STORY BEHIND THE ART OF TAMMY MCENTEE

19th Annual International

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

Satsuma Tangerine

Citrus reticulata

I have always had a thing for botanical art; old prints of fruit are a particular favorite. That said and to be quite honest, I needed a subject for my final project in Colored Pencil II at the New York Botanical Garden Certificate Program in Botanical Art and Illustration.

I was in the produce section of my local grocery store when I came across a basket of Satsuma tangerines with their stems and leaves still intact. I knew they were what I was looking for; we rarely get fruit with the leaves on them. I purchased quite a few since my subjects are often eaten before I get a chance to draw them. I rendered the first one just as I had found it in the basket with its leaves and stem. I wasn’t excited by it; to me it felt too formal and stiff, similar to the antique prints. Although I love and admire those prints, the average person may find them to be standoffish or boring. I love the idea of taking an everyday, mundane object and causing the viewer to stop and reconsider it. Making it approachable and different, having the observer want to know how it works. So, I took the next tangerine, unpeeled it entirely and pulled apart the sections. Still wasn’t capturing my attention. Taking the last one - the other three had mysteriously disappeared - I partially unpeeled it, keeping the peel intact. I was immediately drawn into the vastness and complexity of the interior. This was it.

My teacher (thanks, Laura Vogel) suggested that I do my drawing on a colored background to make the whites pop. The white membrane, love it or hate it, is a very important part of the tangerine; I knew this was good advice. After several trials, I choose to do my composition on Mi-Teintes flannel gray paper. Having little experience working with this colored and textured paper I found it to be a bit of a challenge. Using mainly Faber-Castell polychromos and a great deal of experimenting I was able to layer in the hues and values I wanted.

It is my hope that the viewer will look closely at my piece. Get their nose right in there. Consider how the last tangerine they ate tasted, smelled, how the oil lingers on their skin and hours later a hint of it may still be there. After the memories subside, I want them to think about what they are seeing: something they may not normally think about, the simple tangerine, so taken for granted, yet in reality as complex as any building or highway system. I would like the viewer to think about how the juice sacs make up each section of the fruit, how all of these sections form the tangerine’s anatomy and how it is all woven and held together by a series of membranes running horizontally and vertically across the structure. My wish is that people come away with a new appreciation of and sense of fascination with not only tangerines but also Mother Nature herself. 

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