STORY BEHIND THE ART OF katy lyness
25th Annual International
American Society of Botanical Artists and Wave Hill
Oh My Darlin'! Triptych
Citrus x clementina
This triptych was part of my final project for the New York Botanical Garden Botanical Art & Illustration Certificate Program. For this project I chose to explore a single subject - the clementine. I immersed myself in the fruit, doing 20 small colored pencil drawings and one larger composition. With its singularity of focus, I like to think of this project as a meditation.
The clementine, or Citrus × clementina, is a hybrid between a willow leaf mandarin orange and a sweet orange. It was named in honor of Marie-Clément Rodier (1839-1904), a French missionary who belonged to the Brothers of the Annunciation in Algeria. He first produced the cultivar in the agricultural estate alongside the orphanage the Brothers managed.
Why clementines? For their shape? Their color? Their texture? Because they retain their freshness long enough to do a decent drawing without resorting to photos? Do I love to draw them because they are very tasty and good for you?
As I was creating this “meditation” I wrote a few observations on the why:
The Color
Orange, such an interesting hue. Not primary, but powerful. It is such a powerful color it’s the name of a fruit. (Or is it the other way around?) It commands attention. It is the color of the vests highway workers use to protect themselves from on-coming traffic. The color of warning. The color just before red on the scale that tells us: all hell is about to break loose! Time for escape? Or are we doomed?
As a child I never liked orange. I associated it with the orange lollipop, which was my least favorite flavor. And although I loved Halloween for the candy, there was a creepiness (and scariness) to the black/orange combination. However, as I matured, the hue grew on me, especially, as a developing artist, I came to see what it could do to blues and greens!
And the way the shadows move into red is magic.
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Read more about this artist's work: 18th Annual