STORY BEHIND THE ART OF MONIKA DEVRIES GOHLKE

18th Annual International

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

January’s Bouquet

Asclepias tuberosa, Rosa cv.

I had not been able to get much work done during the summer of 2014 and now it was early January 2015 and I had no work prepared for the submission deadline for this exhibition. All the summer splendor had long passed, but because I love the fruits of winter, I searched local gardens for the exciting shapes and textures of the pods and seeds that will bring new life in spring. The snow was a couple of feet high, the sun was brilliant, and I remembered the Butterfly Weeds from the previous summer at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Sure enough, there they were, the bright orange summer flowers, coveted by bees and butterflies, transformed into grey, dry, textured, oblong, pointy pods, partially opened, spreading their silky parachuting seeds over the crusty surface of the snow.

Nearby were branches of rose hips, the last small, frozen leaves clinging to the stems, and I knew that together they'd make for a satisfying, even happy, winter composition. 

I drew them and made an aquatint etching of the group, printing on a gently textured and colored Mulberry tree paper.

The "silk" of the seeds is shiny white in Nature, but, printing with black ink, it was possible only in one small area (an opening pod in the lower right side of the print) to hint at the true color of the "silk" by "dropping out" the lines of the "silk" from the dark background of the inside of the pod.

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Read more about this artist's work: 17th Annual International