Charles Rennie Mackintosh and artists of the art nouveau

Mackintosh Images and most of life history derived from the book :  “The Life, Times and Work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh” by K.E. Sullivan  published by Brockhampton Press 1997 ISBN 1 86019 798 1

Rennie Mackintosh was born in Glasgow in 1868. He had a love of nature and became an architect as well as attending art school.

Early Flower study in pencil and watercolour  obtained by photographing the image from “The Life Times and Work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh” by K.E. Sullivan  published by Brockhampton Press 1997 ISBN 1 86019 798 1

After visiting Italy in 1891 mackintosh returned to Scotland vowing to give his country “its own architectural language”. His style was assisted by the art of Japan. With three other artists, Herbert MacNair  and two sisters Frances and Margaret MacDonald a style was developed which was based on their interests in poetry, the celtic world , symbolism and mysticism. With MacNair he started to  work with animal and vegetable forms and strong colours.

Images by Margaret MacDonald:

November 5th   1894

http://www.artmagick.com/pictures/picture.aspx?id=5222&name=november-5th

Herbert Mac Nair:

Fountain Pencil and Watercolour on paper

http://www.huntsearch.gla.ac.uk/cgi-bin/foxweb/huntsearch/DetailedResults.fwx?collection=all&SearchTerm=41046&mdaCode=GLAHA&reqMethod=Link

Frances Mac Doanald

Golden Heart by Frances MacDonald MacNair

ref:http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/walker/exhibitions/doves/liverpool1900/golden_heart_mcnair.aspx

All these images by the three other artists in MacKintoshes group show the characteristic lines, tall “vertically stretched” images and swirls found in Mackintoshes work. The swirls represented plants or hair. In the image by Margaret MacDonald, the characteristic roses found in Mackintoshes images appear.

These four artists were influenced by Audrey Beardsley’s Yellow book images :

Design for title page 111  The Yellow Book   ref:   http://www.wormfood.com/savoy/yellow_book/275.html

and by Patrick Gedde’s images in his magazine “The Evergreen”

Natura Naturans  Robert Burns 1891 from “The Evergreen” magazine  ref: http://www.patrickgeddestrust.co.uk/celticcompositionrobertburns.htm

“Mackintosh focused on images of roots, stems, branches and flowers with vertical lines and swooping elegant lines”. The four were involved in poster design. Mackintosh also designed furniture and incorporated his details on glass. He often used the stylized rose motif in his images and developed a balance between geometric shapes and the curves of nature:

One of the commonest features of Mackintosh’s designs is the contrast between  black and white squares and coloured floral designs:

Floral and chequered fabric design  image obtained by photographing image from book “The Life Times and Work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh” by K.E. Sullivan  published by Brockhampton Press 1997 ISBN 1 86019 798 1

Detail of a wall stencil from Hill House

Image obtained by photographing the image from “The Life Times and Work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh” by K.E. Sullivan  published by Brockhampton Press 1997 ISBN 1 86019 798 1

copying this image:

and adding my own twist to the honesty seeds and grasses:

In a similar vein ans around the same era Alphonse Mucha was using the long tresses and curves of natural plants to produce images often used in posters:

Alphonse Mucha 1860-1939

A Moravian (Austro-Hungary) painter of the late 19th century Art Nouveau movement famous for his ideallized paintings of women with flowing hair and clothing, often for posters.

Alphonse Mucha study of dishware and cutlery 1902  in gouache

ref:http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/alphonse-mucha/studies-1902

The use of black and white gouache and pencil on coloured paper. Swirling patterns and arrangements with paper showing through to indicate the reflective surfaces of the objects

David Hockney’s drawings

Hockney’s drawings are frequently of human beings, however as I am concentrating on plants and seed pods -I have looked for examples of plant life drawings by Hockney.

Fruhe Zeichnung, 1959 charcoal on paper, 22×14 1/2 in.  (translation: morning drawing)

Image sourced on line January 2014 ref:  http://www.hockneypictures.com/works_drawings_50_08.php

This sketch could easily be a seed pod similar to the honesty seeds I have been drawing. It is done in charcoal, The round area (? the seed pod ) dominates the page in light block shade and is overdrawn with determined strong lines and circles which are within the “circle” and by a harsh almost horizontal line (is this an horizon?) and harshly drawn diagonal lines below the horizontal. Perhaps it is a rising sun in view of the title -but it could easily be a seed pod in the grass.

