STORY BEHIND THE ART OF HYUNJIN CHO

24th Annual International

American Society of Botanical Artists and Marin Art and Garden Center

Stargazer Lily

Lilium 'Stargazer'

Stargazer lilies are always placed on our living room table. It brings to our family a warm glow and a sense of happiness. It gives us a glorious picture of the process of the flower going from a small bud to full bloom. The process is very wondrous.

It looks like a human being, born and growing, reaching the ups and downs of life, just like us. And when you look inside the bud, it reminds one of a fetus, snug in a womb. This is almost astonishingly like the life of a person. I very much wanted to express and show this point, so I chose this flower for my piece.

When I was designing the layout, I considered the stability and decorative aspects of the piece to be important. After some inquiry, I placed the anatomical items at the bottom, symmetrically in a U-shape, and the whole flowers in the center.

The pink color I used in this piece was determined through many experiments. I used this luminous color for the first time in this piece as it showed the vivid pink color of the flower. In addition, I used a wash technique then overlapped multiple lines to express the petals’ gradation. In order to express the complex details in the buds, I very carefully drew, from sketch to coloring. To do so, I drew only with a fine brush. This demanded a lot of effort, and it was a challenge for me. In the anatomical details, I depicted the change in pistil and stamens in the process of the bud’s blooming. I showed not only the shapes, but also color changes. The reason I made this effort is that people can only see the outside appearance of flowers. So, by including the anatomical aspects in this drawing, I allowed the viewer to see not only the flowers in full bloom, showing off extravagant colors, but also that the inside of the flower, from the bud to the bloom, is also beautiful and majestic.

As I drew this piece, I felt that the cycle was very similar to my life. Due to this, every moment of painting this piece was precious and moving to me. I hope this feeling is conveyed to everyone seeing this piece.

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