STORY BEHIND THE ART OF KERRI WELLER

19th Annual International

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

Water lettuce

Pistia stratiotes

 My original plan, to paint showy hibiscus flowers, got sidetracked on a sweltering summer day and the need to sit in cool shade. The hibiscus plants, in full sun, held little appeal for me. I sat down on a cool, stone wall to admire the blooms from afar, looked over my shoulder, down into a small pond and was inspired immediately. There, floating in the late afternoon sun - a pond dance of miniature green lettuces! I had come to my local nursery to purchase a hibiscus to paint, but went home with a bucket purchase of water lettuce.

I was mesmerized by the repeating forms, rosette structure, compositional rhythm and robust character of water lettuce. Also I have a bit of a hang up about mastering the colour green and this seemed to be a suitable subject – ALL green with no bright showy flowers to distract attention. It is essentially a two colour painting, green with a dark background. The big challenge was to keep the greens interesting - the easy part was growing the water lettuce!

The other challenge was to make the plants look like they were floating on slow moving water. My husband, an avid fisherman, on first seeing the painting asked: Why are these plants in a fast moving stream? I had to dampen my enthusiasm for painting water interpretively and learn about the environment these plants thrived in.

I hope people will be fascinated by this plant and want to know more about it. They will learn that water lettuce is an incredibly invasive plant, prohibited in numerous southern states. Used in backyard water gardens, unwanted plants are released into natural bodies of water or unknowingly spread by boaters via their watercraft with little awareness of the havoc this creates to local ecosystems. It can form a dense, floating mat that completely covers areas of water, disrupting fish and native aquatic plant communities, and hindering access by swimmers and boaters.

An avid sailor, I have spent a lot of time on the water. Where I live in Canada, we are blessed with many lakes and rivers. The combination of water, reflections and aquatic plants holds a great fascination for me and is a theme I continue to explore.

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Read more about this artist’s work: 16th Annual International