STORY BEHIND THE ART OF TAMMY MCENTEE
22nd Annual International
American Society of Botanical Artists at Marin Art & Garden Center
Ornamental gourd
Cucurbita pepo
I look forward to fall every year and the treasures that can be found whether in my garden or one of the local farm stands. I am usually out the minute the weather turns cool, hunting for subjects to paint during the winter months. But for some reason last year life got in the way and I was behind in my search. First, I picked through my own garden with bleak results then headed to the farm where a great deal of my past treasures have come from. Since it was now late October I was only able to find some sad looking pumpkins and a few mangy gourds. Defeated, I turned to leave, then spotted something behind a hay bale. There on it’s own, was a beautiful gourd with a piece of the vine and a semi-dried tendril still attached, which is a rare find when searching outside of the garden where it was planted. The multiple bumps and varying shades of green were just the challenge I had been looking for. The bonus of a delicate tendril had me convinced this was meant to be. I snatched it up as if it were a gold coin and immediately brought it home to draw.
I rendered this gourd in colored pencil, which is my medium of choice. I also like to use graphite in conjunction with the colored pencil. I find graphite useful as a grisaille in some areas and also for darkening small details. Because I can achieve a very fine point with graphite, it works well for the shadows on the prickles as well as, the thread like lines of the tendril.
It never ceases to amaze me how something as heavy as a gourd can be held up by what appears to be an insufficient and weak vine. I wanted to portray how the gourd hangs from such a thin stem and vine, almost defying gravity.
The gourd has long since rotted away in my compost pile but that wispy tendril lives on above my drawing board to remind me that fall will be here before we know it and another treasure hunt will begin.
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Read more about this artist’s work: 21st Annual