STORY BEHIND THE ART OF CLAUDIA LANE

Wildly Exquisite: Florida’s Native Plants

Spider Lily plant

Hymenocallis latifolia

I found my spider lily in an inhospitable spot, far from its native home in humid, Florida marshland, where its “feet” would stay comfortably wet. Instead, this unfortunate specimen lives a precarious life in the dry, rocky Hill Country of Texas, surviving from year to year with rather indifferent nurturing, at a small summer resort. When I first saw it three years ago, I was stunned by its beauty and the fact that it seemed so out of place.

I drew it while sitting adjacent to an extremely hot parking lot, in full sun, annoyed by mosquitos. I focused on the spherical shape created by multiple blooms as they overlapped. They combined into a light and airy ball, supported by a graceful stem, anchored by heavy, rather stiff, blade-shaped leaves. The spider lily has a translucent, delicate inner membrane of fused stamens that form a cup, which is surrounded by six long, thin, springy, spider-like petals. Beneath the smooth, white spidery flower is an underlayer of thatch made up of dead, dried petals, pistils and stamens. A great juxtaposition of textures!

The blooms’ apparent frailty disguises a toughness and a will to survive that are hard to credit, as each year I return to find they are still growing, out of place in the Hill Country, multiplying in poor conditions far from the steamy moisture of the spider lily’s native Florida.

For readers interested in my planning or in materials and technique—I decided to do a life-size plant portrait, depicting the ball of blooms, which airily balances the heavy base of bladed leaves. I started in graphite, added colored pencil and watercolor, then more touches of graphite, working the three media back and forth. All of this was on the interesting and durable surface of pastelmat paper, slightly tinted towards gray, to give the white blooms a chance to shine.

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Read more about this artist’s work: Out of the Woods