STORY BEHIND THE ART OF DENISE WALSER-KOLAR

16th Annual International

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

Lilac

Syringa vulgaris

More and more, I am painting subjects that I am growing in my back yard. Sometimes you see something that you hadn’t noticed before and you just have to paint it. I have found my paintings are more successful when I have that "have to paint it" feeling. I live in a cold climate in Minnesota and the growing season is from the last frost in mid May until the end of October. I have lilacs, a pear tree, blueberries, raspberries, a lot of David Austin roses. The rosehips, which keep their color all through the winter, are a more interesting painting subject for me than the roses. I have a maple tree that turns a beautiful red. I have planted gooseberry plants this year and I hope I will have the berries next year. I love painting the detail that makes people notice beauty that they might otherwise have passed by. 

I chose to paint the lilac because the flowers were unusual last year. We had a very, very early spring in 2012 followed by some very, very cold weather. When the lilacs started blooming that year, they were a different color than they had ever been before, not the usual bluish. I don't know if it was because of the weather, but I am assuming it was. Anyway, when I saw the beautiful rose-colored buds on the lilacs, I just had to paint them. I want people to appreciate the fact that even though the lilac is a mass of flowers, every single one of those little blossoms is completely different from all the others - in shape, color and position. For instance, one has petals flipped one way, another another way. They are not row after row of the same thing. 

Once you pick a lilac it wilts after only a day or two, so I had to work very quickly to get sketches and color matches done. Then, I worked on the painting for almost a year. There were so many little buds and flowers that I almost quit a couple of times because it was taking so long, on and on (over 200 hours total). But then it would have been a waste. I finally took a piece of tracing paper and cut a one-inch hole in it, so all I could see of my work was that one little area. It made the painting seem much less overwhelming when I couldn't see the whole thing! It was the hardest thing I have ever done. 

I have been painting a lot of blueberries and raspberries the past couple of years. I love all the different colors of ripening blueberries. So I picked a few of my favorites and just had fun with the composition. The little berries bounced around on the page and didn’t line up but I didn’t care. I drew the berries life size, but then scanned the drawing to enlarge them to three times life size, so they are about an inch in diameter. I look through a magnifier to appreciate all their details. For the bloom on the berries, I do a little wash for the light areas. Then I work from darks into lights, leaving the light areas to the very end. Sometimes the bloom doesn’t need anything more.

Both pieces are done in transparent watercolor on vellum. I am working almost exclusively on vellum now. I find that vellum is easier than paper because you can take things off; the paint sits on top and doesn’t soak in or stain. So that makes me less afraid to try things. And I just love what vellum does for the colors – nothing else does that! One of my favorite artists is Giovanna Garzoni – she was a 17th century Italian artist who made a living from her art – unusual then. The Medicis and others were her patrons. She was not necessarily a botanical artist, but she painted fruits, vegetables, flowers, insects. I found an old cookbook with some of her illustrations and then I researched her. All of her work was on vellum. 

I have a section on my website and my Facebook page called “What I’m Working On” in which I add new scans of a painting as I work on it. For instance, I scanned the lilac piece every 20 hours or so and put it on the website so people could see the process. The idea for doing this came from my teaching. I wanted to be able to show my students how I started a project, then the middle, then the part where I am worried about it, and so on. I used to start paintings over half way through ( this endeavor can be hard work, not always fun) but the second one would look exactly the same!. So I stopped doing that. I found that showing others this step by step process made me feel more committed to the piece. I have a deadline. People are expecting something. The added benefit is that for people who don’t paint, they understand better what the process is, what goes into it and why it takes so long. Currently, we in the Great River Chapter of the ASBA have a show in Minneapolis. The exhibition coordinator, Yara Anderson, included a poster with my step by step images and she added explanations, and this has been well-received. 

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