STORY BEHIND THE ART OF SARAH ROCHE

16th Annual International

American Society of Botanical Artists and the Horticultural Society of New York

Amaryllis Bulb and Bulblet

Hippeastrum cv.

I chose this amaryllis bulb and bulblet in a workshop offered by the Wellesley College Friends of the Botanic Garden as part of their Certificate in Botanical Art and Illustration, for which I am the Education Director. We often invite visiting teachers to give workshops and I always try to enroll in them because I can learn so much from other artists and it keeps my work and my teaching fresh. This workshop, called “Going Underground – Bulbs and Roots”, was given by Elaine Searle. Our Program Director, Carole Ely, had dug up amaryllis and other bulbs for all the participants to use as subjects.

I did a lot of preparatory work in Elaine’s class and came away with the precious bulb and a few layers of wash. I then developed the piece much further and carried on painting it a long time. First of all, I make sure that measurements and proportions are accurate on tracing paper, but I don’t do too many detailed preparatory sketches because I find I can lose the spirit of what I originally saw and what made me want to paint it. My sketches are to indicate the strongest values, the angles, the energy of the piece. Then I transfer my basic shapes and then do a lot of drawing right onto the painting paper as I go. My pencil lines are very light and I erase carefully! And then as I go, I draw even more with my paintbrush. At the end of each painting session, I like to put a piece of tracing paper over the art work, and then I stand back and look. The tracing paper cuts out a lot of the color and you can see more of the values. Also, it’s as if you are looking at someone else’s painting. Then I make notes about what I will need to sort out the next morning when I have fresh eyes again.

Although I took a lot of photos and close up photos of the bulb, I never work from just photos, I much prefer working from the subject itself. So I kept the bulb sitting in water, propped up with wooden skewers to keep it in a stable position for the duration. The actual painting took another six months after the class before I was satisfied with it. Meanwhile, the bulb started looking a bit the worse for wear. I had to stick the layered skins back onto it with double sided tape as I slowly built up the layers of paint! 

I found it interesting that the bulblet on the side had more growth than the major bulb itself. In the main bulb you can just see the promise of leaves, while the new baby bulblet shows the leaves more clearly. The bulblet was a pure, very pale, greenish white. But on the edges of the pieces of skin covering it and also on the skin on the main bulb, you could see the color that the flowers are going to be – a beautiful clear coral.

In terms of composition, to get the balance right, I had to play with it a lot before I transferred my basic drawing. It could have been very top heavy – there is no stem or flower above the bulb, and there are roots below - and uncomfortable to look at. And the bulblet at the side is at a weird angle. I had to make sure that the negative spaces worked well. I wanted to make it a pleasing, interesting composition that held together. 

I always use my basic palette of colors and then add a few extra colors. In this piece, I was influenced by Elaine Searle, who suggested in the class to use Winsor Newton permanent mauve. And it has become my new favorite color! It is so versatile and transparent, and it influences so many other colors without changing them completely. The amaryllis bulb skin is quite crispy and thick, but it is also almost translucent with a lot of veining, and then there are a lot of lumps and bumps; this color helped me emphasize these features.

This work is not a classical botanical illustration. It is not the view that people would normally think of when they hear “amaryllis”. This is a different take, the edgy relative! When I look for a good subject, I don’t always go for the classical view, but I try to tell more of the story. I love looking at things in a different way. I love roots, shoots and twigs - the less painted!

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