STORY BEHIND THE ART OF MARGARET FARR

Botanical Art Worldwide: America's Flora

Dogwood, Fall and Spring

Cornus florida

Hard to know what to say about dogwoods -- they are the Virginia state flower, and hence, rather ubiquitous. I fear we take them for granted: lovely white and pink lacework in the spring woods, and brilliant red in the fall.  A quick reference to Wikipedia reveals that the name possibly derives from its use in the treatment of mange for dogs! Though they are indeed common in the wild, cultivars are also prominent in most Virginia yards, as well. 

My interest in them as an artist is largely due to the fall berries, which are the wonderful waxy red I love. The flowers were surprisingly easy to paint, as my "technique" (or vice) is to alternately score the paper with a scalpel and apply paint layers. The sinuous striations of the petals emerged nicely from the resulting grooves. Achieving the deep red of the fall leaves was not as easy. It is interesting that the buds are set even in the Fall, as the tree is full of berries. In January after the birds have eaten all the berries, the tree is loaded with buds, and hence, it is a first harbinger of spring. There is a popular legend regarding the dogwood, found on many a Florida postcard (it is, after all, Cornus florida), making symbolic reference to the Crucifixion in the form and color of its flowers.

Eastern Woodland Berries: American Holly, Eastern Wahoo, Red Cedar

Ilex opaca, Euonymus atropurpureus, Juniperus virginiana

Within a couple of hour's drive from Washington, D.C., on the Virginia side of the city, there is a surprising amount of botanical diversity unique to the various communities. American holly grows wild in the woods near my home in Manassas, and to find Eastern wahoo and Red cedar, one can travel another hour or so down Rt. 66 to the Shenandoah Mountains--where I have never seen an American holly! Consequently, a walk in any woods is bound to reveal the delightfully unpredictable, and is one of the reasons this Georgia girl loves to call Virginia home.

By late November, we have usually had enough cold weather to brown the landscape, so the artist's hungry eye (forgive a weird malapropism) searches out the remaining color, and finds it in the berries. The wild hollies are Christmas card perfect, and doubly red against their rather dull leaves. Red cedar provides one of the true blues in the botanical universe, and in an abundant year, the entire shrub has a unique baby blue presence, even from a distance, which is exhilarating to see. My absolute favorite berry is the Eastern wahoo, which also goes by the lovely and more descriptive moniker "Hearts-a-poppin." I wait anxiously each fall for this slender, undistinguished woodland plant to turn its leaves a lovely salmon, and indeed "pop" its brilliant fuschia pods to reveal waxy scarlet fruit that is about as much fun to paint as anything else there is. Only the color "Opera" will do!

I "collect" berries. This painting has a companion which features winterberry, horse brier, and beautyberry--all native to my part of Virginia. It is time consuming and frequently frustrating to commit hundreds of little accurately rendered globes to paper, but the preservation of the memory is well worth the trouble as the "bleak midwinter" approacheth...

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Read more about this artist’s work: 19th Annual