books on flowers

Even though I am currently working in three dimensions, botanical illustration and floral still life painting are something I know I will return to one day. This feeling was reinforced during a recent visit to the de Young Museum here in San Francisco. Out of every wonderful exhibit the museum had to offer, the one that literally had my heart racing and gave me that special electric feel was the still life room. Slowly moving around the room, I stopped at every piece, quickly shooting off texts to myself of these artists: William McCloskey, Alexander Pope, Thomas Hill, William Harnett. All dead men, by the way. 

I admire the way still life uses reality to tell the story, even a story of death or decay, in such a plain and approachable way. I love it. I feel there is some connection to what I am doing now in my straight-up, no-fantasy-flowers-allowed approach to my paper flower pieces. And when I have the time and space, I want to bring the angling and arrangements found in still life painting to my three dimensional work, so that my large scale pieces are not always meant to be viewed head on.

I digress, a little. What I'm really posting today is a short list of my favorite books on flowers, some in straight botanical illustration style, some a little more fantastical and some purely graphic. Some in the form of still life, many not. I've given smaller bookstore links where I could find them. I love these books and reference them quite often. I'd love to hear what other books you can't do without, when it comes to flowers. I'm in the market for a few more, I think!

Heritage of Flowers

Eleanor Bourne/Alan Baker

Even after giving out several copies of floral-minded friends, I still own four copies of this book. The illustrations are wonderful. It's been easy to snap up cheap used copies online.

New Book of Flowers

Maria Sibylla Merian

This was gifted to me by an ex and I've lost the beautiful jacket, but I keep it around because it is 100% gorgeous.

 Flowers: Charles Rennie MacKintosh

Pamela Robertson

A collection of many works by Scottish architect and artist Charles Rennie MacKintosh. I have always loved his style. He is like the Egon Schiele of flowers, to me.

The Macmillan Wild Flower Book

Clarence Hylander/Edith Farrington Johnston

I found this book on the street many years ago. Although I am not into creating paper flowers with just a few petals, in general, the plates in this book are very well done and I love looking at them.

The Roses: The Complete Plates

Pierre-Joseph Redouté

If you love roses and love to make roses, you have to get this one. I think we purchased this one in the de Young Museum gift shop long ago, can't remember if it was exhibit-specific. Redouté's work is fascinating to look at, and you will understand roses much more after studying this book. It's a beautiful book from Taschen.

Note: Do NOT purchase from Amazon, the price is about 14 times higher than the original selling price.

 Plants and Their Application to Ornament: A Nineteenth-Century Design Primer

Eugene Grasset

Here you will find spot-on representations of several plants and flowers as well as images of plants used in repetitive and stylized patterns in the Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau styles. The nasturtium on the front cover gets me every time. I believe my dear friend Bridget was the editor on this one. Kudos, Bridget!

Nature Morte

Michael Petry

This book was pointed out to me by my artist friend Bob Larkin as I was working on my Dead of Winter show in January. Loads of interpretations of the destruction or death of natural elements, with many great pieces of floral art. I love this photo by David LaChapelle the most. 

Birds & Blooms of the 50 States

Dutch Door Press

I accidentally left this book out of my opening book pile shot, but this little gem by another dear friend, Anna Branning (and edited by the above-mentioned Bridget) of the birds and blooms of the 50 states is a total gem. Illustrated in Anna's iconic and signature style, it is beautiful to look at, as well as being a great reminder of fifty flowers you may have forgotten existed. I am always trying to remind myself what other flowers are out there that I can explore, and this is a go-to book for that.

Please, what am I missing? Let me know!

brilliant projects heretofore unpubished: delphinium madness

Note: You can see other works from this botanical series
here and here.

I started this piece in December 2000 and completed it in March 2002. There are very few days during that time period I didn't sit down to work on this. These Polaroids (of "Delphinium IV") exemplify how long it took me to create and complete these paintings.

