going botanic

Believe it or not, I’m taking a botanical illustration course with a wonderful botanic artist, Mayumi Hashi.

The UK is noted for its gardens and likewise the botanical illustration here is also amazing. This is a field that is known for its realistic representation, jaw-dropping detail and exquisite use of colour. 

I found myself staring at the same leaf for two hours today and was amazed at how large the world is when you appreciate small things.  It’s a practice that encourages you to take care and be careful, to make every small variation and gradation count, to squeeze out every nuance of the plant.  It’s very satisfying for the soul.  As Gina Lake writes in one of her books, “The mind likes detail.” 

However, I found myself thinking that I’m glad I didn’t start out in this mode.  The mind could get caught up in “getting it right” quite easily.  I can see that there’s quite a bit of practice to be done before I do any “accomplishin’,” and if I saw that as my main goal, I could get easily discouraged.

I can see that there is a drive toward accomplishing, about achieving a certain accuracy.  However, it needs to come from a proper place.  It needs to come from love, not fear.  It can't come from place of inadequacy or desire to be liked or admired.  And that's the artist's spiritual search.  To really know inside one's heart that we do things out of love.  That it’s not about goals or participating in shows or winning awards.  

So I’ll do a bit of botanic accuracy along with doing art just for the sheer joy of it.