I copied this image and then drew the honesty seeds in a similar manner:

Copy of Hockney sketch entitled Fruhe Zeichnung:

An image in Hockney style of the honesty seeds:

Pershing Square Study 1 Pencil

ref:http://www.hockneypictures.com/works_drawings_60_08.php

This image contrasts what appear to be cress seedlings against against an angular background, a box through which the stems escape. The stems seem to originate in a bed of pebbles but these have no depth and are shaded ovals with borders. In the background the words “Pacific Mutual Life ” seem to refer to insurance. The image makes no sense to me, although googling Pershing square it starts to make more sense -the square in Los Angeles has palm trees, pools and angular buildings some of which dedicated to finances. He has used only pencil in varying pressures and intensity and has produced a feeling of constriction by the enclosing of the plants by the angular lines.

My hand 1981 ink

sourced on line January 2014: ref  http://www.hockneypictures.com/works_drawings_80_04.php

I enclose this as a reminder of minimal light line to represent the artist’s hand, reaching out across the page.

3 Trees With Rock, 1991  gouache, felt marker, uni-ball pen on foam core   sourced on line January 2014 from:  ref:  http://www.hockneypictures.com/works_drawings_90_02.php

This image drawn in felt tip with gouache and pen. Three trees with lined trunks and foliage with three different forms of marks (swirls, dots, leaf like marks, stand in a line, their bases at the bottom of the paper and their positions slightly unevenly spaced between each other and from the edge of the paper. Behind and at the edges of the paper are the rocks, swirls, dashes and lines of light on dark browns and black/greys. In the background is a red area of swirling lines bounded above by the representation of a fence in line. The brown “blob ” of the sun surrounded by two blue marks of colour sits in the upper left corner. The image has a fun appearance and gives a feel of warmth,dryness (perhaps due to the colour) of tropicality.

Untitled  111, 2009 charcoal on paper

sourced on line Jan 2014 from ref:  http://www.hockneypictures.com/works_drawings_00_25.php

This image has such perspective leading into the forest by the bend of the harsher lines which run from mid and left foreground  to the left of the image and  link to  softer lines running in the opposite direction. A tree trunk sits at the golden section on the left and rises up and out of the image helping to give vertical power to the forest. This tree is drawn in soft block shade with additional lines of the bark in fine harsher lines and twigs crossing its trunk and its base in darker line. The background to whee our eye is lead,is drawn in varying pressure charcoal as trees fade into the mist and their canopies get lower than those at the front. The forest floor is dotted with small marks adding interest and contrast to the almost vertical lines of the trees. These dots also extend into the upper canopy taking the contrasting dots upwards adding interest for the eye and breaking the harsher though softly drawn lines by the soft “dots” of the remaining leaves.

Final assignment Observation in Nature Tonal Studies

It was my intention from the start to try and depict the seed pods of honesty in a soft velvety and silky texture with harsher elements of leaves or twigs as background.

Looking at the work of Andra Ursuta ( images from the Vitamin D2 book New Perspectives in drawing)

Man from the Internet 34 2012 Ink on Paper Andra Ursuta

Image photographed from the book containing a collection collection of contemporary drawings: “Vitamin D2 New Perspectives in Drawing” Page 299  Published by Phaidon Press Ltd 2013, ISBN 978 0 7148 6528 7

I was taken, not by the subject matter (although death and decay could be applied to the plants I am involved in drawing, I am more interested in the ongoing rebirth in the elements of nature) but by the manner in which she has used ink and possibly a form of resist.

Image in development:

the depiction of negative space using ink, conte and wax crayon.

tonal study using wax resist and pencil:

Emulating Patrick Caulfield in the depiction of negative space between the seed pods:

Patrick Caulfield  Coal Fire 1969  sourced on line Feb 2014 from : http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/patrick-caulfield-873

Seed pods negative space:

Charcoal and biro:

Tonal drawings in graphite:

incorporating the background:

Drawing of one of the pieces of lace, in soft pencil, which I used as background :

Toanl study in “sepia” using brown conte:

of dried leaf:

seed pods leaf and lace background:

and tonal sketch in colour in felt tip ink crayon and pencil:

Final Assignment Observation in Nature Introducing colour

the dried leaf:

Looking at the beautiful drawings of tulips by Wardell Milan (photograph of Reference : book “Vitamin D2 new Perspectives in Drawing” 2013 pg 184-185 Published by Phaidon Press ISBN  978 0 7148 6528 7

These images according to the text reflect the fragile beauty of the tulip whose image was inspired by the Dutch dependence on the flower for trade which can itself be fragile.