 Delphinium IV

pencil + watercolor on paper

30" x 42"

2000-2002

 Delphinium IV, detail A

Delphinium IV, detail B

Delphinium IV, detail C

Delphinium IV, detail D

 Delphinium IV, detail E

Delphinium II

pencil + watercolor on paper

22" x 30" +/-

2000

 Delphinium III
pencil + watercolor on paper
18" x 22" +/-
2000

Delphinium III,  detail A

Dead Delphinium
pencil + watercolor on paper
12" x 36"
2000

These are the remainder of my delphinium paintings. During the years I worked on these, I became so consumed by delphiniums that I bought every book and magazine I could find about them. One time, I found a vintage blue delphinium brooch in a thrift shop in Vermont, and it blew my mind and made me cry, as I was so close to them (same place I found these killer boots). Who makes a delphinium brooch? I knew that the little thingies in the middle of each flower were referred to as "bees". I knew that the flower was named for the Latin word for dolphin. I was at the flower market with a friend of a friend getting new delphiniums to draw at 4:00 a.m. every other week. I was ob-sessed!

"Delphinium IV", the painting at the top of this post, was the last delphinium piece I worked on, a commission for a woman in Pennsylvania who had seen my work at an open studio event and had asked me to do one for her. This is the painting which I worked on from 1:30 a.m. until 7:00 a.m. every day, then off to work, then home and in bed by 6:30 p.m., and repeat. Weekends were even crazier. What an amazing time in my life to be able to be completely absorbed by something like this, no matter how miserable I may have felt most of the time. As I mentioned here, this piece took me over 1,500 hours and over 13,000 applications of paint (I kept track with a tic-mark after each little piece was painted). 

Two months after I finished, I met my husband at an art opening. Ten months after that, we married. What a journey! I count myself very fortunate to have had the kind of space to do intense work, and when I came up for air on the other side, a new life was waiting for me.

brilliant projects heretofore unpublished: hydrangea I

Hydrangea I

pencil + watercolor on paper

20" x 20" 

2000

Hydrangea I, detail A

Hydrangea I, detail B

Here's the only hydrangea piece I've completed. It's probably my most popular piece. The colors aren't perfect in these slide scans. but you can see the technique I used pretty clearly. I love drawing and painting hydrangeas. I'd love to paint a white one, somehow using the paper and opaque white with faint hints of green as the coloring. 

A few years ago I started a new hydrangea painting. It still looks like this:

To read more about these pieces, and my artist's statement as related to them, please click here.

brilliant projects heretofore unpublished: painted delphiniums (delphinium I)

Delphinium I

pencil + watercolor on paper

22" x 30"

2000

Delphinium I, detail A

Delphinium I, detail B

Delphinium I, detail C


Artist's Statement: T.A. Turner
These botanical pieces are more a labor of love than an expression of my aesthetic. The process of creating one of these pieces is similar to that of a person sitting down to work at a loom or to sew a huge quilt together from small pieces of material. 


The subject matter is fairly benign and the reflection of myself as an artist perhaps can best be read in the time and concentration it takes to complete one painting, usually two to three months.


Currently I am finishing a commission which has taken me over 1,500 hours and over 13,000 individual applications of paint.


These paintings are the starting point for my technique. In time, I would like to use this technique to paint more expressive statements of content and composition.

Another lifetime ago, I was a painter. I painted these watercolors. I called them botanical, but there may be more to botanical art than I know. My primary subject matter was delphiniums. In fact, I was obsessed with them. I had been through a very traumatic breakup, and this is what I did with my time while I was trying to pick up the pieces of my life. 

I don't know where I developed the technique I used, but each little piece of each plant is painted individually, with a miniscule gap in between each piece. Meaning each piece has to dry before the adjacent piece can be painted. Painstaking! But I was up for the challenge. And by up, I mean up at one or two a.m., painting until it was time to shower and go to work, asleep by 6:30 p.m. and up again by one or two a.m. Funny way to spend your bachelorettehood, but it was a great way for me to hide out and do something that made me feel like a was creating. 

I thought I'd start with the above "Delphinium I" first, and then work through some of the others later in the next few weeks. This one was one of my favorites, and I ended up giving it to my mother. 

Meeting my husband and having children nipped this type of time-intensive work in the bud, but I do expect to return to it one day. I have a lot of other things I'd like to paint besides flowers.