STORY BEHIND THE ART OF PATRICIA DALE PITTARD

21st Annual International

American Society of Botanical Artists at Wave Hill

Greenbrier in Fall

Smilax rotundifolia

Drawing and painting has always been a way for me to escape, a meditation. Time spent looking for just the right specimen, studying it to really see the individual details: from the way the veins in a leaf intersect to the color changes within a fuzzy bud to the brilliance of a delicate petal glistening in the light. Joy is found in exploring these intricate details and attempting to reproduce them on paper. This keeps me coming back hour after hour, leaving me content and happy.

While pursuing a certificate in Botanical Art and Illustration at the University of North Carolina Botanical Gardens in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, I was challenged to find specimens native to the Eastern United States. I was extremely surprised at how many plants I spent my lifetime with are not native to our area.

This piece, a native Greenbrier, known to me as a “Cat Brier,” is a fascinating vine. It forms thickets of thorny vines so dense and tall they create natural protective hiding places for wildlife, as well as food for them. The fruit holds on through the winter until spring, and on the fall vine I found the fruit had been nibbled exposing the reddish seeds inside.

This hardy plant has once again found a place in my life, as it did when I was a small child playing in the woods. I discovered it running up the fence in my garden and left it there because of its bright green spring leaves and prickly thornsMy paintings start with a collection of studies, which become life-size sketches with basic details, rendered on tracing paper. The transparent feature of tracing paper allows for composition experiments, such as overlapping the individual vines, some with the late leaves of fall, fruit and twining tentacles. Details are added in additional layers, with tonal and color studies completed. Care is taken to be true to the plant and it’s details. When satisfied with the drawing, the final image is transferred to watercolor paper and a careful process starts of layering transparent watercolors in a way that realistically shows the plant. This process, while slow and deliberate, allows me the time to see the plant as it is, a truly amazing thing.

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