I love the manner in which the colours  are irregular  patches against the harsher dark ink form of the flower head. I feel excited by the manner the colour drips  off the plant or forms irregular “splodges” which are only partially connected to the flower heads. This mode of representing the colour does give the image a crumbling frailty.

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I used the images to build up a coloured drawing of the dried leaf using charcoal, ink, crayon, oil pastel and oil paint. The idea of fragility by showing some degree of “melting ” by incorporating parts of the image into the surrounding space fits with my concepts of frailty in life, of life past and of life to be.

My image is too solid, the splashes of oil colour spilling onto the background insufficiently brave but it proved difficult to overpaint and possibly spoil a reasonable drawing. The final colours are too strong -stopping at an earlier version may have been better.

Other coloured images:

The seed pod

using various media to frottage over the seed pods:

thinking about my aim to incorporate neolithic cave art images.(hands from peoples long gone):

And thinking again of Rennie Mackintosh: swirling lines,vertical image, colour pink (instilled by the initial thoughts of the sun on the seed pods as I wandered round the winter garden).

    textile design -stylised tulip  pencil on brown tracing paper  by Charles Rennie Mackintosh  sourced on line Feb 2014 from: http://www.huntsearch.gla.ac.uk/cgi-bin/foxweb/huntsearch_Mackintosh/summaryResults.fwx?searchterm=keyword+has+flower&browseMode=on&browseSet=flower+drawings,+watercolours+and+designs

Incorporating black and white squares into a drawing of plants in the manner of Rennie Mackintosh produced quite a foreboding drawing in pink and black:

This has a sense of drama by virtue of the colours and the positions of the seed pods which have lost their identities. It was certainly far removed from the more gentle image I was trying to achieve and although I like it, it is too dark and mysterious.

I developed this idea further by working on the detailed study of the lace, drawn for the tonal drawings section of the assignment:

this produced a cacophony of line colour and textures with immense busy-ness

the build of images on the original drawing using wax resist, ink felt tip and crayon:

I was fascinated by two artist’s use of colour :

The first, Friedrich Kunaith , draws in fine coloured lines on black carbon paper producing ghostly images which emerge from the paper:

Images from the Vitamin D2 (New Perspectives in Drawing pg 162-163) ISBN978 0 7148 6528 7

“Oh Oh Lonesome me” Oil Pastel on carbon paper

Lovely fine and colourful marks break the black surface –no one line seems to be only one colour. A ghostly ship glides through a billowing sea. The Rhime of the Ancient Mariner comes to mind. The paper is carbon the colours fine oil pastel.

“Don’t Ever leave me” Oil Pastel on Carbon Paper  Friederich Kunath     sourced from the book “Vitamin D2 New Perspectives in Drawing” Pg 162  ISBN978 0 7148 6528 7

I like the contrast of colour against the black carbon paper, the fineness of the line, the hint of an image, the abstraction.

I drew the sprig of grass in this manner:

This lead into further coloured  drawings on black paper

abstracted, the image reminds me of the lady’s drawn by Toulouse Lautrec whose drawings I had studied in relation to figure drawing

The ash seeds incorporating colour:

I have a passion for colour particularly bright and varied colours and in this exerciser was impressewd by the contrasting colours on the black background as provoked by looking at Friedrich Kunaith’s images. The chalk drawing on black of the abstracted simple shapes of the seed pods is cdertianly one I like in its simplicity yet liveliness by virtue of its contrasting colours against the black:

I also like the contrasting wax crayon against the black pen in the leaf emulation of  Wardell Milan’s tulips

and from one of my earlier drawings -I love the multiple colours in pencil crayon in this image:

Final Assignment Observation in Nature Looking Closer

The tonal drawing used to enlarge with the area of enlargement demarcated in the upper left corner:

The enlarged coloured image:

Although this [roduced an abstraction of sorts the colours were too muted and the forms too organic :

