STORY BEHIND THE ART OF SUSAN BENJAMIN

Wildly Exquisite: Florida’s Native Plants

Beautyberry

Callicarpa americana

I have been captivated by the Callicarpa americana from the first time I saw the plant at the Maria Selby Botanical Garden in Sarasota and knew that I eventually wanted to paint it. The Wildly Exquisite: Florida’s Native Plants exhibition presented me with the perfect opportunity to begin my painting. I was pleasantly surprised to discover many of these Florida native shrubs growing in an undisturbed woodland area close to my home, where I walk my dog.

The American beautyberry is a loose, open shrub that grows three to six feet tall and is equally as wide. It has long arching branches with medium green foliage and insignificant pink or light purple flowers that bloom in the spring. This plant is known for one remarkable feature: its glossy, iridescent, purple fruit which hugs the branches in showy clusters at the leaf axils. The fruit appears in the late summer and early fall.

I wanted to depict the graceful arching of a branch with older mature leaves drooping down and new growth reaching up. This presented me with the ability to show the fruit at various stages of development. The berries have a dense mass about them which I also needed to convey to the viewer.

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Read more about this artist’s work: 20th Annual