STORY BEHIND THE ART OF BETSY ROGERS-KNOX
17th Annual International
American Society of Botanical Artists at The Horticultural Society of New York
Bellamy Meadow Milkweed
Asclepias syriaca
Different things excite and challenge me – I like to step out of the box botanically. These two paintings are from a series called “From the Ground Up” - I had never really thought about the ground before! But my inspiration for the series was the Albrecht Durer painting which I have always loved, called The Great Piece of Turf, from 1503. In fact, my goal this summer was to find all Durer’s plants and recreate his painting my way. I was happy that I could find the same plants in the woods in Lichfield County as he had in Austria!
At the Bellamy-Ferriday House and Garden where I teach, there is a huge field which is part of the land trust and is full of milkweed. Milkweed is an important plant for butterflies and the environment. I dug up a chunk in November and brought it home. I love all seasons of the milkweed cycle and I have done a painting of that, but this is my favorite moment – in the late autumn when the seeds are popping and are thrown into beautiful patterns, just before the first snowfall. I love those pods!
The downy, silky threads in the pods can be opaque or transparent, and you may not be able to see the seeds, so I masked out areas and used gouache to get a chalky look. Then I used a damp brush and softened areas to give some of them a semi-transparent feel. And I added goldenrod in the background. I enjoyed working with a limited palette of browns and greys.