A second tonal drawing

–whilst looking at this to enlarge an area it struck me that some of the forms were similar to those in Kandinsky’s work in which he drew semi-lunar shapes to represent boats: ( see the image in the left lower corner in this photograph of a Kandinsky picture)

Composition V1 1913 oil on canvas Kandinsky (Leningrad Hermitage at time book was produced)

Image photographed February 2014 from the book  “Kandinsky” by Hajo Duchting  Published by Benedikt Taschen 1993         ISBN 3-8228-0542-4

I used the image below to produce a coloured close image of part of the tonal drawing above

Kandinsky  Gorge Improvisation 1914 Oil on canvas (Munich Stadische Galerie im Lenbachhaus-at time book was produced)

Image photographed February 2014 from the book  “Kandinsky” by Hajo Duchting  Published by Benedikt Taschen 1993         ISBN 3-8228-0542-4

The image produced in oil pastels with Kandinsky in mind:

I found this very exciting both in forms textures and colours and the removal from the descriptive to the abstract. Abstraction is a passion .

Not only did the abstract image have the seed pods of honesty and the Ash but had images of seeds and leaves and the neolithic hand in the backgound and was a powerful coloured and textured image.

Final Assignment Observation in Nature Torn Paper Collage

Decoupage

taking this enlarged image into paper collage:

resulted in two images -one which was of my own making which proved dark and indistinct but had areas of good colour and interesting forms:

the second was inspired by the collage work of Jiri Kolar –see earlier blog : https://bemilne.wordpress.com/2013/12/15/jiri-kolar-artrist-in-collage/

He is a German artist who I came across during a visit to Regensburg-who meticuously cut up pieces of paper to small squares and reformed them into images

http://www.artnet.com/artwork/426240824/910/jiri-kolar-nedelni-pokuseni.html

the pieces of paper were stained(painted with ink) and then cut into small imperfect squares, each then individually stuck to the underlying paper. I love the colours and their combination but they remind me of gingham material (I happen to have a skirt in exactly the same colours in plaid like pattern) and Easter eggs! for some reason. I do not like the effect of the small squares which detract a feeling of depth-perhaps introducing more varied and darker colours I could have caught the shadows better. The background Newspaper was also insufficiently contrasting to give depth or drama so I reworked the paper with black ink with little advantage…

The second collage was loosely based on this image:

and was done with fabric on a prepared paper , overdrawn with ink and oil pastel, and incorporating some of the lace which had formed a background to the initial picture

Using this I drew another colourful image continuing the inspiration from Kandinsky and the tulips of Wardell Milan and the images of Jorge Queiroz (whose images “include human figures,…birds,fish,insects….buildings and bricks,stones and mountains,the sea and sky.” quote from Pg 2245 of the Vitamin D2 book): again the desire to incorporate a human element representing the past in my final image was stimulkated by Jorge Querioz’z drawings.

Image photographed from book “Vitamin D2 New Perspectives in Drawing 2013 ” pagePublished by Phaidon Press  ISBN

Untitled 2011 Gouache and coloured pencil on paper by Jorge Queiroz

Stages of the final image:

1)    

2)I think I preferred the image before I darkened the background??

The final collage which I felt was a picture in itself also inspired by Kandinsky, was made by drawing and then collaging the drawings:

Collage frees the elements of a picture -I can move shapes and colours to reorganise the image, I can chose to have backgrounds or not and I can develop space by overlaying the pieces. I can observe the contrast or harmony of colours and shapes before they are committed to paper.  This final image in the collage incorporates the seed pods of Honesty and Ash against an abstracted backrgound of dried leaves, the hands of neolithic men are abstracted to leaf forms and the seeds of new life dot about the image. I love its activity and colour and the meanings I have managed to incorporate. Because of the collaged pieces the images are very defined and I prefer them to blend with their background.

few smaller images made with collage:

Reflections on the final assignment 5 What to do?

Reflecting on previous exercises through the course:

I particularly enjoyed the landscape and outdoor drawing (part 3) probably because the nice weather allowed me to sit outside and I looked at and emulated a variety of artists.

I discovered Oriental drawing and have found much of the work I like is emanating from the hand of artists of modern Oriental origin such as Ryoko Aoki ref:and Nobuya Hoki  ref:  https://bemilne.wordpress.com/category/coursework/part-three-drawing-outdoors/    both of whom use delicate line in their production of images. I have discovered this again in the work of Friedrich Kunath in the new Vitamin D2 New Perspectives in drawing book.

