STORY BEHIND THE ART OF DEREK NORMAN
Wildly Exquisite: Florida’s Native Plants
Pineland Hibiscus
Hibiscus aculeatus
Pineland hibiscus, Hibiscus aculeatus, is a flowering plant. Hibiscus aculeatus is generally described as having harshly scabrous stems and leaves with three lobes. The flower can be identified by a dark red inner circle surrounded by a cream-to-white outer circle pattern on the petals. The perennial shrub is known to flower at any point from late spring to early fall. They are a member of the family Malvaceae, also known as the mallow family. The species is pollinated by bees, especially bumblebees.
I spent several weeks drawing and painting the Hibiscus aculeatus in the famed Splinter Hill Bog some forty or so miles north of Mobile, Alabama. It is a wonderful plant to draw - one with great character, but one to respect, lest you get caught in a netting of nasty brambles. My experiences with drawing and painting the pineland hibiscus has also made me aware that they seem to provide an attractive home for ticks. The brambles, one presumes, provide a convenient trap for some unsuspecting animal (including the Homo sapiens) as it falls prey to the lurking tick. If my memory serves me correctly, I met up with several ticks during the completion of the Hibiscus aculeatus study board--and on other occasions when drawing the hibiscus. Whoever said botanical art was for little old ladies?
My approach to completing a study board is one of always being in “a state of progress.” In a sense it is never complete. That goes, too, for the manner in which the individual parts of the drawing or painting are executed. I use any number of different mediums in order to better understand what works best for interpreting certain plant parts and what helps capture their spirit and character. So, my range can go from pure graphite, to monochromatic colors such as sepia (a color that has the distinction of always being “just right”) to full color. And to pure pen and black ink, especially when I wish to highlight the detail of a dissection. In regard to the use of color--in addition to watercolor, I frequently make use of colored inks, especially when I’m looking for a little more luminosity. In terms of the composition, I generally work from left to right so that the eye follows the chronology of the narrative in the traditional western way. But I do make exceptions and will attempt different approaches so that the study board becomes a laboratory for experimentation.