DRAWING FROM LIFE

More than 50 artists, international and local, set out to illustrate the theme in media ranging from copper etchings and scraperboard to pencil, paint, pastel, pen and ink.

This was not just a question of picking a stem from a suitable plant and taking it back to the studio.

“You need to draw things when you see them,” says internationally acclaimed artist Gillian Condy.

“You have to make a connection with the plant and get to know it, preferably over several seasons if you’re painting the fruit as well. It makes all the difference if you can do this in the wild, when you have the opportunity. You learn so much more about a plant when you can study it in its natural habitat.

“Immersing yourself in the same surroundings – the same sun and wind as the plant – and watching the insects and pollinators enable you to return to the studio with a really strong image of the plant in your mind. But, of course, that’s not always possible. Then I look for a growing plant in a botanical garden, as I did this year for the Markhamia, and work from that.”

Gauteng-based artist Jenny Hyde-Johnson was inspired by the region where she lives, north of Johannesburg in the Cradle of Humankind.

“This biennale’s theme prompted me to seek out plants utilised by the ancients who once lived among these very same hills. Hunting was integral to their survival, so I chose four lethal arrow-poison plants from the area, two of which were also used to treat snakebites.”

She spent more than a year researching the plants she chose to paint, tracking down specimens in the veld, drawing and taking numerous photographs.

“I was also thrilled that the brief included symbiotic relationships between plants and other creatures. Long before those early hunters, the butterflies and moths that I have included in my paintings used these specific plants as hosts, and absorption of the toxic plant poisons has ensured their survival to the present day.”