I produced a few successful drawings in  monochrome ink using Ugo Ronidone and Van Gogh as inspiration. These I liked for two different reasons, the Ugo Ronidone image because of the care and time put into the drawing of a simple bush of leaves. This image has good contrasts between fore and background and good negative space. It feels both fussy and calm and accomplished ref: https://bemilne.wordpress.com/category/coursework/part-three-drawing-outdoors/ I like my emulation of the Van Gogh image  (in “plotting space through composition” section) ref:https://bemilne.wordpress.com/category/coursework/part-three-drawing-outdoors/ )    because of the variety of marks which serve to separate background from foreground and produce confusion.  Ryoko Aoki’s influence appears again in “plotting space” as I convert the view across the field, through the fence to a simple felt tip image. This is jolly but benign and somehow grates on my eyes, perhaps there is just too much going on. (ref:https://bemilne.wordpress.com/category/coursework/part-three-drawing-outdoors/)

I also loved  drawing sitting in the grass in the orchard and in the meadow,  both images full of fuss and colour ,   with Ugo Ronidone in mind in the orchard drawing and the meadow without influence, but an experimentation in mark making. I am unsure if I agree with my tutor that the sky is unfinished-I think it is in keeping with the dotty/dashy feel of the drawing.    (ref:https://bemilne.wordpress.com/category/coursework/part-three-drawing-outdoors/project-drawing-trees/)

Townscapes were less successful. I am unhappy with people around, feeling I need to draw more quickly. Also, the duller colours and less interesting forms compared to nature are less inspiring. Lowry is good but I have never been completely inspired by his dull grim images, liking them only because of their relative humour and their depiction of home in the North West.

Although I’d love to draw outside in  the winter -I find it difficult to sit in the cold and the potential of rain  washing me away.  Do I take photos and then draw from them? I am not keen on that

Hence, I have decided to concentrate on Part Two Observation in Nature and see what I can do with simple winter plants, particularly seed pods and crumpled leaves.

This was not a very successful project at the time I first attemtped it, mainly I think, because I had no books or advise on artists to research, to guide my drawings. However I enjoyed using dots and stipples and find they produce a light-hearted atmosphere. (But I am constantly reminding myself of the many other marks that help depict an image. I liked the drawing ( with Passmore in mind) of the vegetables on the table –swirling lines producing a landscape as much as a kitchen scene.   (ref:  https://bemilne.wordpress.com/category/coursework/part-two-observation-in-nature/page/2/)

I did not like drawing animals. They move too much and they have little colour compared to fruit and flowers . Also, depicting character through image is certainly not (as yet) a forte but it is something I need to work on.

This was equally so with section 4, “drawing the figure” I like the curves of the figure and perhaps should have attacked the images with more colour and varying marks to produce greater inspiration. I enjoy sketching little thumbnails of people whilst sitting in cafes or stations but I can’t see these ever developing  into larger pictures except as part of colour based socially descriptive “scapes” of my local surroundings. Capturing thoughts and character, I feel are something on which I should work.

What I did like about figure drawing, were the folds of fabric and the colours of clothing. I discovered Toulouse Lautrec who uses clothing as part of the overall social image and Leon Bakst whose costume designs for the Russian ballet had some of the feel of the natural worlds colour and shapes (in the twisting positions of the figures) .  ref: https://bemilne.wordpress.com/category/research-and-reflection/artists-researched-on-web-or-books/leon-bakst-artists-researched-on-web-or-books/

Self portraits gave greater option to look at other artists in a more private environment and so develop ideas a little more, but I was still not as enthused as much as by nature, partly because the image is so “enclosed” an entity and it is so difficult to get a likeness as the human brain is so atuned to the minor nuances of the figure and face. This is an area I do need to practice.

Therefore my aim for project five is to study the plants of winter

The most successful and enjoyable images produced from “part two Observation in Nature” were those of the fruit and vegetables hatched in colour. I am very fond of colour and particularly strong colours-but here I used the subtle pencil crayons or felt tip to depict bananas and apples in unusual relation to each other and to the paper

ref : https://bemilne.wordpress.com/category/coursework/part-two-observation-in-nature/page/2/

Although I feel I am not “good” at composition, I have always been fond of the ASKEW, the IRREGULAR in composition  .

