STORY BEHIND THE ART OF keiko nibu tarver

25th Annual International

American Society of Botanical Artists and Wave Hill

Ohio Buckeye  

Aesculus glabra

Since 2014 when I first saw a horse chestnut tree and was attracted to its big leaves with autumn colors, I have been observing trees of the Aesculus genus and painting them one by one. The genus is comprised of horse chestnuts and buckeyes. This Ohio buckeye painting is the eighth painting in the series. Other paintings in my series have appeared in previous ASBA exhibitions.

When I create the composition for a painting, I remember the first impression of the plant and think about how to emphasize the prominent features of the plant at a glance. For the European horse chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum) and Japanese horse chestnut (A. turbinata), I wanted to emphasize the bold appearance of the leaves and their coarse texture. The red buckeye (A. pavia) has dark red flowers which stand out from the green leaves; the leaves are a darker shade of green than those of other Aesculus trees, so the red flowers create a subdued appearance. The yellow buckeye’s (A. flava) big leaves with shiny smooth surfaces evoke a much softer effect than those of the horse chestnut. The bottlebrush buckeye’s (A. parviflora) white flowers and early seeds are very elegant.

Ohio buckeye (A. glabra) is native to North America like other buckeyes. I used to visit and sketch two relatively young Ohio buckeyes in Fairmount Park in Philadelphia, where I lived. Every year they bloomed beautifully. I enjoyed not only watching their flowers, but also listening to the bees hovering around the flowers, and I was impressed by their hard work collecting pollen. Many bees had big pollen bags on their legs. When I was sketching the Ohio buckeye, the supple peripheral branches with the beautiful panicles and leaves swayed even in light spring winds. Ohio buckeye leaves are much smaller and thinner than those of other buckeyes and horse chestnuts, so, their leaflets move very easily. In my painting, I used negative spaces to help express the fluttering movement of the branches.

Another characteristic feature of the Ohio buckeye is its flowers. The flowers are yellow to light green-yellow, similar to those of yellow buckeye. You can distinguish the two trees by the shape of the flower and the length of the stamens. The Ohio buckeye’s flower shape is linear whereas the yellow buckeye’s flower is curvy. Both usually have seven stamens and one pistil. The pistils of both flowers are long and prominent, but the stamens are different. The Ohio buckeye’s stamens are longer than the petals and the anthers are a showy orange; that is why bees are eager to collect their pollen. In contrast, the yellow buckeye’s stamens are almost the same length as the petals. I tried to show these characteristic features, emphasizing the anthers.

My journey to paint all the trees of the Aesculus genus continues. After I finish painting all species of the Aesculus genus in North America, then I would like to go to China and to the Himalayan Mountains of northeast India to see specimens of A. chinensis and A. indica.

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Read more about this artist's work: 24th Annual