Blog #3 Friends of Silver Falls Native Plant Project- Overcoming White Fright!
This is the third in a series of blogs I’m writing about a native plant illustration commission I received from the Friends of Silver Falls State Park (FOSF). To read the first blog click here.
Redwood sorrel, Oxalis oregana. .005 Sakura Micron Pen.
White fright!
Having gone to all the trouble of making beautiful new sketchpads for this project (see my last blog), when it came to the moment of actually drawing in my first one I had a serious attack of “white fright”. I looked at the white expanse of expensive Fabriano Artistico watercolor paper and was paralyzed. No amount of cajoling or upbraiding myself made a whit of difference. I was intimidated. After struggling back and forth for a while I decided that a different approach was needed.
Drawing as meditation!
I knew from experience that when I draw with a black pen only, no pencils or erasures allowed, I somehow manage to relax more and spend the time truly observing my plant subject. It’s the closest thing to meditation that I know; a time when I let go of expectations and focus completely on the act of looking and drawing. Time stands still.
Coastal range sketch- salal, sword fern and trailing blackberry (while also having fun with bark texture).
A new sketchpad!
With this in mind I decided that my “white fright” sketchpad had to wait while I practiced some “meditation drawing”. I went back to my local art store and bought an (inexpensive) 11×14 inch, Alternative Art wire-bound sketchpad and some .005 Sakura micron pens. I like the way the fine .005 tips allow me to include lots of fine detail if I wish, as well as interesting textures. The inexpensive sketchpad also means that I don’t worry about wasting good paper. It is big enough too for lots of observations and, with its strong hardback cover, it doubles as a drawing board for my “good” sketchpad.
Scouler’s corydalis, Corydalis scouleri study in my “meditation” sketchpad.
Not all my pen drawings are this successful, and many are unfinished, like this one. For me the point is not to produce the perfect finished drawing but to loose myself a little in the looking, and really enjoy getting to know the plant.
Aislinn Adams
Blog #3 Friends of Silver Falls Native Plant Project- Overcoming White Fright!
Friends of Silver Falls Native Plant Illustration Project- Getting started!
This is the second blog in a series I’m writing about a large native plant illustration commission I received from the Friends of Silver Falls State Park (FOSF). To read the first blog click here.
Detail of Scouler’s corydalis, Corydalis scouleri, from my older sketchbook.
Tús maith, leath na hoibre, A good start is half the work!
Irish Proverb
When I first received this commission I was very excited: so many wonderful species and so much potential for good work, but my head began to spin when I thought about the scale of the job ahead of me (thirty native plant species). I realized immediately that the project would involve many comprehensive studies of the different growing stages of each plant. I knew too that if I wanted to do a good job I needed a good plan. But by the time the project finally started it was June and Oregon was beginning to experience its worst drought on record. I could feel the panic rising as I watched many of the native species on the list wither before my eyes. To calm my nerves I focused on the art materials I’d need, starting with the right sketchbook. I had already begun to make my own for other projects and knew I would do the same for this one but I wasn’t sure what page dimensions to use.
Finding the right sketchbook!
Study of Scouler’s corydalis, Corydalis scouleri, from my older homemade sketchbook.
Feeling the panic nipping at my heels I began drawing Scouler’s corydalis, Corydalis scouleri, (in bloom in my own garden at the time). I used a homemade sketchbook I already had – made from Fabriano Artistico Extra White Watercolor Paper. I realized very quickly, however, that the pages were too small. I love the brightness and versatility of this paper, which I use for graphite as well as watercolor studies, but I needed bigger pages.
Making my own sketchbooks for the project.
Luckily my local art store had a sale in Fabriano Artistico Extra White (140 lb, 300 gsm) at the time. I bought 22×30 inch (559 x 762 mm) sheets and divided each one into four x 11×15 inch (279 x 381 mm) pages. I then had them spiral bound into sketchbooks of 12 pages at my local printer. I thought, rather than having one large sketchbook, dividing the pages up like this would make it easier to manage- and safer. Damage or loss of my sketchbook would be a real setback- especially if all my plant studies were in one. By splitting up the pages this way the sketchbook is lighter too and more manageable. I can study about 10 plants per sketchbook and when full move onto the next.
My first FOSF sketchbook of 12, spiral bound pages. The cover (printed on my Epson printer) shows a pen and ink illustration of Western tiger lily, Lilium columbium, created previously. It is one of the native plants on my project list (shown below).
Friends of Silver Falls Native Plant list included it in the sketchbook.
The finished botanical illustrations.
The finished botanical illustrations will be reproduced on 11×16 inch (279 x 406 mm) sheets (similar to an herbarium specimen sheet) so my sketchbook page dimensions, at 11×15 inches (279 x 381 mm), help me visualize how much plant information can fit onto that size sheet. I’ve already begun using my first sketchbook and it’s working well so far. The only change I will make to the second and third will be to insert lighter tracing paper sheets between the watercolor pages so that I can protect them better. I’ve made a tús maith (good start) I think. I will let you know how the “other half” of the project goes in due course.
Aislinn Adams
Blog #2 Friends of Silver Falls State Park Native Plant Illustration Project.
Native plant Illustrations for Silver Falls State Park- a timely enquiry leads to a dream commission.
Pen and ink illustration. Western ground ginger, Asarum caudatum, one of the native plants growing at Silver Falls State Park.