I would like to venture into the final assignment from the aspect of nature, to research more artists in this area and to use the dry and discoloured plants of winter.

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ASSIGNMENT FIVE

USE CLOSE OBSERVATION / REFLECT ON WHAT ATTRACTS YOU/EXPLORE CHARACTERISTICS AND STRUCTURES OF NATURAL FORMS////USE TECHNIQUES TO EXPRESS WHAT YOU SEE//experiment with a variety of media//

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So, Thinking about the subject for the final assignment

During an early morning walk, I took some pictures, the sun had a pinkish wintry hue, the red winter trees were glowing in this light.trying to capture( by manual control of the camera settings), the colours, the soft warmness and the silence of this morning, but it was too dark to see with a camera what the eye could see.

Of note the light histogram of the photo showed graphical grouping at the very light and the very dark polar ends of the spectrum. I know I often draw this deep contrast in tones e.g black against bright colour and am obviously attracted to contrasts.

What struck me most that in this pink glow were the seed pods of the Honesty flower (the siliculae) .They were shinning silvery white, nestling under the trees .I have used these plants before for two winter pictures, one in collage and one in oil. I seem to have a fascination for their frailty, their shiny white ,silver grey irregular colour, their crispiness , their beautiful flat and rounded shapes and the manner in which they are collected in crowded irreguklar groups on the stems.

Could I reproduce the colours of this morning and the peaceful warm feel?

The honesty seeds remind me of the delicacy of lace and the soft shininess of silk or velvet.

I have decided that because of my love of lace and delicate patterns I should look at lace to help with the final drawing of these honesty seeds.

New Life in a pod

I also remember that one of my pictures of the seed pods in the past highlighted the presence of two seeds beneath the silvery tissue membrane of the pod and reminded me of  foetal twins nestled in the uterus protected from the outside and wondered if I could bring in the medical world to the final drawing or at least a feeling of the development of new life.

What is the best way to depict  something so delicate as portrayed by the frailty of the seed pod and by the implication of new life emerging from the dark and relatively lifeless protection of the womb? Perhaps the seeds are delicate and the pod stronger in its protection than it appears.

How could I depict these life protecting pods?

Looking at modern artists as depicted in the books :” Vitamin D New perspectives in Drawing” and  “Drawing Now Between the lines of contemporary art”  I return to the Japanese artists  Ryoko Aoki (Ref:  http://uk.images.search.yahoo.com/search/images?_adv_prop=image&fr=mcafee&va=Ryoko+Aoki+drawings )

and( a more recent finding of),Nanako Kawaguchi  (ref:http://www.jerwoodvisualarts.org/nanako)

the gentle colours and delicate sketches of Michael Landy’s drawings (ref: http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/landy-common-groundsel-2-p78733)

What media would satisfy the feel of silence, delicacy —fine, hard pencil, fine pen and ink, coloured pencils -perhaps some chalks or conte? What colour the paper?  White or tinted pink–too twee? Could I incorporate the use of silver on pen?

How could I produce a feeling of life protected -with a hint into human life?Or does  this route seem too descriptive.

What about the background of leaves being made up of images of hands of children like the prehistoric drawings? would that be too “tacky”?

Perhaps I should stay in the realm of delicate pattern and colour.

I have also recently been to Germany and  visited lots of art galleries . One individual  (Jiri Kolar) fascinated me by his obsessiveness. He cut up  paper into small pieces and put them back together in images …this could be a way of representing lace? ref:  https://bemilne.wordpress.com/2013/12/15/jiri-kolar-artrist-in-collage/

Other artists I have recently found that I wish to emulate in one form or another in the final assignment:

Caroline Ali  ref:  http://www.rbsa.org.uk/members-associates/members/view/9/Caroline-Ali/

I love the way she has used small insects in multiple images to produce a delicate pattern which is more artistic than biological . Her images are very light and delicate with minimal delicate colouring. I note in some of her images she uses silver ink (which is an idea I had had in the drawing of the very silky seed pods) as well as light graphite, black ink and watercolour.

Georgia O’ Keefe (ref:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Georgia_O%27Keeffe,_1915.jpg) 

What I love about Georgia O’ Keefe’s images is the manner in which she focuses on an area of a plant to produce an abstraction but retaining an organic feel. I also admire her use of colours which compliment and enhance but do not describe detail, and of her flowing organic shapes