Story behind the art of Helen Byers

26th Annual International

American Society of Botanical Artists and Marin Art and Garden Center

Banana Yucca

Yucca baccata

The first thing I learned about Yucca baccata came from an unexpected source. I was taking a ceramics workshop at Ghost Ranch (the education and retreat center in northern New Mexico—now famous, among other things, as a former home of Georgia O'Keeffe and the dinosaur Ceolophysis...not necessarily in that order!).

It was a workshop taught by Jim Kempes, the first director of Ceramics at Ghost Ranch. As we applied a watery clay slip to our coiled pots, preparatory to a traditional pit firing, someone asked how Indigenous artists, such as those from Acoma Pueblo, painted their intricate surface designs. Jim explained: They made fine brushes from the stringy fibers of yucca leaves.

Some years later, we had moved to New Mexico and found mature specimens of Yucca baccata blooming in our yard. In May, the plant would send up a single amazing stalk, studded with waxy buds. As the buds matured, they turned from alizarin crimson to cream.

I felt driven to do a portrait in colored pencil, and began by making a detailed underdrawing, en grisaille, using dark sepia and warm gray colored pencils. I also took photos as references. I had planned to take the drawing further, adding full color layers, but hesitated. I liked the neutral, monochromatic stage just as it was. So I left it alone...for a time.

When I looked again, I wondered if I had judged prematurely. What if I did add color? I took the neutral image to a printer and asked for a full-sized copy. At home I drew loosely over the print with colored pencil. Take the plunge! urged a voice in my head. So I did. I applied a light layer of watercolor over the original underdrawing. When it was dry, I added richer colored pencil layers. There! I thought. That's more like it!

But, alas, I soon decided that something still was lacking. But what? I put the work away.

A year later, in May, I brought the drawing out again. This time I saw at once that I not only needed to add more color, but more detail. Much more detail, and more color!

I sat beside another blooming yucca and got down to it. There were lovely textures I had failed to include. But most challenging (and important) were the fibers, curling off the sides of the "bayonet-like" leaves, like scribbles in the air. These were not fine threads (as I had drawn them); the fibers were stiff. I needed to paint them so, with gouache and a very fine brush, adding shadows to each. It was only after finishing that step that I knew I was finally done.

As I worked on this piece, I took photos and made full-sized prints of the several stages of the process. These have turned out to be engaging teaching tools. I use them to illustrate why one should never quit too soon.

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Read more about this artist's work: 19th Annual