STORY BEHIND THE ART OF carol woodin

25th Annual International

American Society of Botanical Artists and Wave Hill

Yellow Pond Lily

Nuphar lutea

The bullhead lily is hard to miss on ponds in June, sometimes covering large areas with its floating leaves and yellow flowers poking up out of the water. I had long wanted to paint it, and when searching for a plant to submit for an exhibition in the Netherlands, 400 Years of the Mayflower, I found this was a good subject. The exhibition was organized by Vereniging van Botanische Kunstenaars Nederlands, the Dutch Society for Botanical Artists, and was on view at the Museum de Zwarte Tulp in Lisse in 2020.

Plant subjects for that exhibition were chosen from a book that was brought to America on the Mayflower in 1620, the Cruijdeboeck, by Flemish botanist Rembertus Dodonaeus. It was published in 1554 as an extensive botanical reference. The plants in the book demonstrate the early exchange between European colonists and indigenous Americans. Nuphar lutea was used by both Europe’s and North America’s early peoples, who gathered the thick rootstocks and boiled or roasted them to eat.

It wasn’t as easy to paint this flower as to see it! A friend let me know of a public pond that had lots of plants in flower, and he also loaned me his kayak. I paddled out on a sunny day with paints and a piece of white matboard. Once I found a suitable open flower, I went to work making drawings and color studies, then did the same with a few leaves and a couple of buds. It was difficult to keep the kayak from drifting away while working, so it was a process of paint/paddle/paint/paddle. The brilliant sun was nearly blinding on the white sheet of paper. However, it was a glorious day, and many insects were flying around, especially damselflies and dragonflies, a pleasant distraction from painting. And there were waterlily leaf beetles on nearly every leaf, so it was very busy out on the water.

Once back in the studio, I began my slow labors, working in many drybrush layers of watercolor on Kelmscott vellum that once belonged to Rory McEwen, the revered twentieth century British botanical artist.

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