STORY BEHIND THE ART OF ROBERT MCNEILL

18th Annual International

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

Rodgersia

Rodgersia podophylla

It was rather by accident that l stumbled upon the Rodgersia podophylla. Requiring a specimen for my third attempt at botanical painting, I had the idea that l could perhaps find a suitable tree subject as a follow up to my Abies koreana watercolour, which if successful, would lead to a series of tree related paintings. It was my intention to submit three paintings to The Society of Botanical Artists annual open exhibition in London in 2013, but l had just five weeks to the hand-in date to find a suitable subject and paint it. 

 Whilst on a visit to a local plant nursery l spotted a very interesting specimen growing at the nursery entrance just below some large trees. They were filtering the sunlight as it fell onto the plant below, a ground cover plant. The effect of the dappled light caught my eye, illuminating the surface of the plant’s reddening leaves. The specimen was not for sale, but after I had a little chat with the very obliging and extremely well informed owner of the nursery, he cut a few stems for me to take home.

I choose this particular subject as it generated an instant response from me. Not emotive, more formal, its visual qualities fulfilling my criteria for that particular stage in my selection process. It was the plant’s interaction with the light, the resulting colour, tone, form, shape and texture that was enough for me to select it: l knew instantly that it warranted further investigation.

In the studio the cut Rodgersia began to dry slowly, the colour and form slowly changing, so the race was on to capture it in watercolour as quickly as possible. A real challenge, but it suited my tight timescale.

An important aspect of my process is to emulate the natural light as it was experienced by me at the plant’s source. For me this is an integral part of achieving a sense of context for the isolated painted subject. To achieve this in my studio l sometimes use a daylight bulb as my light source as it recreates a colour temperature and intensity of light that l can control, or if available, l will use natural light as it spills into the studio through French windows. As I always do, l rotated this subject in the light source before deciding which angle revealed what l wanted to present in the painting. This can be time consuming, but for me it is the crux of the whole process. Having decided the lighting angle and intensity of light, l set to work, day and night for four weeks. Normally a painting would take me a few more months to complete, but l was under pressure from myself to ensure that it was ready for the exhibition. Much to my surprise the painting was completed on time, submitted for the exhibition, and along with my other two works, was accepted for hanging. All were very well received and l was made an associate member. 

When the audience engage with my work, l would hope that the experience allows them to take away some knowledge and understanding of the complexities that light reveals about the plant, its drama, form, depth, transparency, detail and structure as recorded by me during the decaying process. 

(Editor’s note: 

I made a request of Fiona Strickland McNeill and Robert McNeill, wife and husband, both of whom have artworks represented in this exhibition. Because of this unusual and wonderful circumstance for ASBA, I asked them to write about their artistic lives together. Here is what they said:)

We met forty one years ago when we both studied drawing and painting at Edinburgh College of Art and we've worked together ever since. We traveled through Italy and France together on a travelling scholarship prior to a year of post graduate study in a studio overlooking the Royal Botanical Garden Edinburgh, before becoming teachers of art and design. After we finished a day’s teaching we would paint together in the evenings and at weekends, when our studio would be any available space, even the kitchen floor, usually when our daughter had gone to bed.

Finding a studio to share with other artists when we had our second daughter was a bonus even although it meant travelling to get to it. Carrying young children as well as painting equipment, was at times very hard, and the studio was hardly luxurious, damp patches on the wall and a poor heating system. Whilst our output at this time was restricted we worked hard at being creative.

When we moved into our current home we gave up that studio in favor of painting in our garage, very cold in winter and with no daylight, but close to home and with space to work when the children were in bed. Fortunately for us Robert’s father knew a bit about building and we had an architect friend draw up plans for a garage conversion. Robert’s father and a few of his friends carried out the work of transforming the garage into a studio, making it an integral part of the house which we've been sharing now for fifteen years.

We like to study and discuss botanical art, visit exhibitions of botanical art and are constantly involved through teaching and developing students’ work, so we are totally immersed in it, working everyday if possible.

We tend not to try to influence each other's work as botanical artists and prefer each other to do their own thing, deliberately not engaging in making any kind of remark to each other about our work as it can easily lead to influencing in one way or another. Having both been educationalists, we are very aware of the impact that positive or negative criticism can have upon an individual's progress, so we tend to be rather careful about saying anything to each other in this regard.

Subject choices tend to be made with some discussion, but not always, and any conversation regarding subjects usually relates to the logistics of where to acquire a certain subject and not so much about how to paint it. Although we have both developed our own methods of application we would both agree that it's the subject that dictates the application required. Many of our thoughts and processes are similar although our interests and results we see as being very different.

Sometimes if a deadline is tight we do like to work in the studio alone and we respect that, rather than upsetting the usually tranquil surroundings. But as our work output increases the space is gradually becoming smaller, and if we are ever fortunate enough then more studio or storage space would be ideal. 

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Read more about this artist's work: 17th Annual International