Story behind the art of Sally Petru
Botanical Art Worldwide 2025-A More Abundant Future:
Diversity in Garden, Farm, and Field
American Society of Botanical Artists at the Foundry Art Centre, St. Charles, MO
Bush Snap Peas
Pisum sativum
Many years ago, I was taken aback by a painting done by Lizzie Sanders. The composition caught my eye. It was a vining Passiflora, which appeared from beneath the top edge of the mat. It dangled in space. I was relatively new to botanical art at the time and that image never left me.
In the spring of 2021, when considering what to paint next, I turned to my own back yard where I had planted herbs and vegetables. As it is always most convenient to use something abundant and in one’s own yard, I decided to paint the bush snap pea, an everyday crop. The bush snap pea, Pisum sativum, is an annual, widely grown as a cool season vegetable crop. In the legume family, this variety is a low growing bush with shelling peas and edible pods. This crop helps fix nitrogen in the soil, which helps not only the peas’ growth but also other plants growing later in the same spot. Originating in the eastern Mediterranean region, it has been part of human diets for over 5,000 years.
As it happens, we decided to go to my late mother’s house in Carmel Valley, which my siblings and I inherited in 2020. I find a great deal of focus in that environment. I gathered my supplies and carefully packed my snap peas to ensure their survival for the 2-hour drive. I set up a table with a view south to the mountains and, once settled into my peaceful corner, commenced work on my composition, with Lizzie’s Passiflora in mind….
As I studied the plant, I realized this was going to be a composition in green! All green, except for the delicate white flowers which would hang into the white space at the bottom of the paper. Challenge on. The characteristics I noted included the grooves along the stem showing off the stem’s twisted movement, the pinnate leaflets along a central stem with a pair of large stipules at its base and ending with tendrils, and the flower which is typical of a pea – it has a large top petal known as a “standard,” with two “wings” or side petals, and two fused lower petals.
Many artists have their favorite formula for green. Mine is usually phthalo blue, quinacridone gold, with maybe a touch of Winsor red or permanent rose. I continue to try new mixes for green but with a great deal of frustration, often returning to my favorite mix. But this time, I saw more blue in the green - the kind of blue that comes from a French ultramarine or indanthrone blue, a hazy blue-green. Determined to try a new green mix, I used lemon yellow and indanthrone blue. The pea pods were a lighter green, but still in that color range. The backs of the leaves were lighter, and the leaves and stipules were very wavy with some serration. But I still needed more depth in some areas, so I brought in some reddish purple to deepen the shadow areas. Finally, I had to find the right grey to indicate white flowers on a white background.
The result was a pleasure to me. I particularly love the slowly opening pod. My weakness is typically not getting enough tonal range – and this piece is no exception. However, I am happy with the movement of the piece and that I was able to channel Lizzie’s airy vine.
In preparing this “story” I wanted to see if there was any historical or ecological value from the pea. I read about an environmental ecologist at Boston University, John M. Marston, who studies human agriculture to determine farming techniques and adaptations used for a changing environment. In 2019, he went to modern-day Uzbekistan, because this region is known to have been agriculturally rich between 950-1250 after a notable climatic warming period. His team excavated new sites, collecting samples of ancient soils across a range of time periods. An undergraduate student on Marston’s team found a seed fragment from a snap pea pod with a seed still intact, highly unusual to be preserved so many centuries later. Apparently, finding a subsistence crop, such as the pea, informed the team about the decisions ancient farmers were making in response to a period of climate change. This tells me that history can enlighten us about climate change today.
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Read more about this artist's work: 27th Annual