Story behind the art of Connie Scanlon
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
Beta Grape
Vitis 'Beta'
I am naturally drawn to blue. Whenever I am painting a botanical subject, I will try any angle possible to introduce blue, whether into the shadows or by adding pointillism dots of blue into highlights. Finding botanical inspiration that is blue in nature seems akin to hitting the mother lode. This happened while I was walking in the Noerenberg Gardens on Lake Minnetonka. Yes, that Minnetonka, the source of Tonka toy trucks from childhood and Minnetonka moccasins. It was in these gardens that I found myself beneath arbors of grapes with leaves that seemed as big as lily pads. The leaves were in a beautiful stage of autumn decline, and the grapes were a magical mélange of deep green evolving into cobalt blue, on their way into a deep perylene navy.
After finding a gardener, I learned that these were called Beta grapes. They had grown on the Noerenberg estate since the 1890s. It was in 1880 that Louis Selter at the University of Minnesota developed the first cold hardy grape. This heirloom grape was a cross of the Concord grape with Vitis riparia, the wild riverbank grape. He named it after his wife “Bett-uh”, however in time, the name evolved into the pronunciation of the letter in the Greek alphabet ‘Beta’. The grape was planted in the Noerenberg gardens around 1890 where it continues to bear fruit. Grape juice and jellies are made from Beta grapes.
The history of Noerenberg Gardens began when Frederick Noerenberg arrived from Germany in the late 1800s and founded F.D. Noerenberg Brewery. Minneapolis Brewing Company resulted from a merger of his company with four others, and in 1967 became Grain Belt Breweries. Noerenberg and his wife built a home with extensive gardens and a working farm to feed his family of five children. Upon their death, the estate was donated to the Minnesota Park Reserve and is considered one of Minnesota’s finest formal public gardens. The grape arbor today marks the location of the original Noerenberg home.
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Read more about this artist's work: 27th Annual