Showing posts with label botanical. Show all posts
Showing posts with label botanical. Show all posts

Friday, August 19, 2011

Found: a treasure trove of botanicals


A few weeks ago, I posted the collage "Lila's Magical Night Garden" and noted that it contained a tiny section of a lithograph from a John Lewis Childs seed catalog. I was hoarding the plate, because it was one of only two in my archive. Well, that all changed with a fantastic find this week. Read more about it on the Paper With a Past blog and view five more of the 40 plates that are now mine!

Friday, May 20, 2011

Lila's magical night garden


After starting this piece, I came to the realization that I need more color botanicals. Adding them to my flea market list. This started as an ordinary daytime scene but changed once I found the evening sky - a page proof from a children's picture book received back in the day when I wrote a syndicated children's book review column, and proof that I never throw anything out.

Speaking of that, the flowers are mostly from recycled publisher catalog covers, except for the small red fuschias that are about to bloom - they were snipped from a damaged color engraving in John Lewis Childs Catalogue of 1887 (below). It's the only page I have from any of his catalogs, which were renowned for their artwork, so it's precious. I'm parceling out the rest of the spectacular illustration in a number of pieces. 9.5" x 7.5" on archival mat board with pencil, ink and watercolor {SOLD}