STORY BEHIND THE ART OF Ansuk Park

25th Annual International

American Society of Botanical Artists and Wave Hill

Rose Hips

Rosa cv.

The rose is such a popular flower for people who want to express their love. After the rose petals fall down, people usually forget the rose flower and turn their eyes to other flowers. However, the rose is preparing something better. That is the rosehip.

Rosehips form from the growth of the rose calyx. They are typically red, orange, and dark purple, and they ripen in summer through autumn after the flowers have bloomed. Rosehips are full of vitamins and have been used for edible and medicinal purposes.

The place where I first observed rosehips was the riverside bike trail that I usually take. One fine autumn day, I saw wide open rosehips. I stopped my bike to look at them carefully. I imagined the earlier scene of rosehips ripening under the hot summer sun. Now, the short stamens had stuck together after many days of wind and rain, and they looked like fluff balls. And the five long sepals looked like bird beaks. I was inspired by what looked to me like many rosehips chatting with each other! I picked two of them and set them as if they are looking at each other. Then I tried to express that they are having a fun chat or maybe they are having a heated conversation on a certain topic at a salon. The one on the left is holding its own against the three on the right. I wonder what they are talking about.

I colored the rosehips in thin red dots with a small brush, coloring a small area first with a mix of perylene maroon and indigo. It wasn’t hard up to here.

The hardest part was the leaves, because they had so many veins and it was tremendously difficult to depict them. I felt that I would get lost in the space if I missed the direction of the main vein. I had to concentrate very hard on my paint brush tip when I painted the narrowest parts. It required a lot of patience to draw the flow of the main vein and side veins and make the characteristics of the rose leaf clear. Also it took a long time to find an old faded vintage texture for describing a stipule shape, and a long time testing colors for the whole leaf by controlling the water concentration minutely. Why are there so many saw-toothed edges on the leaf? I tried to design in accordance with the direction of the saw-toothed edges, just like a tailor would. But I was very cautious not to make the leaves stronger than the rosehips. I did my best to relax my body and focus on the rosehips.

It is essential to have patience, good observation and affection for the subject when you draw a plant. It can’t be better than that. I paused so many times while I was doing the work; I would face the moment when it seemed too hard to go forward, and would take a break to refresh myself.

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