Composition: Dealing with Tall Plants

When botanical artists are faced with the task of illustrating, tall or large plants, it is not always practical -or advisable -to paint the specimen in its entirety. Doing so can result in a leggy composition or large areas of empty white space, making the artwork feel disjointed. Instead, the artists' task is to arrange the various parts of the plant in a way that remains botanically accurate while creating a more compact and visually pleasing composition.

A number of strategies can help achieve this. Most commonly, artists use visual cropping and the overlapping of elements to make better use of the available space. As illustrated with my foxglove example below, this approach also allows many parts of the plant to be painted life-size rather than reducing the scale of the entire specimen. That said, scaling down is sometimes necessary-particularly when depicting trees.

When creating work for a publication or a florilegium, the dimensions of the illustration are usually predetermined. This requires careful planning and creativity in arranging the plant effectively within the given space. I have photographed a few images from some of my book collection - to show you some examples.

A simple cut stem and overlap, allows this foxglove to be painted life size. Digitalis purpurea (L.), on vellum by Dianne Sutherland, 2010. Size: 48 x 31 cm. Note that the stem cuts must match up.

Much can be learned from the old Masters and great botanical artists, and you would be wise to study their work in detail. For example, Pierre-Joseph Redoute (1757 - 1840), used many cut stems and overlaps in his illustrations, such as in this Kniphofia sarmentosa.

Kniphofia sarmentosa (Andrews) Knuth, by Redoute. Thé simple cut shortens the height of the composition and reduces unnecessarily large areas of white space. He ties the elements together beautifully with the leaf behind the stem. Also, note the cut leaves which reduces the width of the illustration and also shows the viewer the profile of the leaf.

Hymenocallis caribaea (L.) by Redoute. Another cut stem and a leaf crop at the right-hand side of the composition. The leaves are shown in full on the left, and the arrangement from the bulb and around the stem is clear to see, so there is no need to illustrate all leaves in full . The right-hand crop has been used to reduce the width of the composition, allowing a more focused and attractive illustration. The use of good light and shade between the stem and leaves is essential to prevent the parts merging, and even though the foliage and stem are dark the subtle use of light creates a clear division between parts.

We also commonly see cutting, overlapping and cropping in the Orchidaceae family, the reason being than many tropical orchids have long stems and large leaves, if they are illustrated without cropping the page can lack focus ans detail and can have too much white space.

Some of the most famous orchid illustrations, many of which use cropping and overlapping, can be found in James Bateman's 19th century huge folio book, the Orchidaceae of Mexico and Guetemala. Illustrations were completed by Mrs Withers (Augusta Innes Withers 1792-1877) and Miss Drake (Sarah Anne Drake 1803- 1857). This link will tell you more about Mrs Withers and will lead you to the entire book collection.

James Bateman (1811-1897) had a large collection of orchids from all over the world, specialising in the South Americas, his specialised glasshouses at Biddulph Grange in Staffordshire was one of the most extraordinary Victorian gardens ever created, you can still visit the garden today but sadly the glasshouses and orchids are no more.

Frontispiece to Bateman's publication, published 1843.

Illustration by Miss Drake, from Batemans Orchidaceae of Mexico and Guetemala. A beautiful cut stem composition, showing the pseudobulbs behind the stunning flower. Note also the use of line and tone in the composition. One area with a pseudobulb is already painted in colour- so, there was no need to paint all of them. Bear in mind that many illustrators of plants had strict time constraints and various clever strategies were used, which enabled them to make many illustrations from life.

Mrs Withers illustration from Bateman's Orchidaceae of Mexico and Guatemala. A classic cut stem composition, there the flower stem is positioned in front to reduce the overall height and unnecessary white space -just imagine how this would look if the stem was attached and how much white space their would be!

Next, I refer to one of my favourite artists, Pandora Sellars (1936 - 2020), who made great use of cropping and overlaying of parts, and most importantly with clever use of light and shade to create separation between those overlapping parts.

Some of her best examples are found in the 1987 publication, The Genus Paphiopedilum by Phillip Cribb, A kew Magazine Monograph. If you can find a copy of this book in the library, it's worth a look. Or click here to see Katherine Tyrells blog, she has a wonderful page dedicated to Pandora

The front cover with illustration by Pandora Sellars, a effective and beautiful way of making best use of space

I hope this post has given you some useful ideas for composing larger plants and encouraged you to explore different ways of arranging them on the page.