In botanical art, showing the true features of plant species is in focus. It can lean towards scientific illustration or towards artistic florals and still lives and the borders can be floating. I aim to stay true to the plant in my own poetical way.
Botanist since childhood, the scientific part is something I love. Details in plants show me relations and differences, a constant and fascinating learning and exploration. All this anchors me in my life here on earth, without it I would feel lost!
Over the years a philosophical approach to life has enriched the scientific me and now, being an artist, all is combined in my way of portraying plants. I look for the gesture in the specific plant, it’s spirit so to speak and having found it, my aim is to show it in my art.
Pink hepaticas, Hepatica nobilis. Hepaticas are mostly blue, from pale to dark, but can also bee seen in pink like these, also dark purple and rarely crisp white. This is painted on a slightly yellowish paper, so the colours are true to the original.
Bog bilberry, Vaccinium uligonosum. Painted from live plants. The flowers were over… and I added some autumn leaves to lift the composition and add that season.
Cranberry and friends. Hare’s tail, cranberry, bog bilberry and bog rosemary. They grew together!
Horsetail, Equisetum arvense. A study of how this plant is built up, also showing the deep root system.
Portrait of an old birch. Shaped by the strong winds from the Baltic sea, the branches on the left side are much shorter. Graphite drawing with plant pigment watercolour, read the blog about it here.
Hylocomium splendens, glittering woodmoss, This was only 5 cm (2″) high and I staged it on a saucer with water, with some thick nails across the bottom part as weights, to keep it standing up! Painted with plant pigments. Available as print.
Polygonium vulgare. A common wintergreen fern. Two leaves seen from underneath and one from above in a weaving composition. Paints were applied in three to four layers of thin transparent carefully made mixes. Available as print.
Dancing dry leaves. Leaves of some kind of Salix and at the bottom maple, Acer platanoides.
Dry hydrangea. Hortensia, in Scandinavian languages. They have fascinating, shifting shades of colours, both as fresh and dry…
Pinus silvestris. Common pine, seedling plant. Painted five times it’s actual size.
Funnel chanterelle. A small freehand painting with plant pigments, from a live modell.
Dry birch leaves. I placed these to form the shape of one single leaf. Birch leaves have a pretty heart shape! This small one is painted with plant pigment watercolour.
Chanterelles.
Funnel chanterelles. Partly painted with plant pigments.
Convallaria majalis, Lily of the valley, berries. Painted with plant pigments.
A single birch leaf, Betula alba. Painted with plant pigments.
Polytrichum formosum, hairmoss. This is very common, forming beautiful carpets in darker, moist forests. Freehand painted with plant pigments, the moss was approx. 10 cm (4″) high.
A dry rowan twig. This was meant to painted fresh, but things got in the way… when I found it again I loved the dry elegancy! I cut off and shaped the berry cluster to fit my composition. The shadows tell, how little it is supported by the table.
Beech and hawthorn. The twig I brought in did not look exciting, no matter how I turned it around, so I took the leaves off and displayed them separately. The red berries were added to get create interest.
Horse chestnuts. Such fascinating shapes and textures!
A quince twig. I found these old fruits on a bush during a winter walk in the landscape. I painted it without drawing, clean shapes, a truly joyful work! A small watercolour, click to see size and price.
By the hedgerow I. From a winter walk, some small plant fragments displayed on my table. There is beauty to find everywhere…
By the hedgerow II, Crabapples in a row. I came back from a walk, with my pockets full of beautiful small apples. I layed them out on my table and started the process of moving them over onto the flat paper…
By the hedgerow III. An elegante, dancing composition of various plant parts I found on a winter walk.
Poppy sead heads on my table. I made this composition with strong light from a spotlight above to create interesting sharp shadows.
Mother of Pearl, Symphoricarpos x Doorenbosii. This cultivar variety of the common snowberry, is a low and rather insignificant bush all other time of year, but showing these pretty berries in winter.
Achillea millefolium, yarrow. A different approach with ink pen drawing on top of watercolour, an early work from 2014.