Where does your inspiration come from?
In her new book, The Tapestry of Life: A Botanical Artist's Miscellany, Susan Christopher-Coulson shares with us the sources of inspiration for creating her botanical artworks, from gorgeous single plant studies to her well-known ‘collections’.
Reviewed by Mary Crabtree, Botanical Artist and ABA Education Team Member
I first saw Susan Christopher-Coulson’s work in 2019 in the Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art exhibit at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art at Kew Gardens. Her depiction of a collection of winter-hardy flowering plants stopped me in my tracks! First, because of the variety of plants and how masterfully the painting was composed, and second because it was in coloured pencil. I had only begun learning to work in coloured pencil and I was thrilled to see the exquisite detail and range of shapes and colours Susan had achieved in this medium.
I later learned that while Susan is known for her collection artworks, each of which is incredible, she also creates beautiful, single-specimen images that are equally stunning. I adore daylilies and Susan’s image of this bold, richly-coloured daylily is perfect in every detail!
And her depiction of Sweet Peas is not only precise and botanically correct, it is elegantly composed, the colours are luscious and... it makes me smile!
The Tapestry of Life: A Botanical Artist's Miscellany is the fourth book in a series of Botanical Art Portfolios, edited by Julia Trickey and published by Two Rivers Press. Each book in the series features a distinguished botanical artist, showcasing their work as well as offering insight into their inspiration and process. This book does just that. Susan shares with us how she came to botanical art, what influences affected the development of her personal style, and where she finds inspiration.
The concept of Susan’s artwork journey as a tapestry is carried through the book as she offers insight into the warp, weft and thread that influenced her practice. For example, she says:
“In weaving, the warp thread provides the strength in the textile. So I have used this to represent the natural world, which is probably my strongest source of inspiration and also my earliest.”
Likewise she says that drawing has been an unbreakable thread in her artistic life and that design and making have been the weft.
Like many botanical artists, Susan says she is ‘incapable of returning from a walk … without a collection of found objects.’ These collected treasures have led to many of her best-known artworks. She talks about her collection artworks throughout the book, and there are many wonderful images included. She goes into more detail in the section on Composition, sharing the process of composing these often-complex groupings, always looking at the balance of shapes and colours.
There is a valuable discussion of cropping and how it can affect the movement and intensity of a composition. The most dramatic example of this is her Parrot Tulips and Wallflowers image which gives the viewer a ‘worms-eye view’ of the plants.
I was also interested to read Susan’s thoughts on the use of cast shadows in botanical artwork. Many of her images include cast shadows, particularly her ‘scattering’ compositions where she finds the inclusion of the subjects’ cast shadows ‘will often emphasise their shapes and volumes, as well as make them appear to ‘sit’ on the paper.’
In the section on Finding Inspiration, Susan lists many historical figures in the botanical art world who influenced her developing practice. Lesser-known artists that were new to me, such as Giovanna Garzoni and Alexander Marshall, are discussed along with well-known masters including Georg Dionysius Ehret, the Bauer brothers, Charles Rennie Mackintosh and the more contemporary Raymond Booth and Rory McEwan. Many of these have inspired specific artworks by Susan, including her images of roses, Rembrandt tulips and the series of fourteen individual Alpine Primula auricula images for which she won a Royal Horticultural Society Gold Medal in 2001.
This is not primarily a ‘how to’ book, but there is a Studio Spotlight section in which Susan shares her preferred ‘Tools of the Trade’, including an informative discussion of coloured pencil types and brands, paper choices and other equipment. I found the image comparing 12 different pencil brands on 18 different papers very interesting and useful! Although I found myself wishing the book offered more of Susan’s process, it does include one Step-by-Step lesson on drawing a tulip in coloured pencil. This lesson lists specific pencil colours/brands to use along with detailed instructions accompanying images of the stages of the drawing from start to finish.
Susan concludes the book with guidance offered by her father when she would collect flowers on her childhood walks: ‘always to leave some for others to enjoy and to allow the plant to continue into the next season.’ Good advice for those of us who cannot resist collecting!
I have thoroughly enjoyed reading Tapestry of Life, learning about Susan's more than 25 year career as a professional botanical artist and marvelling at the numerous images it contains of Susan’s amazing body of work. I will certainly revisit it regularly and I recommend it for your botanical art bookshelf!
Author Biography
Susan Christopher-Coulson is an award-winning botanical artist and tutor. She has been awarded two Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Gold Medals (1999, 2001), as well as awards from the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists, the Society of Floral Painters and the Society of Botanical Artists (SBA), where she was vice president for eight years. Her artworks are held in private collections in the UK and abroad, as well as in the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art collection at Kew Gardens, the RHS Lindley Library and the archive of The Florilegium at Sheffield Botanical Gardens. An experienced teacher, Susan was the SBA Distance Learning Diploma Course coloured pencil tutor for several years.
To purchase this book: Published by Two Rivers Press, ISBN: 978-1-915048-03-5, https://tworiverspress.com/shop/the-tapestry-of-life/. Also available internationally online and in bookshops.
Thank you Mary for this review! I shall hop online now to get a copy for myself. Congratulations to Susan as well. Her work is beautiful.