STORY BEHIND THE ART OF KELLY RADDING

Weird, Wild, & Wonderful

Second New York Botanical Garden Triennial Exhibition

2014 - 2016

Fibonacci’s Camellia

Camellia japonica ‘Sea Foam’

I was researching, photographing and sketching camellias in Charleston, South Carolina for my exhibit in the Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society’s BISCOT show in Scotland. This Connecticut Yankee was quite surprised to fall in love with a southern charmer, the camellia. After I completed my paintings for the BISCOT show, I knew that I would continue to paint camellias. I was fascinated by the almost perfect spiral arrangement of some of the formal double varieties of the camellias. Like pineapples and pinecones, they are an example of nature’s Fibonacci sequence. This is a wonder to see in such a breathtakingly beautiful flower! I thought they were a great subject for the Weird, Wild and Wonderful exhibition. I had also considered a heliconium (Heliconia vellerigera) in the Smith College Botanic Garden whose bracts look like a fuzzy brown teddy bear, but the camellias won my heart.

The camellias at Middleton Place plantation in Charleston are mature trees and shrubs. They curve and arch above your head when you walk through the garden. I was there on a rainy day and the camellias just glowed in the dark shadows created by the overhanging branches.

In my painting, I wanted to try and recreate the feeling I had of coming across these beautiful points of light in the gloom, so I chose a white variety and painted it in gouache on a black background. I used a new surface for this work, black pastel board - I had to experiment with getting the white gouache tints to be strong enough to create a convincing portrait of the flower.

I am continually awed and amazed at the structures that nature creates and I hope that viewers will share that feeling when viewing the wonderful spiral arrangement of this camellia.

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