STORY BEHIND THE ART OF AGATHE HAEVERMANS

17th Annual International

American Society of Botanical Artists at The Horticultural Society of New York

Bat Plant

Tacca chantrieri

This Tacca plant has always fascinated me. I saw it for the first time when visiting the Paris National Natural History Muséum greenhouses and I thought that the dark color, the filaments and the inflorescence at the top were very beautiful and mysterious. I looked for it again for years but couldn’t find it. Finally I found a plant a couple of years ago in a garden center around Christmas time. But I didn’t have good conditions to grow it at home and it died soon after. I was despairing. So I searched again and again.

Then one day two years ago, my husband and I went to England and visited the RHS Garden Wisley. I walked into its garden store and right in front of me, at the entry, was my Tacca! I held it in my arms as my husband drove our car back to the ferry to return home to France. I insisted that he not drive too fast, that he drive cautiously, roll gently, make turns slowly. After he parked at the ferry, I got out of the car carefully, still holding my special plant…..and my jacket became caught on the head of the flower and decapitated it. It fell to the ground and I cried all the way back home. I took photos of the flower with my cell phone and did sketches of the dying bloom, but they missed the mark.

The following week, I told one of my botanical art students this excruciating story. A few months later, for my birthday, this student ordered three Tacca plants and he delivered them to my class. Three plants! I could finish a painting!

What was my special challenge with this piece? Definitely to keep the plant alive without having an adequate greenhouse, and to complete the painting before it wilted!

In my work as a scientific illustrator, I have to include every part of a plant. But in my work as a botanical artist, I prefer to do only portions of plants, as in this painting of the Tacca. I think it makes the result more artistic. I hope to paint a Tacca again, but I will do it differently next time. I want to do the whole flowering cycle of the plant. The bud before the sepals open is magnificent. It is like a serpent’s head which turns and unwraps and then the large bracts open. The filaments are rolled up in the interior and then unfurl like a butterfly’s tongue, first green and then they change color. The flowers also change color, from acid green to brown and the darkest bordeaux. It resembles the transformation of a butterfly.

Recently, my husband and I went to visit my student on a vacation. My husband is a botanist and is passionate about plants and gardens. He helped my student plant his greenhouse, which includes several Tacca. Now we are longing for them to flower.

In my background, I used to work as a trainer for tropical animals at the Ménagerie of the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle de Paris (the French National Museum of Natural History). I had an accident and had to change my type of work. I have always liked drawing, etching and sculpture, so it was a natural fit to do scientific illustrations at the Herbarium there, at the Jardin des Plantes, for scientific papers and books. Little by little, I learned to paint with watercolors and I liked it more and more. And I started to meet other people with similar interests. I was asked to teach botanical and zoological illustration courses at the museum 9 years ago. I published a book in 2007 about botanical drawing which has been since re-edited and translated into several languages (English, American, Korean, Chinese, Dutch). I found out about botanical art organizations in England, the United States, the Netherlands, Australia – but there was nothing in France. So I discussed about the feasibility of such an endeavour with various foreign colleagues and friends, such as Jenny Phillips (Australia) and Anita Walsmit-Sachs (Netherlands). Then three years ago, with the help of one of my pupils and two friends, I started an association in France, La Societe Francaise d’Illustration Botanique (www.sfib.fr), to bring acclaim back to this special and demanding art form. I didn’t know if people would be interested, but we already have 85 members from France and several other countries and we welcome any person willing to join!

I am thrilled to have one of my paintings accepted to the ASBA exhibition at the Horticultural Society of New York!

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