STORY BEHIND THE ART OF IRINA STOLYAROVA

24th Annual International

American Society of Botanical Artists and Marin Art & Garden Center

Blue Bird

Gentiana septemfida

The beauty is in the uniqueness.

Each thing in nature has its own unique image. I always find this at the moment of the first meeting with the subject of my attention. And I define it in my work.

The first time I stopped next to this exquisite gentian flower was in the St. Petersburg Botanical Garden.

Everything about this plant struck me. First of all, a symphony of blue-green colors. I say "symphony" because the picturesque colors sounded so harmonious, as if it were a great piece of music.

Before painting the picture, I diligently carried out the preparatory work to select the color of the blue-green scale. So I patiently sketched one by one in color. In the course of work, I had to abandon the use of "Blue Lake" because of the low lightfastness of the pigment, and make my choice in favor of different compound mixtures of more resistant paints.

To achieve the natural green color as it played in front of me in daylight, I had to make several different compound colors of blue, yellow and even red pigments, finally achieving that very natural harmonious green. I completely abandoned the ready-made green palettes offered by the manufacturers when composing the green blends.

I deliberately turned the light in the work so that the contrast of light and shadow would draw even more attention to the varied shades of green and blue. And here my main task was not to lose the details hiding in the dark saturated petals of the flowers.

As I said, the image was found instantly. And I must pay tribute - my long preparation made it as easy as possible for me to work at my idea.

The plastic composition of the plant also seemed interesting to me - the dynamics of movement in its static, almost motionless figure. The large inflorescence was embraced by stipules opening from different sides, like the wings of the heroine of the well-known play by Maurice Maeterlinck, the cherished "Blue Bird". To balance the composition, all I needed was to unfold the stipules of the lower inflorescence to face the viewer, so that the symbol of happiness and truth would triumph before us in all its beauty.

I finished the work as soon as possible. And I want to say that working on this picture literally changed my creative path.

Interested in the origin of a large genus of gentians, I found out for myself that the classification Gentiana began early. The first mentions were in the work “Specimen historiae plantarum” by Reneaulme in 1611.

I also found out that species with blue flowers predominate in the northern hemisphere. This fact seemed to me especially curious, since I am from St. Petersburg. My research led me to what I learned - many species of gentian successfully winter in the wild in our northwestern region. Some of them are under protection.

I am extremely grateful for the help in my minimal research work to the agronomists of our Botanical Garden. Thanks to them I was able not only to get to know the genus better, but also to plant several available plant species in my garden, some of which I have the good fortune to observe now.

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