extremely popular which means that there are lots of images on the web which can be linked to - try googling Georgia O'Keeffe and you'll see what I mean! I might try the museum and see whether I can get permission but I'm not hopeful - so expect to see a lot of my work and lots of links to hers!

I've been developing a very extensive collection of flower photos to use as a resource for my artwork. I'm now off to Kew Gardens and am taking my camera to record a few more flower photos. I'm finding that using a camera can often be akin to using a sketchbook for initial drawings and thumbnails. Taking lots of photos enables me to find different ways of approaching an image - in terms of line, colour and pattern.

Finally, I'm looking for a good reference book on Georgia O'Keeffe at the moment and haven't been able to find one. Anybody got any suggestions?

Books: "Composition: A Series of Exercises in Art Structure for the Use of Students and Teachers" (Paperback) by Arthur Wesley Dow (Author), Joseph Masheck (Author). Publisher: University of California Press; 1 edition (February 1998). ISBN-10: 0520207491;ISBN-13: 978-0520207493

Links to my website:

• Flower paintings
• Flower drawings
• Small works - floral