STORY BEHIND THE ART OF Kathy Schermer-Gramm

25th Annual International

American Society of Botanical Artists and Wave Hill

Common Blue Violet

Viola sororia

This diminutive drawing began as part of a series of twelve botanical illustrations commissioned for the upcoming 2023 novel ‘The Weeds’ by Southern author Katy Simpson Smith. I created a collection of native and exotic weedy plant drawings to embellish a story based loosely around Richard Deakin, his 1800s Colosseum of Rome flora collection, his female indentured botanist’s assistant, and another present-day Southern botanist. The choice of plants the author suggested were those related to the ones found by Deakin among the ruins in Italy. Beyond that, I had full control of the drawings and how they were created.

This drawing of the common blue violet, Viola sororia, started early in the year before the plants awakened. I dug up several of the many barely visible plants found sleeping in my yard and brought them into the warmth of the studio hoping they would sprout early on and bloom readily. Later, they would resume their lives outside again. By the time I got around to rendering them, they had grown into young spring plants and flowered even earlier than expected. This drawing shows the violets early in the season before they become a shadowy carpet of larger leaves. Deakin would note that the Viola odorata, a violet native to Europe, was rare among the sunlit areas of the ruins but flourished in the cooler shade. ‘The sweet-smelling violet…. loads the air with its rich perfume, so that though it modestly hides its flowers amongst its leaves, its presence is readily known’. While the common blue violet, V. sororia, looks much like its cousin the Italian V. odorata, the former has only a faint scent, but it also hides its delicate blooms away under its leaves.

 The violet has long been a symbol of romance, modesty, and humility, especially during Victorian times. Like the everchanging nature of human relationships, nothing is static in the composition as the various parts move rhythmically throughout the picture plane. Flowers speak to one another from bud through full bloom, and then wither as the fruit casts its seed. The seeds spill forth as another romantic symbol. Then there are the obvious heart shaped leaves, with petioles intertwined in various stages of development. Some are young and just bursting forth, others are mature, with even a downcast leaf caused by a broken petiole. I wanted to capture the innocent sensuality and fragility of young love that the violets project, this simplicity in the awakening of the senses as the new flowers sway forth beneath the leafy canopy. The fluid and floppy leaf stems gave so much movement that I focused on exaggerating their sway through the spatial depths of the composition. The roots are also twisting and searching for earth to ground them. All these thoughts ran through my mind in the process of developing a composition that would best suit this plant. Not wanting to draw a composition that was reminiscent of other nostalgic violet botanical illustrations from the past, I chose to inject a sense of historical romantic symbolism through the juxtaposition and interaction of the individual botanical parts and how they relate to human relationships.

The scale of the drawing is actual size. The small size means that the plant becomes larger than life, accentuating the fragile wonder it represents, a plant whose flower is often cherished while slipped and pressed between the pages of a favorite book.

The biggest challenge was to carefully orchestrate the botanical parts together to create the depicted specimen. I usually use numerous flowers, leaves, etc., creating individual detailed studies before manipulating them and shifting them into place in the composition as a new representation of the species, all while staying true to what the actual plant is capable of. As parts wither, I often replace them with surrogate pieces to complete the drawing.

The drawings for the book were all rendered from life using graphite. Although I paint as well as draw, my first love is with the pencil and all the wonderful characteristics you can obtain with just a simple monochromatic mark at the tip of the pencil. My method of developing a drawing is to study the plant in search of how to bring out the best qualities of the forms. The strokes are not limited to any one application. The surface of the plant’s parts speaks out which mark will best relate to describe it. This may include gentle linear strokes to caress the petioles and blooms, or they may become expressive with a swirl of tiny scribbles to describe the surface of a leaf. The choice of the marks is decided by the plant’s surfaces, and I just follow through from there.

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Read more about this artist's work: Abundant Future