Amaryllis
An Amaryllis (Hippeastrum) is a plant with long green leathery strap-like leaves. Once a year it sends up two flowering stems, one after another, which each opens into four spectacularly large flowers, which then gradually wilt and fall. During 2022 I followed the changes in the growth and decay of the flowers, making daily drawings and developing them into etchings and collages.
Beginning with making large collages of the Amaryllis in full flower, I became fascinated by the way that the flowers slowly fade from vibrant red to dusky purple, and the seedpods swell until they finally burst open and shed their large papery black seeds. It reminded me of Victorian botanical drawings of flowers, and I made my own version in collage of the phases of the flower’s development. The six images were mounted within a reclaimed sash window frame, entitled Amaryllis – frame by frame.
Following the tradition of botanical illustration, I then made a ‘dissection’, where the separate elements of the collaged image were displayed on a single sheet showing the individual parts of the flower as it sheds its seeds.
