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As a “plant parent” of twelve years, life sciences nerd, and artist who gravitates toward portraiture more than landscape, I am interested in the idea of creating botanical paintings in the style of traditional portraiture, basing each composition on a specific plant genus that I am interested in researching. This series begins with this painting, “Botanical Portrait 1: Hoya”, and continues with an exploration of various non-aroid epiphytic genera. With this painting series, I portray plants as the stars of the show rather than the backdrop for animals, and I do it in a way that begs to be hung on a home wall or in a gallery instead confining the plants to the stuffiness of an encyclopedia illustration. While stylistically inspired by 18th-century portraiture, this painting series appeals to modern aesthetic sensibilities through use of popping color and the contrast of high detail and graphic sleekness.
The stars of this portrait-sitting, moving clockwise starting from the purple flowers on the far left, are: Hoya macgillivrayi, Hoya burtoniae, Hoya callistophylla, Hoya polynuera, and Hoya sigillatis.