Picture Profile 2007: Epilobium hirsutum (Great hairy willowherb, Codlins and Cream)
Artist Code 2007. Epilobium hirsutum. (Great Hairy Willowherb, or Codlins and Cream). Water colour on Aquarelle Arches 100% cotton paper 140lb. 12″ x 9″. Completed 20th April 2020 (50 Limited Edition prints)
This painting could also be called “Four water-droplets” or even “White-tailed Bumblebee”, but as it is a colour plate (Fig. 26b) produced for book 4 in the River Friend Series I am co-authoring and illustrating with Sylvia M. Haslam entitled “INTERPRET: What do Plants tell us?”, I felt it better to keep with the botanical name.
The live material for this painting was easy because it grows in my little wild garden, and I often see white-tailed bumble bees buzzing about and have taken my own resource photographs of these too.
All aquatic plant species which live along and in the rivers and streams are extremely good indicators of the health and wealth of a waterway and the River Friend Series of little books is intended to help anyone interested in rivers to understand how important are the plants and how, for instance, they are affected by pollution and by the water source drying up. There will be around 17 titles published in time. Please visit the River Friend Website for a list of the latest published titles.
