Pinus resinosa (Red pine)

Back in January while thinking of projects for the year ahead the idea was presented to me by my friend Vicki, a fellow artist living in Australia, that we would each do a painting of a plant from our gardens each month and by the time the year had ended perhaps make them into a calendar. Well, life got busy and neither of us had time for the commitment but I am sure we will do it one day! This drawing in colored pencil, which took much more than a month to complete, would have been my "January" entry.

This pine branch is from one of our trees in the field behind our house. It was so striking in the snow and was clipped toward the end of winter. It took many weeks to complete and I had to wrap the cone on the branch with a wet paper towel to keep it from opening. I'm finding botanical art has it's challenges aside from just getting an accurate representation of the plant. We are dealing with living things that sometimes have minds of their own and we have to adjust to them! 


Check out Vicki's blog.  She's a wonderful artist.