I couldn't stand the squash floating on the middle of the page, so I washed in the surface shadows where the dishtowel will be to anchor them.

Tuesday was the second day of painting on this project, and I added quite a bit of detail to the “cap” of the Turk’s cap squash.

I found that straight yellow ochre came in handy for some of the shading on the yellow Delicata squash and the Little Gem. Shadows on the Turk’s “cap” are sepia with yellow ochre, and sepia, yellow ochre and ultramarine blue.

I believe this is a maple leaf of an adapted or Texas-native species. If you can identify it, please leave a comment!

Autumn doesn’t really get going in Houston until after Thanksgiving. Although delayed, our Gulf Coast autumn had a nice little display of colorful leaves—before much-needed rains pelted them to the ground and turned them brown.

I found this leaf shortly after New Year’s Day while walking around my neighborhood. My guess is this is some type of a maple, or Acer, species. I observed something interesting during my walks: The leaves of post and pin oaks don’t fall from the tree until they are fully brown and dry, unlike some of the other trees here.

Painting the shadow under the leaf gives it a little more dimensionality.

The challenge for this painting was painting red shadows on the leaf. The palette included quinacridone pink and rhodonite genuine, both by Daniel Smith. The shadow under the leaf was made with lapis blue, sepia, and a bit of potter’s pink as a reflection of the red leaf onto the white paper.

The first day's wet-into-wet washes.

This painting will really stretch and develop my skills in botanical painting because:

• The palette includes cadmium yellow, orange and red. Semi-opaque, heavy colors on the warm side of the red and yellow families, “the cads” easily create mud when blended with other colors.
• Wet-into-wet technique will be the basis of the rendering.
• This will have a still life element with a striped dishcloth serving as background.

Stay tuned for more updates!

Artists and illustrators specializing in botanical, natural history or wildlife subjects often enter competitions to garner a laurel in their career. There are several important competitions in 2012 that may be of interest if your artwork fits the competition requirements.

The Margaret Flockton Award is an international annual botanical illustration competition with a deadline of Monday, February 6, 2012. It is sponsored by The Friends of the Botanic Gardens, a major supporter of the Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust of Sydney, Australia.

The competition is open to artists world wide. First and second place prizes are AU$5,000 and AU$2,000, respectively. All artists retain all rights to their work, although usage must be granted for the purposes of promoting the competition. This competition has stringent requirements for entries: All work must be in black and white and ready for pre-press, and be an exactingly correct illustration in all details.

The Birds in Art competition is a very famous annual competition sponsored by the Leigh Yawkey Woodson museum in Wausau, Wisconsin. All mediums and techniques are permitted, as long as the subject matter is birds. The competition includes some of the greatest contemporary wildlife artists working today. The postmark deadline is on April 15, 2012 and the arrival deadline is April 26, 2012.

The Annual IAA Wildlife Art Show is a nationwide competition held annually by the Irving Art Association in Irving, Texas. The association has not yet posted the entry deadline, but work was due on August 15 for the 2011 edition. All traditional mediums are accepted. Subject matter is restricted to wild animals, no images of domestic pets will be accepted.

The Fifteenth Annual ASBA/HSNY International Juried Exhibition is held by the American Society of Botanical Artists in conjunction with the Horticultural Society of New York. The entry deadline is on March 23, 2012. Entry is open to all members of ASBA, worldwide. Submissions must be in traditional mediums, no photography or digital work allowed.

If you prefer to paint with a goal or deadline looming, maybe one of these juried events will provide you with extra motivation!

Here are some photos from the afternoon. Ms. Hendry was kind enough to take some photos for me. All photos in this post are © 2011, Sharon Hendry, all rights reserved, used with permission.

The students listened very intently during the workshop. Photo, courtesy of Sharon Hendry.

This student concentrates on rendering a leaf accurately. Photo courtesy of Sharon Hendry

I answer questions while other students paint steadily. Photo courtesy of Sharon Hendry.

The students and I discuss how their work is progressing. Photo courtesy of Sharon Hendry

Clockwise from left: How-to instructions; Tips on tracing a leaf form: ArtL8dy's supply kit, with a paint dot card I made; demonstrating light source and shadow. Photos courtesy of Sharon Hendry

Thanks HCC illustration students for being so enthusiastic and receptive! Thanks Sharon, for the invitation to share with your students! To see more of Sharon’s artwork, visit her blog, E-14 Studio.

When the Wrenaissance Man saw this, he said, "I think you may have found your calling!"

Zach, the horticulturist at the Museum of Natural Science, recommended the purple porterweed as an excellent choice for butterfly attraction in the shady garden.

We are seeking two important qualities in the plants we buy for our tiny plot:

• They must offer something special—attract butterflies or hummingbirds, smell delightful, bloom spectacularly, or have autumn color.
• They need to have neat, compact habits, and/or discrete, sculptural shapes.

According to the reviews at Dave’s Garden, purple porterweed succeeds superbly on the first condition, as it is irresistible to butterflies, but fails miserably on the second, as it is gangly, weedy and awkward-looking. Reports are mixed on whether it is invasive/spreads.

I guess you can’t have everything!

Leaf veins are often indented on the front of the leaf, but form dimensional ribs on the back side, as this cat's whisker leaf shows.

Ophiron labiatus, or cat’s whiskers, is a compact butterfly-attracting plant with small, blue-green leaves and it thrives in partial sun/partial shade conditions. The flowers spiral around a central stem, similar to foxglove or mint flowers. They are delicate and lacy and have a pale lavender color.

After seeing the blooms on the sample I bought from the museum, I bought a second at Bulb Mart so I could have a symmetrical grouping.

Brazilian pipeweed is an ideal flowering vine for shady to part-shady garden walls.

Aristolochia fimbriata, Brazilian pipeweed, is a vine whose flowers attract swallowtail butterflies. It thrives in part-shady to shady areas. As you can see from the photos in this Wikipedia entry, the Aristolochia family offers exotic and spectacular blossoms for the gardener as well.

One thing to think about when selecting butterfly-attractant pipeweed vines: Many non-native species may have chemicals that are poisonous to the local butterfly species.

Good for thee, but not for me: Sassafras needs plenty of room and lots of sunshine.

Saturday the Wrenaissance Man and I went to the Houston Museum of Natural Science plant sale. The sale is an annual fundraiser for the butterfly center, and features plants that will attract butterflies and do well in Houston gardens. We were hoping to acquire some plants for our microscopic, shady-to-part-shady townhouse garden.

We were attracted by the sassafras—the Wrenaissance Man liked the old-timey, granny garden associations, and I was thinking about autumn color. We both imagined it was a nice, little shrubbery. Unfortunately, Dave’s Garden informed us that sassafras is a 50-foot tree that requires full sun and plenty of space, as it is also invasive. 

Oh, dear.

Anyone up for a plant barter?

The scent of basil leaves is intoxicating! Even this hydroponic grocery-store specimen was powerfully fragrant.

I had bought this basil plant at the grocery store on Thursday, but did not use it for dinner that night. Instead it ended up on my drawing table on Friday morning.

After a quick wash of the shadow planes with ultramarine blue, followed by a hit of cad lemon light with ultramarine blue in the lit areas, I worked over the image using mostly colored pencils.

This week I’ve really noticed the degree to which the venation of the leaf creates the 3-dimensionality of the form. It’s very much like the struts of a geodesic dome covered with parachute silk.