SOLD 1003 Passion Flower Bits

Botanical Illustration. Artist Code: 1003. Completed December 2009. Original SOLD. Water colour on Aquarelle Arches 100% hot pressed cotton rag paper. Unframed size 12” x 16”. Framed Size 18” x 22”.

Passion Flower, Passiflora cerulia.

This painting was selected and exhibited at the Society of Botanical Artists 25th Anniversary Exhibition, Great Westminster Hall, London, April 2010, where it won a Certificate of Botanical Merit (CBM). It was also featured in the March 2010 issue of Artists & Illustrators Magazine as “Image of the Month” in thePortfolio section.

The reason behind the name of this painting, which took two years to complete, is twofold: it is composed of bits of the plant and they come at different times of the year; and my original resource plant was dug up and thrown away by the next year, so I had to find another of the same species to complete it! Fortunately, one that had been sown in our garden many years ago which we thought had gone, actually sprung up in our neighbour’s garden and grew through our bordering fence. I think you will agree, all parts of this propulsive climber have their own special beauty. There are many varieties of this plant, and I think this one is the most common in British gardens.

Poem:

Passion Flower Bits, Planted near our boundary fence
Migrated to a neighbour’s, whence, It promptly left
our fencing bare, We could only stand and share
It’s beauty with our neighbour’s gaze—
Foundations for our friendship lays.

I painted fruit and buds galore,
I thought perhaps there should be more,
But Judge in Show at SBA,
Said “It’s lovely in this way.”
She gave the piece a seal of merit,
Botanical Certificate I did inherit.