The Friends of Silver Falls State Park
Earlier this year I visited the Nature Store at the South Falls area of Silver Falls State Park. I was hoping the attractive gift store might be interested in carrying some of my botanical art greeting cards and was finally making enquiries. The aptly named Nature Store is housed in the restored historic log cabin to the north of the South Falls Lodge and is run by the Friends of Silver Falls (FOSF) non-profit. Since their founding in 1986 the FOSF’s mission has been to fund educational and interpretive programs at the park and the Nature Store is the main source of that funding. As a very active voluntary organization they have a long tradition of collaboration with the park staff. Being Oregon’s largest, Silver Falls State Park attracts over a million visitors annually so the FOSF provide valuable help on a weekly basis as well as at busy times of the year like the annual Mother’s Day Wildflower Festival.
Perfect Timing!
As soon as I made enquiries at the store a friendly shop assistant (a FOSF volunteer) handed me their administrator’s business card advising me to email her. This I did as soon as I got home and was promptly rewarded with a reply. My timing couldn’t have been better as it turned out, not only was the FOSF interested in selling my native plant greeting cards, they also had a project they were deliberating upon and wondered if I might be interested- illustrating a series of thirty native plant identification sheets to be displayed at the lodge. I could hardly contain my excitement and of course I said yes immediately.
Red flowering currant, Ribes sanguineum. One of my native plant greeting cards that can be found at the Friends of Silver Falls State Park Nature Store.
Old herbarium specimens to be replaced by new botanical illustrations made possible by the Maroe Brown Trust.
Regular visitors may remember browsing through a set of herbarium specimens, housed in a wooden box, that sat on a counter in the lodge dining room. For many years these specimens (provided by the FOSF) helped visitors identify native plants growing in the park. Over time the popular specimens succumbed to the wear and tear of visitor use and had to be removed. At the time of my enquiry the FOSF had just received a generous bequest allowing them to consider replacing the old with new botanical specimens, however, in the end they decided to use botanical illustrations instead. It was my good fortune to walk into the Nature Store at just the right time and thanks to the generous bequest of Maroe Brown – long time FOSF volunteer and native plant lover- I have this great opportunity to work on the new FOSF series of native plant identification sheets.
Illustrating thirty native species-a long term project.
Illustrating thirty native species will take time, several seasons in fact, but I look forward to the challenge. It’s not often that one has the opportunity and funding to really get to know a plant subject: to study and record its different growing stages and most importantly, to observe it in its natural habitat. At 9,200 acres, the park (often called the “Crown jewel” of the Oregon State Park system) is vast. I look forward to exploring its diverse regions as I search for the native plants on the list – and I hope you can join me on this botanical adventure as I write about it here.
Aislinn Adams
Blog #1 Friends of Silver Falls State Park Native Plant Illustration Project.
The Common Fig, Ficus carica, the First Cultivated Plant.
The story of the common fig, Ficus carica, needs more than one blog.
I started writing about the common fig in my last blog- The common fig, Ficus carica, Fruit, Flower or Carnivore? As I uncovered its story I realized that it would take more than one blog to share its long and complex history. I illustrated the common fig, Ficus carica, several times for the “Digging In” gardening column of the Washington Post. This week I post a botanical illustration of Ficus carica “Negronne” to illustrate this entry. This natural dwarf variety can be grown in containers and is particularly suited to the Pacific North West, where I live.
The common fig, Ficus carica, and the first farmers.
It seems everything I read currently brings me back to the first farmers. Recently while reading about the Burren region in the west of Ireland I learned how the first farmers impacted that environment, using only a simple axe as their main tool. Then, while researching the common fig, Ficus carica, for this blog, I discovered that it was probably the first plant cultivated by humans: predating the Neolithic farmers’ “eight founder crops” -einkorn wheat, emmer wheat, lentils, chickpeas, barley, flax, bitter vetch, and peas, Wikipedia– by many centuries.
Neolithic Farmers.
The Neolithic period (starting c. 9500 BCE) marks the beginning of farming and the common fig comes from the region where farming began, the Middle East. Common fig subfossils found in the Neolithic village of Gilgal 1, 13 Kilometers north of Jericho (present day West Bank,) date from 9400-9200 BCE.
Parthenocarpic figs and human selection.
This first fig crop was a parthenocarpic type i.e. the fruit is produced without pollination (see my last blog for more on this subject.) This means that these fig plants were “cultivars” i.e. plants selected and propagated from cuttings by humans rather than grown from seed. We have been growing and eating figs, as well as introducing them to different parts of the world, for over 12,000 years. Parthenocarpic varieties helped this spread because they don’t need a local insect to pollinate the plants in order to produce fruit.
How much do I know about the food I eat?
Reading about the common fig makes me realize how little I know about the food I eat. I’m not talking about which farm my food comes from, whether it is organic or conventional, what variety it is, or how far it has traveled to reach the grocery shop’s shelf. Rather, I am talking about food’s cultural history. I wonder what it means that we have been eating figs since the end of the last ice age? What a long human-plant relationship this is. Have we co-evolved together?
Plant or human selection?
In my last blog I also wrote about the high nutritional value of figs, especially in relation to our human needs. Is this just a happy coincidence? Science may explain the selection and success of figs as a food crop through a mixture of human interference and natural selection but I wonder if those first farmers choose the fig knowing how nutritional it was to eat or just because it tasted good? Or, could it be, as Michael Pollan suggests in his book The Botany of Desire, that the common fig chose us to guarantee its survival?
Agriculture- from Neolithic times to today.
Agriculture has come a long way since Neolithic times. The highly intensive form that we now practice, with its heavy dependence on chemicals, limited selection of crops grown in vast monocultures and enormous use of fossil fuels and other natural resources to produce the crops, is a far cry from those early days. I imagine those first farmers, mostly women undoubtedly, scratching their heads in amazement. Learning about the common fig’s story raises my awareness of our dependence on nature to sustain us: the long and critical relationship we humans have with the plant kingdom- the source of most of our food- and the role this small fruit has played.
Aislinn Adams
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