![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.aislinnadams.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Magnolia-stellata-bud-WM.jpg\" "\\"Magnolia")
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Star magnolia, Magnolia stellata<\/em><\/p>\n If you really want to remember a plant, draw it!<\/strong><\/p>\n I always say that if you really want to remember a plant, draw it. There\u2019s nothing more effective to really make you look deeply at a plant\u00a0than spending hours drawing it. I don\u2019t know of anything better to imprint it on your brain.<\/p>\n Drawing makes you take the\u00a0time to look.<\/strong><\/p>\n When Georgia O\u2019Keeffe was asked why she painted flowers she replied, \u201cNobody sees a flower really; it is so small. We haven’t time, and to see takes time – like to have a friend takes time.\u201d I don\u2019t know how much time people spend looking at flowers these days but I do know that if you draw a flower you really have to take the\u00a0time to look at it.<\/p>\n Drawing has improved my memory.<\/strong><\/p>\n I spent 10 years drawing botanical illustrations for the weekly \u201cDigging In\u201d gardening column of the Washington Post. As a result of that work I now have a collection of 500+ botanical illustrations. When someone asks me if I have illustrated some plant, like the star magnolia (Magnolia stellata) <\/em>above for example, I can always remember if I have or not. I may not remember in which month or year I did it, though I usually have a fairly good idea, but I can definitely remember.\u00a0 This is due to the hours and hours I spend looking at a plant while illustrating it. Each pen and ink drawing I produced for the \u201cDigging In\u201d gardening column took anywhere from 10 to 20 hours to create, depending on its complexity.\u00a0 That is a long time to spend looking at a plant.<\/p>\n You don’t have to be an artist to draw.<\/strong><\/p>\n I don\u2019t believe that you have to be a great artist or illustrator to enjoy drawing plants or to benefit from the hours you spend with them in this way. If you are a plant enthusiast who loves to garden or an amateur botanist who loves to study native plants and you want to remember what you see here\u2019s my advice; the next time you are out in your yard or walking in the woods, bring along a sketchpad and pencil, find a plant that interests you, and start drawing. Don\u2019t judge your results harshly but rather check later how well you can remember the plant you drew.<\/p>\n Aislinn Adams<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Star magnolia, Magnolia stellata If you really want to remember a plant, draw it! I always say that if you really want to remember a plant, draw it. There\u2019s nothing more effective to really make you look deeply at a plant\u00a0than spending hours drawing it. I don\u2019t know of anything better to imprint it on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[25,31,35],"tags":[30,33,37,45,52,53,54,55,56],"class_list":["post-286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-illustration-botanical-and-plant","category-pen-and-ink-drawing","category-flowers-and-plants","tag-pen-and-ink-drawing","tag-digging-in-gardening-column","tag-botanical-illustration","tag-botanical-illustrations","tag-flower","tag-flowers","tag-magnolia-stellata","tag-native-plants","tag-star-magnolia"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8UJpb-4C","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aislinnadams.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aislinnadams.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aislinnadams.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aislinnadams.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aislinnadams.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.aislinnadams.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aislinnadams.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aislinnadams.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aislinnadams.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}