STORY BEHIND THE ART OF DIANNE SUTHERLAND

19th Annual International

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

Crown Imperial ‘Rubra’

Fritillaria imperialis ‘Rubra’

 Ever since I first set eyes on a Fritillaria imperialis, I was determined to paint it! 

I had attempted to grow it from bulbs in my garden in NE Scotland for several years but it simply refused to flower. Seeing Rory McEwen’s beautiful painting of the plant in Dr Shirley Sherwood’s Passion for Plants book (2001) provided further inspiration to succeed in this mission. I acquired a few more bulbs when I relocated in England, near my home town in Staffordshire, and a flowering plant from Chatsworth House, Derbyshire. Work got underway immediately with study pages on paper in 2012. It was a difficult time with no studio to work in and I took the plants with me during two house moves. They obliged by flowering in their pots in successive years. Their ‘foxy’ odor was slightly overpowering indoors and working time was limited, but the painting was finally completed in 2014.

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The work is painted on a full skin of Kelmscott vellum, which was supplied by William Cowleys - the only surviving vellum maker in the UK. I hadn't originally intended to work on vellum but having purchased the skin, it seemed like the perfect surface for such a stately looking plant and I hoped that vellum would give that unique luminosity to the glowing orange blooms. This was the first time I had worked on such a large subject on vellum; it worked well although it was challenging.

The composition was easy because wind had moulded a beautiful gentle curve in the stem which often occurs towards the end of the flowering period; to me this was much more pleasing than the rigid look of a plant in perfect condition.

I kept the palette simple and mixed all colors from primaries: for the flower, Scarlet Lake and Transparent Yellow gave me the basic hue. I used a cooler red, Permanent Carmine, with the addition of some Indanthrene Blue, to create the subtle dark reds and purples. I shifted the color bias from warm to cool and created light to dark tones using these few Winsor & Newton paints. For the greens mixes I used the same blue, yellow and reds. I find this approach gives a painting a more cohesive appearance. For me, there is no need to over complicate by using lots of colors. 

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