STORY BEHIND THE ART OF ANNE PIEUSSERGUES DHERBICOURT

24th Annual International

American Society of Botanical Artists and Marin Art and Garden Center

Acorn

Quercus robur

I have always liked to glean things. As a child, I accumulated dried fruits, small pebbles, and everything I found I would put into my pockets, like treasures.

I discovered this magnificent oak fruit when I took part in a hike organized by the Friends of the Forest Association of Saint-Germain-En-Laye and Marly. The remarkable forest of Saint-Germain-En-Laye is near my home, and it is also where the former home and studio of the painter Maurice Denis stands, now a museum dedicated to his work. We had gone into the forest to see a particular tree where a plaque was being placed in honor of Maurice Denis, a magnificent trimelle oak with three trunks, which appears in his paintings. This is where I found the acorn. It’s always like that—I see the subject, I have something like a flash, and I know that I must draw it.

This acorn is the fruit of the pedunculate oak or Quercus robur. It is recognizable thanks to its long peduncle of more than 25mm. I was immediately seduced by the shine of the nutlet, a hard-sided achene, and then by its complex cup. It is always a challenge to paint such complex pieces—and that is what I love: analyzing, deciphering, understanding, transcribing.

I like the brown shades of the nut and the contrast with the grayer cup, the smooth aspect versus the appearance of small, more or less agglutinated bracts. I like the contrast of textures and being able to make it stand out in a painting.

I always love to walk around and glean, and I cannot wait to be out in the fall to flesh out my lovely little fruit and leaf collection.

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