“Both plants and art need light, both actual and spiritual, to grow. In this show, we are representing how plants have changed throughout our planet’s evolutionary history and how clay can depict various kinds of ever-evolving repetitions and growth.”
It was very exciting to have my watercolor paintings in a show along with ceramics by Anne Ray at the Eye on the Mountain Gallery at 222 Delgado Street, Santa Fe, NM. https://www.facebook.com/visionaryfineart/ in April 2023
Just as human families and communities grow in different ways, plants have many strategies they use to
reproduce and propagate. For this show, I wanted to explore how these have changed throughout our
planet’s evolutionary history. I chose plants representative of several taxonomic groups that I feel give a
good overall picture of this story, from four-hundred million year old liverworts to “new fangled”
flowering plants. At the same time, I also love to imagine a fantasy world where tiny people live in and
among these plants, and some of my pictures show snippets of how I imagine their lives to be. All the
paintings are done in watercolor and pen.
somthing pluggin Anne’s website
Take a look at my work for this show below:
Bryophytes: nonvascular plants
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Evolved 400 million years ago
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No true stems, leaves, or roots
Bryophytes were some of the first plants to make the transition from water to land. They are sometimes called the amphibians of the plant world because they are restricted to wet places where they can reproduce and absorb water though their tissues.
Umbrella Liverwort: Marchantia polymorpha
Liverworts are named because the main, lobed body of the plant, the thallus, resembled that organ. Looking closely, you can see individual cells that each have an open pore for gas exchange.
“Rolling hills of green”
Antheridiophores (sperm producing structures) rise out of the undulating green thallus of this liverwort.
This picture also shows two asexual reproductive structures, gemmae cups, that catch splashing raindrops to disperse bundles of cloned tissue (gemmae) that can grow into new plants.
Original is already sold
“Liverwort life stages”
In the wet environment these liverworts are restricted to, free swimming sperm finds its way to the ovules located in the lobes of these reproductive structures, archegoniophores, shown here are different stages of maturity.
Buy the original
Purchase prints
I decided I don’t like the roatating picture its really distracting and I want just he one pic and these links and then when you click them it brings you to the page I am making with the details and more pictures
Original painting: watercolor, gouache, pen…..10.25×14″…..$200 please email me at rosy@rosebuttons.art if you are interested in purchasing this piece
The original painting is done in watercolor, gouache and pen, 10.25×14
Purchasing:
To purchase the original or prints please send me an email at rosy@rosebuttons.art and let me know your name, address and what you’re interested in. I’ll send you a payment link and ship the piece to you!
Prints of this painting:
These prints are crisp and colorful, reproduced in three sizes on high quality textured paper. They come ready for framing.
5×7″ print …$7
8×10″ print…$10
11×14″ print…$15
Shop this design on Society6 – You can buy prints, t-shirts, stickers and many other fun print on demand products with this design from my shop on Society6 shop!
“Laughter on a rainy day”
I imagined two sisters caught in a rainstorm while playing outdoors, running under the cover of the umbrella shaped antheridiophore (sperm producing structure) of the aptly named Umbrella liverwort.
Bryophyta: Mosses
Mosses have structures similar to stems and leaves, but no true roots, absorbing water through their tissue and from thin structures called rhizoids. They most likely evolved from an ancestor of green algae.
“Flowerless and flourishing”
While perhaps less showy than a flower, fertilized eggs grow right out of the parent plant into slender ‘sporophytes’ that open to release spores that then grow into new plants. While both grow into new plants, spores are not seeds, they are much smaller – less than 50 micrometers!
“Stalks reach skyward”
Spore producing structures, ‘sporophytes,’ rise gracefully out of a thick bed of moss, only a few centimeters high these relatively tall stalks give the spores a chance to be caught by the wind and travel to a new spot where they can grow. (They remind me of tiny giraffes with very long necks).
art prints with this design
Pteridophyta: Ferns
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Evolved 360 million years ago
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New innovations: vascular tissue- true leaves and stems
Once abundant in prehistoric forests, ferns are leafy understory plants that grow well in partial shade, and use spores to reproduce and have no flowers, fruits, or seeds.
“Leaves dividing”
Ferns grow specialized fertile fronds that produce spores, which are dispersed by the wind to grow into new, genetically distinct plants. In addition to reproducing sexually with spores, many ferns can also reproduce vegetatively by growing new shoots out of creeping underground stems, called rhisomes.
