STORY BEHIND THE ART OF DEBRA PINCIOTTI
24th Annual International
American Society of Botanical Artists and Marin Art and Garden Center
Dragon Flower
Dracunculus vulgaris
This remarkable flower has been growing in our gardens for several years due to the efforts of my husband. It is called many names: stink lily, voodoo lily, dragonwort, black arum, among others. This piece is part of an ongoing series of paintings I’m creating of rather unusual plants that grow in and around our gardens in Pennsylvania.
About four years ago I discovered contemporary botanical art, and once I did, it was inevitable that this strange, dramatic-looking plant would become a subject of one of my paintings. I’m particularly drawn to the color and, of course, the dramatic form of the flower. The spadix is a deep, waxy, dark purple—almost black—changing to a brownish purple as it ages through its single day of full bloom. The spathe is a velvety maroon on its inner surface, and it is wrapped tightly around the spadix, slowly unfurling as it blooms and then droops in the later afternoon.
This plant grows from a bulb and blooms in early June where I live in southeastern Pennsylvania, but it only blooms gloriously during one morning into the early afternoon as it slowly collapses. It also smells terrible, as its main pollinators are flies.
On the day that I photographed this specimen, it had rained early in the morning. The heavy, humid air held the stink of the flower close. The smell would have been less overwhelming if it had been breezy that day, or even a bit less humid. The heat was uncomfortable, and the humidity was so high that at the end of a short photo session, I actually had sweat pooling in my eyes! Despite these comical difficulties, we were able to get enough photo references, measurements, etc., for the painting before the flower fainted in mid-afternoon.
This painting represents the dragon flower at about 75 percent of its actual size. Because few people are familiar with this flower—and even fewer have seen it in person—I wanted to keep the composition simple, to emphasize its unique features. The plant is quite a study in contrasting textures. The outside of the flower spathe is grooved, while the inside is smooth and velvety; but the edges of the spathe are fluted and wrinkled. The leaves have unusual venation and mottled coloring.
I often like to use different media to describe different plant textures. In most of my paintings, including this one, I use both watercolor and colored pencil throughout the process. Waxy colored pencil was suited to the shiny, dented skin of the spadix. Some of the very dark purple pencils available, including one with just a touch of iridescence, were perfect for the spadix. I also used blues and reds, as well as some warm browns and cold light grays.
Colored pencil was also ideal for the wrinkled, “crumpled paper” edges of the spathe, while multiple layers of deep red, blue, and orange watercolor were best for conveying the velvety softness of the inside of it. Only watercolor would do, though, for the very smooth skin of the bulbous structure at the base of the flower and most of the stem.
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Read more about this artist's work: 23rd Annual