STORY BEHIND THE ART OF HELEN BYERS
19th Annual International
American Society of Botanical Artists & The Horticultural Society of New York
Pineapple
Ananas comosus
This drawing grew out of a colored pencil workshop I taught at Tower Hill Botanic Garden in Massachusetts. I had invited students to bring subjects to draw whose forms incorporate a spiraling structure based on the Fibonacci number sequence. I had suggested some challenging subjects along with simpler ones (“an artichoke, a pinecone…”), adding almost as an afterthought, “or a pineapple.” Thinking no one would take on the challenge of drawing that inordinately difficult subject in the time we had, I brought in a pineapple myself, just to make sure we had one to study. But two intrepid students appeared bearing pineapples of their own, their colored pencils poised. Then I was in for it!
The process of working with students to analyze botanical forms and textures invariably heightens my own understanding and fascination. By the end of the course, I headed home with my pineapple, impatient to see what I might make of it. (I considered an upside-down cake, but….)
What intrigued me most initially - the plant’s structural geometry - was only the beginning. Every surface held small wonders, such as a few tiny thorns along the edge of one leaf (a vestige of cross-pollination?). The other leaves were smooth-edged, fibrous and striated, smudged with “bloom.” The skin of the fruit included wrinkled, shiny textures and withered, papery ones. The technical challenges of representing such intricacies in colored pencil drove me for the first time to experiment with embossing tools. I found that using them is fun but dicey, since it requires working “blind.” You can’t easily see what channels you’re leaving in the surface of the paper, and there’s no going back.
Two months and three pineapples later, I finally finished the drawing. Not until then did I learn the most fascinating fact of all: that a pineapple isn’t just a single fruit, but many. Each of those juicy segments arranged in Fibonacci spirals is a fruit that has developed from the carpel of a single flower, and all have joined together into one enormous, sweet one. Who knew?
Next Story
Back to List