“Spiraling shoots”
Ferns require water to reproduce and alternate between generations of the spore producing ‘sporophyte’, the leafy plant we recognize as ferns, and the tiny gamete The first curled leaf of sporophyte grows directly out of the gametophyte.
art prints with this design
“Delicate fronds creep through stone”
As shown by this maidenhair spleenwort, Asplenium trichomanes, ferns exhibit a characteristic growth pattern with all fronds connecting to a central base.
art prints with this design
“Furled fronds”
Growing first as tight coils, leaflets unfold as fern fronds mature, a perfect example of fractals in nature.
art prints with this design
“Fern maiden”
This fern fairy was inspired by the maiden hair fern, named for the appearance of it’s delicate black stipes (leaf stem).
art prints with this design
Gymnosperms: 'naked' seed plants
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Evolved 390 million years ago
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New innovations: roots, seeds, sperm dispersed by pollen
In the evolutionary history of plants, the gymnosperms were some of the first to develop seeds. From the greek ‘Gymnos’ – naked, and ‘sperma’ – seed, the name reflects how these seeds develop in the ‘open,’ not inside a flower/fruit.
Maiden hair tree, Ginkgo biloba
Ginkgos, often called ‘living fossils,’ are the only remaining species of their genus that was abundant in the cretaceous period and have changed little since then. Ginkgo seeds are protected within a fleshy coating that resembles, but technically is not, a fruit. The The Japanese name ‘ginkyo’ derived from the Chinese ‘yin’ – silver, and ‘hing’ – apricot, references the fruit-like appearance of these seeds.
“Silhouetted by sunlight”
Two friends sitting on the branch of a ginkgo tree in the sun. The sun shines through the bright two-lobed leaves of the tree, creating silhouetted shadows. The tree shown here is a male ginko tree, species Ginko bioloba, the cone like structures are called strobili and produce pollen which travels by wind to the female trees.
art prints with this design
“Wind blown pollen”
In lieu of animal pollinators and flowers, ginkgo trees rely on wind to facilitate sexual reproduction. Ginkgo ovules secrete drops of liquid, ‘pollination drops.’
art prints with this design
Two needle piñon, Pinus edulis
Cone-bearing, evergreen, and resilient, pinons are an important part of the ecosystem in semi arid woodlands of the southwestern united states.
“Taking root”
Strong roots and resource conserving adaptations allow gymnosperms to survive in unlikely places.
art prints with this design
“Beginnings”
The needles of pine trees are actually modified leaves; reduced surface area and a waxy coating makes these trees more resistant to extreme temperatures and drought.
art prints with this design
“Seeds within”
Pine ‘nuts’ are an edible seed; While a spore is only one cell, a seed is the embryo of a new plant, packed safely inside a protective seed coat with a bit of energy to get it going.
art prints with this design
Angiosperms: flowering plants
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Evolved 145 million years ago – pretty recently!
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New innovations: flowers, fruits
In the span of plant evolution, flowering plants evolved relatively recently, and have flourished into the most abundant (90% ) plant group on earth. From the greek ‘angeion’ – ‘container/vessel’ and ‘sperma’- seed, their name describes how the seeds of these plants develop within flowers as they mature into fruits.
Spider plant, Chlorophytum comosum
A ground cover in their native habitat of South Africa, spider plants are a member of the asparagus family, and have delicate white of yellow insect pollinated flowers that grow into small fruits containing seeds.
“We grow together”
This forest fairy city was inspired by vegetative growth pattern of spider plants, I imagined the city growing along with the plant, each tending to and supporting the other.
art prints with this design
“Connections and growth”
Co-evolution between animal pollinators and flowering plants may have contributed to the explosion of new angiosperm species in our planet’s recent evolutionary history.
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“Support and nourishment”
Connected to their parent plant by slender stolons, new plantlets get a head start on growth until they are established and can sustain themselves.
art prints with this design
Asteraceae: composite / daisy flower family
Deriving their name from the latin ‘astar’ – star, composite flowers typically have a center made of myriad small ‘disk’ flowers surrounded by larger ‘ray’ flowers, working together to catch the attention of pollinators.
“Lives in harmony”
While animals, or fairies, can collect sweet nectar and protein-rich pollen from flowers, the plants in turn benefit as these pollinators transfer the pollen necessary to grow fertile seeds.
art prints with this design
“Symbiosis”
The ‘disk’ flowers in the center of this sunflower provide a perfect place for pollinating insects to land while collecting pollen and nectar.
art prints with this design
“In the shade”
My personal favorite flower, the dandelion, makes a nice resting spot for this fairy.
art prints with this design
“Blossoms beckoning”
These brightly colored flowers are from the apricot tree in my yard; their color, shape, and scent all advertise to pollinating insects, they ‘want’ to be noticed and visited so they can be fertilized and grow fruit later in the season.
art prints with this design
Thank you for having a look at my pieces, I’m so grateful to be able to share my art. The work for this show is a blend of my interests and is really special to me: natural biology, all the little details of how the world around us works, and the magic I can see in it all.