Story behind the art of Christiane Fashek
29th Annual International
American Society of Botanical Artists and the Society of Illustrators
bonne Maman 8x
Ramalina celastri, Physcia aipolia, Punctelia rudecta, Teloschistes exilis, Xanthomendoza weberi, Quercus fusiformis
I painted the languid straps of this mature Ramalina celastri specimen when the subject was in its dry, dormant state. Several of the long straps were already broken when collected, indicating that they had weathered cycles of storms and droughts in the Texas Hill Country. The fully grown apothecia, the fruiting bodies appearing as white discs, contort with the curvature of the straps, evoking the suckers on octopus arms. Connected to a live oak twig by holdfasts, these straps reminded me of Louise Bourgeois’ Maman arachnid sculpture. The younger straps in the foreground at the tip of the twig become the spider’s fangs. The enlargement brings the bright yellow-green, tiny tangles of Teloschistes and the pale orange lobes of bare-bottom sunburst lichen into focus at the bottom of the twig.
I collected the lichen cluster while researching my New York Botanical Garden Botanical Art and Illustration certificate project. It was slated to be the fifth and final piece in my series of enlarged Texas Hill Country lichens. But I was so engrossed in painting the other pieces, which you can see and read about on this website in the past four ASBA Annual International Exhibitions, that I put the painting on hold. A year later, I found the specimen perched atop a Bonne Maman jam jar in my china cabinet turned-cabinet-of-lichen-curiosities, waiting for its moment in the limelight. At my house, we are fans of the strawberry and cherry preserves, as shown by the number of jars I use to corral my colored pencils. My German mother-in-law doesn’t like the jam, but she makes everyone eat it so she can collect the jars for me to use when I am in Munich. The title, “bonne Maman 8x,” references the spider sculpture, the eponymous brand’s extraordinarily useful jars, and as an endearing French term for grandmother, it describes the mature, hearty, and beautiful Ramalina.
Excited by the scaled drawing, eight times the size of the specimen, I set out to paint the piece as a submission for the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation’s 17th International Exhibition of Botanical Art & Illustration. Having an external deadline motivated me to complete a “personal project” all the while working on an ASBA Artist Grant and starting to build and teach botanical art classes. The fly in the ointment was an unavoidable two weeks spent on jury duty as the deadline approached. The completion of the piece helped me understand the importance of scheduling and timelines in my new roles as artist and instructor, as well as how easily the best-laid plans are swept aside. I met the deadline, and to my delight, the piece was juried into the Hunt exhibition.
I used water soluble colored pencil tea washes at 10% saturation as an underlay to block out the different lichen species, particularly on the twig where several overlap. The midground and background straps and the live oak twig have a grisaille underlay toned with colored pencil blends of muted greens, warm golds, and cold blues. I employed a verdaille underlay, a green value study rather than the traditional grey, in the nearer straps. When painting the slender orange straps, I avoided the pale areas, toning the darker, negative space with sharp, hard pencils. These were the fussiest elements to portray, but the most rewarding.
Ramalina celastri, palmetto lichen; long textured straps with white-grey discs
Physcia aipolia, hoary rosette lichen; pale blue-cool grey lobes wrapping the twig
Punctelia rudecta, speckleback lichen; pale grey-dark drab green lobes with whitish margins and speckles wrapping the twig
Teloschistes exilis, slender orange-bush lichen; tufts of bifurcating and intertwined yellow-green stalks
Xanthomendoza weberi (also Gallowayella weberi), bare-bottom sunburst lichen; yellow-orange foliose lobes near the bottom of the twig
Quercus fusiformis, live oak, twig substrate
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