STORY BEHIND THE ART OF YUAN YUAN WANG

21st Annual International

American Society of Botanical Artists at Wave Hill

Ornamental Gourd 2

Cucurbita pepo

On a breezy October day at the Inwood, Manhattan, greenmarket, an array of small ornamental gourds in a cooler box caught my attention. A boy told me his younger brother had scattered a handful of heirloom gourd seeds earlier in the year not knowing what to expect. He was greeted this fall with a bountiful variety of different gourds. Never had I seen such a variety of enchanting gourds in one place. The mass of bumps, curves, stems and colors were all so delightful! It took a long time to pick which ones to take home with me. Finally I settled on a few of different shapes and colors.

When I began painting this particular gourd, I had only noticed how voluminous and perfectly bumpy it was. It also beckoned to me with the slight tilt of its stem. I certainly had not noticed how challenging the seemingly uniform yellow color was. Later when choosing my palette, I began to notice how the shadows added an astounding amount of dimension and depth to both the color and form.

I anguished over how to mix the exact color combination of the complementary shadow color, which remained quite elusive despite countless trial mixes of color. The yellow of this gourd had in fact a very delicate cream undertone, which seemed to shift from one plane of light to the next. When I finally settled on my color palette, the complex color of the gourd began to shine through as I layered many translucent washes on the paper.

Painting the details of this gourd became a meditation on the dip and rise of terrain, a contemplation on the nuances of light and color. I became a tiny creature traversing a hilly and awe inspiring landscape as I familiarized myself with each groove, bump and valley.

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