Story behind the art of Julia Trickey

26th Annual International

American Society of Botanical Artists and Marin Art and Garden Center

Glorious Decline - Desiccated Hippeastrum Bulb

Hippeastrum cultivar

I have enjoyed painting less-than-perfect specimens such as fading flowers or fall leaves, for more than ten years now. I have often depicted them larger than life to invite the viewer to see these often discarded subjects from a new perspective. I am also a fan of the watercolor technique wet-in-wet, where paint is dabbed onto damp paper and coaxed into place. Though not every botanical artist uses this technique, I have found it invaluable over the years to recreate form and undulations as well as graduations of color. 

In recent years I have started experimenting with moving away from the more usual pristine white backgrounds and this journey has led me to painting subjects with black backgrounds and recreating mottled surfaces in the style of natural vellum or the discolored paper of old books. I have created these vellum-like backgrounds with my favorite wet-in-wet technique, having decided that working on real vellum was not for me, as it requires a much drier technique when applying the paint. 

However, I like to set myself challenges and, even though I have been a botanical artist for nearly 25 years, I know that there is still more to learn. Given that I do love the jewel-like quality of watercolor on vellum, I decided earlier this year to explore how to go about painting on this surface, even though it would mean putting my larger brushes to one side and not relying on my usual wet-in-wet way of beginning every painting. 

For the ASBA exhibition submission, I knew I wanted to depict a dried or fading subject and knew that I wanted to work on natural calfskin vellum with its characteristic mottling and veining. Having searched through my many boxes of dried specimens (often collected for classes and workshops that I teach) I came across the dried Hippeastrum bulb which still had its flowers attached, albeit completely desiccated. 

I chose and mounted a suitable piece of vellum and, knowing I wanted to fill the space as fully as possible, spent a long time planning the composition by teasing the dried leaves and flowers into a variety of configurations until I found one that pleased me. Though the botanical elements need to be correct, I think one can employ artistic license as to how these are displayed within the allotted area. 

I decided to work life-size on this occasion for practical reasons: vellum can be expensive, and the painting needed to be sent to the exhibition from the UK, so working smaller would be more straightforward to pack and ship.

Though the color of the subject is almost entirely a range of browns, I don’t own any brown watercolor paints. I mix from a limited range of colors. I can’t remember precisely which colors I used but it would likely have been Winsor and Newton Permanent Rose, Transparent Yellow, and either Winsor Blue (green shade) or an indigo-type blue.

So, having planned my composition, mixed my colors, and experimented with drier painting techniques (a small amount of paint on a small brush) could I make an attractive picture from something so past its best? Could I reflect the fragility of the desiccated bulb, papery roots, and translucent flowers in watercolor? 

I’ll leave you to be the judge of that!

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Read more about this artist’s work: 21st Annual