Story behind the art of Connie Scanlon
26th Annual International
American Society of Botanical Artists and Marin Art and Garden Center
Two Raspberries
Rubus idaeus
In the world of a botanical artist, capturing the proverbial “moment in time” is the consummate achievement. I happened upon a raspberry branch in my garden last August. Lucky for me to have noticed it before our grandchildren “bear cubs” visited and foraged for berries. They seem to revel in the competitive sport of finding the biggest, best, and most delicious berry first.
Finding a subject worthy of painting, at least for me, is a little like falling in love. After the first encounter, you just know there is a great chance of this becoming amazing. I knew immediately that this simple branch was special enough to receive the requisite second look. After the “botanical snip,” I gently airlifted the branch to a waiting glass of water for a much longer study and photo shoot.
When I hear the word raspberry, I immediately think red. After looking at this branch from every angle for many hours, I now describe raspberry red differently. Red is not just red. When light hits the upper left berry, the color of red is almost annihilated from the berry edge. A suggestion of pale pink and a subtle hint of orange suggest the highest curves of the drupelets. As light diminishes in the valleys of the drupelets, red becomes a deepening magenta with areas of violet and dark blue in the crevices. The nonstop undulating curves of the raspberry overwhelms and inspires. One questions how such a structural thing of beauty could be merely popped into one’s mouth!
The second raspberry in the forefront and to the right, is suggestive of that perfect moment in time, for it is slowly starting to lose its grasp and will soon fall from the branch. So often in current botanical art, a life cycle or multiple plant dissections are included to teach or possibly enhance a depiction. I have decided to show these two berries, alone together, exposed in all their simple glory, capturing just one special moment in time.
Perhaps I might have fallen in love.
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Read more about this artist’s work: Abundant Future