STORY BEHIND THE ART OF JESSICA TCHEREPNINE

Weird, Wild, & Wonderful

Second New York Botanical Garden Triennial Exhibition

2014 - 2016

White Bird of Paradise

Strelitzia nicolai

What could be more wonderfully weird, or more weirdly wonderful than the seed pod of the Strelitzia nicolai? I love doing sculptural things like this rather than prettier subjects, because of the wonderful coloring and wonderful shapes.

I have painted these seed pods several times. Each time I see new and exciting details of the shapes and colors. This particular seed pod was the perfect model with its twists and turns. You have to find the one that speaks to you – you know it when you see it. I found this one about a year and a half ago after going through a whole clump of Strelitzia. 

Strelitzia nicolai is a tropical plant commonly known as Giant White Bird of Paradise that looks like a banana tree. I have found it in Florida and in one of the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens greenhouses. The version which I did of the fresh flower is in the BBG Florilegium http://www.bbg.org/florilegium/jessica_tcherepnine. The painting of this one in the Wierd, Wild & Wonderful exhibition was very difficult and complicated – and gave me great pleasure! I just loved every moment of it. The actual seeds proved elusive. I spent some time searching through the same clump of Strelitzia on a subsequent trip to Florida to find one small group of black seeds with the fuzzy orange surrounds. They were the vital last touch for the finishing of the watercolor.

Jessica Tcherepnine, one of the original directors of ASBA, has been acknowledged as an outstanding botanical artist for years. She says that she was always drawn to flowers. Recently, she was going through some of her parents’ papers and found a flower drawing on a birthday card which she did at age 5! She grew up in the country and loved being in the garden. She had an aunt who painted flowers as well as other members of the family who painted. All she wanted to draw when she went to school was flowers and that has remained her interest to this day. At age 17, she studied art in Florence for four months, busts and still lives. She had to observe and practice. She says “really that was my upbringing – my parents taught me to look at things. I am self-taught as a botanical artist, but observation was instilled in me at an early age."

“I paint differently from many other people. I don’t draw first on tracing paper - I draw right on the watercolor paper. Sometimes that works better than other times – you have to be very careful! That is why observation is so important. Before I start, that blank sheet of paper can be very daunting, so I have to know my subject well. I have an idea of the whole look of the composition and I really build it up as I go. If I were doing a magnolia, I might start with the bud, either at the top or bottom of the page. I draw it lightly with pencil and then try to paint it in that day. As every botanical artist knows, the flowers and leaves change so fast. Then I will paint a flower just coming out, then a full flower, then the leaves and twigs. It can be tricky to be botanically correct, for instance to get the leaves coming out in the right place. I used to be able to paint for hours on end, but now I can only do three or four hours at a time; after that, I worry that I might start to make mistakes.”

“When I am doing a painting, my subject is the last thing I look at before I go to bed and the first thing I look at when I get up in the morning. And I am thinking about it in between! While I am working on a painting, I am totally involved, but then once it is framed, I am less attached. I don’t have any of my paintings hanging.” 

She says that she wouldn’t know how to teach because a lot of what she does is instinctive. But she does have some advice. “At an ASBA meeting, I overheard someone say how depressed she was. She had been painting for three years and she wasn’t happy with her results. I laughed! This is work! It is serious stuff! So my advice is practice, practice, practice.”

After her first show of botanical paintings in 1982, she left her job and concentrated on painting. “I am lucky I can do this, I love to do it, it is my real passion - a reason to get up in the morning! It is very satisfying to produce something you are pleased with. I also love gardening - my approach to gardening is unscientific – I put things in and hope they grow. And then I like to paint what is in the garden. I also enjoy painting exotic plants which I see in Florida and the West Indies. Over the years, I have painted practically everything I can get hold of, from magnolias to beets to dandelions and skunk cabbage. Lately I am looking for something different. I am interested in the sculptural quality of plants. The last thing I painted was a seed pod of the West Indian fruit ackee. You have to paint what speaks to you.”

Jessica collects contemporary botanicals, not her own. She counted 36 artworks covering the walls in her bedroom, 10 more in the adjacent hall, and more in her country house. “We have no more wall space left! I know most of the artists, many of them ASBA members. I acquired some of the works at shows and some directly from the artists. One artist whom I regret I never met was Rory McEwen. I saw his work at an exhibition in London 40 years ago – I should have bought something then. I have since acquired two of his paintings, an onion and a gingko leaf. And one of my most exciting finds was at a Pandora Sellars show at Kew. I walked in and everything was gone, and then I saw one little one behind the door which had been overlooked, a wonderful painting of hazelnuts - my lucky day.”

Her hope for the future is that more people appreciate the amount of time and talent that botanical artists put into their work and that more people become interested in collecting botanical art.

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