Archive February 29, 2016

Sisterhood of the Traveling Paints

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This year a group I belong to, Oregon Botanical Artists, launched a project called, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Paints. We each bought a Stillman & Birn hardbound sketchbook, 5.5 x 8.5 inches. And beginning in January, each month we fill a page or two with botanical sketches, notes, and even fully colored paintings. Then the book is passed on to the next artist. At the end of the year, the sketchbooks will have traveled through the entire Sisterhood and return to their owners filled with pages of paint and colored pencil.

The first plant of the year was a carnivorous Sundew (Drosera capensis) that I bought at the Curiosity Gallery art fair. The sticky tendrils, in which a fruit fly may find itself, are very hot pink. I used Dr. PH Martin dyes and a crowquill pen. This is the partly completed page. I forgot to scan the final before shipping it on. But I’ll get it back next December.

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There aren’t many wildflowers in early February, but mosses are plentiful. Wendy and I took a Valentine’s Day hike at Oxbow Park not far from our house. I was looking for Lover’s Moss (Aulacomnium androgynum), but found lots of Capillary Thread Moss (Bryum capillare) instead.

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It was fascinating to observe this moss under the microscope. As it dried, the translucent, avascular “leaves” curled to the right (dextrous spiral), but a drop of water brought them instantly back to life.

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Mr. Pine Cone Goes to Washington

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sugar-pine-cone-lgSugar Pine Cone / Crater Lake National Park
Artwork by Elise Bush
featured in New Exhibit at U.S. Botanic Garden in DC

(Washington, DC) — A new exhibit at the the United States Botanic Garden (USBG) in Washington, DC, displaying artworks depicting familiar, rare, and iconic plants and trees of America’s national parks includes a 12 x 16 inch watercolor by Elise Bush depicting the Sugar Pine Cone (Pinus lambertiana), a species found in Crater Lake National Park.

Flora of the National Parks opened Thursday, Feb. 18 at the USBG on the National Mall. Free and open to the public through Oct. 2, 2016, the exhibition features more than 80 illustrations, paintings, photographs, and other art forms ranging in size from intimate 12-inch pieces to large-scale, 7-foot dramatic panoramas that showcase key plant life in national parks across the country. The USBG is staging the show to mark this year’s centennial of the National Park Service (NPS) and to highlight the diversity of the nation’s flora protected within national parks.

The Sugar Pine, scientific name Pinus lambertiana, is a native of the Pacific Coast and found in Crater Lake National Park. It is the largest species of pine, commonly growing to 130–200 feet tall. It has the longest cones of any conifer, mostly 9–20 inches long.

Botanist David Douglas named the sugar pine in 1827 to honor British pine expert Aylmer Bourke Lambert. Native Americans used the sugar pine’s large, nutritious seeds for food.

Artist Elise Bush, a member of Oregon Botanical Artists, lives in Troutdale, Oregon. Her studio is at the Troutdale Art Center on East Historic Columbia River Highway.

Artworks were selected from among submissions by hundreds of artists last fall for the eight-month show, which is installed in the USBG Conservatory near the foot of the U.S. Capitol on the National Mall, 100 Maryland Ave. S.W., Washington, DC. The USBG is one of the oldest botanic gardens in North America, with more than one million visitors annually. More information about the exhibit, programs, and visiting the USBG is available at www.USBG.gov/FloraoftheNationalParks.

 

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