STORY BEHIND THE ART OF HARUYO KAWASHIMA

17th Annual International

American Society of Botanical Artists at The Horticultural Society of New York

Chestnut

Castanea crenata

I always choose materials for botanical art near at hand, such as flowers in my garden or plants growing close by on a walking trail.

When I was walking around in the late summer, I found that lush chestnut burs grew in abundance on the grounds of a Shinto Shrine near my home. As I had always wanted to draw greenish chestnuts, I got some appropriate sized chestnut samples by permission of a kind administrative woman at the Shrine. I made up my mind to illustrate this pretty, thorny plant.

Regarding technique, I made an outline sketch with a pencil and then left only a light outline with a kneaded eraser. Next, I characterized a detailed sketch of the specimen using a specific mechanical pencil of 0.2mm diameter (Pentel Co.Ltd. Japan).  After featheredging this sketch again, I started painting with acrylic color.

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