STORY BEHIND THE ART OF LARA CALL GASTINGER

21st Annual International

American Society of Botanical Artists at Wave Hill

April

As a botanist and observer of plants around me, I have always strived to tell a story of plants as they change over a year. This painting focuses on the early spring plants that emerge in April, one of my favorite months of the year. They are common species that most people will find throughout the woods and mountains in Virginia. The plants are as follows:

Sanguinaria canadensis, Zizia aptera, Trillium grandiflorum, Aquilegia canadensis, Rhododendron periclymenoides, Mertensia virginica, Taraxacum officinale, Stellaria pubera, Cornus florida, Asarum canadense, Podophyllum peltatum, Polystichum acrostichoides

This piece is inspired by the illustrated biological plates of Ernst Haeckel, a 19th century German naturalist. I intentionally composed the plants that are found in April in a symmetric way, similar to his illustrated plates. I used monochromatic sepia paint for this painting to emphasize the composition in the painting and the structural comparisons between the species. Monochrome paintings can minimize distractions of color in paintings where structural elements are most important. I hope that viewers learn about the variety of plants that one can find in April and can appreciate the level of detail in each plant. With very controlled brushwork and a range of values, I was able to use paint in such a way that it almost looks like pen or pencil lines.

This piece is very important to me since it was the precedent for my recent Royal Horticultural Society London exhibit “Seeing Plants: A Year in Virginia” (Gold medal, July 2018). After this painting, I created another larger piece that included more species for April, that I exhibited in London, but the birth of the collection can be seen in this early piece. From the start, I have always loved the radiating flowers of the Pinxter bloom azalea (Rhododendron periclymenoides) and started this composition with it. From there, other favorite plants emerged around it.

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Read more about this artist’s work: 19th Annual International