STORY BEHIND THE ART OF ALEXANDRA NEGOITA VULCU

20th Annual International 

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

Quince in Spring and Autumn

Cydonia oblonga

If you would like to be á la mode, you should have a quince tree in your garden. For me though, it is much more than a trendy fact. The taste and the scent of the quince fruit are loaded with childhood memories. It couldn't be fall in my grandparents house without the smell of quince preserves infusing the air. The fruit was also stored on the wide windows sills to keep cool and to scent the air.

The fruit depicted in my painting are the first offspring my newly planted quince tree produced. As it learns to grow, I learn to care about it. I was looking to choose one fruit. By observing the individuality of these three quinces, I was reminded about the beauty of being an individual character, of being “outside of the box.” Now, I take it to the literal meaning of the supermarket fruit boxes, where perfection becomes boring and tasteless. As each looks, I decided to represent their diversity, which naturally ads up to what “quinceness” is all about.

The drawing took two seasons to complete. The fruits were collected late last fall and I started working on them in early winter. I added the bloom this spring of 2017. I hope the viewer will enjoy the time collapsed between the audacious spring colors and the tone-in-tone, sun-saturated autumn hues.

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