“Convalaria majalis, var. rosea” won the “Best Botanical Award” at the Blossom Art of Flowers competition put on by the Susan Kathleen Black Foundation in Naples, Florida. The painting will be part of a traveling exhibition during the coming year.   “Digitalis purpurea and Digitalis lutea” was selected to be shown in the exhibit, “GREEN CURRENCY: Plants in the Economy” at the New York Botanical Garden, in conjunction with the American Society of Botanical Artists (ASBA). The exhibit consists of 43 stunningly detailed depictions by some of the world’s most accomplished botanical artists.

 

THE PAINTER

Red Poppymilly acharya has lived in Ithaca, New York, for over 20 years. She is inspired by local flora as well as tropical plants from India where she grew up. She celebrates their glory in watercolor, delighting the eye and gladdening the heart long after the bloom has faded.

Her Lathyrus odoratus (Sweetpea) received the award for best painting in the eighth New York annual exhibit of the Horticultural Society and American Society of Botanical Artists; Tropaeolum majus (Nasturtium) received the Jury’s Award for Excellence at the Houston Museum of Natural Science in March 2007; Kniphofia uvaria won the Best of Show award at the 2008 HSNY/ASBA exhibition.

Stated below is her approach to the work she loves:


STATEMENT

As a botanical illustrator I aim at complete and accurate documentation of the plant specimen I’ve chosen to portray and to communicate this information to the viewer.
The challenge is to saturate the image with detail pertinent to every phase of botanical development—buds and seedpods, stems and roots, leaves and bracts—and every feature counts as equally important in the final portrait.

I work exclusively with live specimens, investigating form, structure, texture and distinctive characteristics which determine the shape of my chronicle. To preserve the vitality and immediacy of the ever-mutatable living plant, I start directlly with paint on paper, without preliminary sketches or drawing, entrusting the inherent grace of the botanical subject to communicate its own aesthetic power and its natural design to compose my work.

The work is done mainly by the eye, aided by magnifying lenses. I peek and probe and discover many a hidden secret concealed beneath the surface. The vascularity of leaves and petals, the units within a cluster are counted, mapped and numbered in order to understand structure, texture & source of color. I detect worlds within worlds and the journey within is always an adventure—entrancing, delightful, endlessly fascinating.

Where the brush, the hand & the eye meet the plant & honor its brief moment of glory, that is where the painting happens and when my own pleasure in such enthralling work communicates itself to you, the viewer, then the plant form is truly celebrated!

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