Story behind the art of Sharon Duplantis

26th Annual International

American Society of Botanical Artists and Marin Art and Garden Center

Is the Party Over?

Monarda punctata

I stumbled upon this plant by accident. In the spring of 2021, while I was driving with my border collie from South Florida to Apalachicola in Florida's Panhandle, my car broke down in the Apalachicola National Forest. Fortunately, we were quickly rescued by a State Trooper. While waiting for the tow truck, I noticed this plant with such interesting flowers growing just on the edge of the forest. I had never seen a flower like this before and was very taken by it. So as the trooper played with my dog, I took the opportunity to snap a few photographs. 

When I arrived home, I did some research and discovered that Monarda punctata (Spotted Bee Balm) is a native wildflower in my home state of Florida, and beloved by pollinators. It was described as a birthday cake because its usual growth habit is to have many fluffy tiers of red spotted yellow flowers on each stem. Last spring, I tracked down a few small plants from a nearby native plant nursery, tended them carefully, and waited for them to bloom. As the flowers began to open, I enjoyed photographing the plant’s progress along with the pollinators that visited, and I completed a painting of the plant in its early blooming stage. By the end of summer, bees and butterflies were all over the bee balm - like a birthday party! And when the flowers began to drop, I noticed how beautiful the calyx tubes were, with their lovely star shaped tops. 

As my plants were starting to dry up from our sweltering temperatures, I plucked the perfect reminder of summer’s raucous pollinator party. This particular flower was late in the season, and maybe that’s why it was a little stunted, having only one tier. It caught my eye because of the delicate colors it still held onto, and the interesting shapes of the curling leaves. It had dried to the point that it kept its shape, and I was able to reference it to snap a few photos and make preliminary sketches.  

The weekend before I began this painting, I had been in New Orleans, right before Mardi Gras. People were gearing up for the parades and all the stores were full of decorations - green, purple & gold everywhere! As I started painting the calyx tubes, I began thinking - “these look like Mardi Gras colors”. The five points at the top of the tubes reminded me of outstretched hands yearning to catch beads at a parade. The pinkish bracts and curling leaves resembled skirts flowing around a dancer… It seemed the more I painted, the more festive it began to look. So “Is the Party Over?” seemed like a fitting title. And luckily for me, the bee balm re-seeded and new plants have popped up all around the pollinator garden this year. I can’t wait for the party to begin again.

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