Official Tree

This is a coral tree (or Erythrina), the official tree of the City of Los Angeles. Once you know that, you will notice that they often are planted at city and county buildings. The finest collection is on San Vicente Boulevard; it is a landmark. I painted this in a botanical illustration workshop at the Huntington Library with Lisa Pompelli, the resident artist. It would be a decent guide if you needed to build one of these trees from scratch. Botanical art is insanely detailed to do, but it can be be relaxing and peaceful. It's a bit like yoga in a number of ways, one of which is that I don't have the attention span necessary to do it by myself.

Tomatoes and their pests

I painted this when I was starting to be serious about painting with watercolors, and not just using them because they were around and they were quick. I had a book I purchased at the Art Institute in Chicago about painting with watercolors. I think I had live tomatoes, but looking at leaves, I have my doubts. Then I painted the worm. Of all the world's creatures, they are among my favorites. They delighted me through my childhood, when I didn't care for tomatoes. I haven't actually seen one since; I know they are out there, because I hear people complain, but for all my recent organically grown tomato crops, I've seen not a single worm. I'll keep trying. If I am unsuccessful in luring the moths, at least I'll have lovely fresh tomatoes.

Oenothera speciosa

This is a new painting of evening primroses. And a bee. I'm not sure this is exactly how I'm going to crop it - there's more of the painting on both sides, but not too much happening there. The rock in the corner isn't part of the painting.

I'm thinking about entering this in a botanical art show, and while it surely qualifies by it's subject matter, I'm not sure it qualifies on technical grounds. For one thing, it's blown up several times larger than life. The bee is about the size of a small mouse. The foliage may lack sufficient detail. Botanical art is essentially scientific illustration. I think you're supposed to be able to use it to build an evening primrose plant if you don't already have one.