STORY BEHIND THE ART OF Jane Fisher

25th Annual International

American Society of Botanical Artists and Wave Hill

Ohio Buckeye

Ausculus glabra

I like to draw far more than I like to write or talk about my drawings. The process is really quite simple: on my walks I keep my eyes open for the perfect leaf or pod, ideally something with strong lines and lots of texture. After that I try to come up with a composition that feels right: sometimes it’s about how the specimen is angled, other times it’s how it’s positioned on the paper. Next is the fun part, drawing. Things can go wrong anywhere along the way but if I have a subject that I’m really captivated by, the actual drawing process is almost like meditation.

Having an emotional connection to the subject is always a bonus and this buckeye leaf has several. My dad died fairly recently and as a family we have multiple relationships to buckeyes. Dad was born and raised in Ohio, the Buckeye State, and had strong ties to his family’s farm and businesses there his entire life. After college in Indiana, he attended graduate school in Ohio and I was born there.

Probably my favorite connection to buckeyes is the tree that we had in our backyard when we were growing up. It produced bushels of buckeyes every fall, which my parents both loved and loathed. In the love category, Mom used the buckeyes to decorate, often mixing them with pinecones and evergreen at Christmas. I also remember the lovely wreaths that our elderly neighbor made with the shiny brown nuts. In the less pleasant memories category, my father made us pick up the buckeyes each time before he mowed the yard. It was a tedious task that often devolved into buckeye fights between warring groups of neighborhood kids. Fortunately no eyes were lost, but there certainly could have been. For all of these reasons, this drawing will always have special meaning to me.

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Read more about this artist's work: 23rd Annual