Dead Plants and Living Ones

Saturday, a foggy day, included a morning of plant drawing at The Sewanee Herbarium in the new Spencer Hall, a state-of-the-art science building. The Dead Plants Society sponsored the morning in the classroom next to herbarium, which Yolande G and Mary P serve as curators. Participants included assorted Dead Plants women, one 16-year-old, and three artists -- one from as far away as Chattanooga.
Mary P brought in some daffodils, as did others. She also dissected two so we could view them through microscopes. She and Yolande also put out some beautiful plant drawing and painting books for those who wished to use them.

Sandwiched in the middle of the morning, Mary offered a tour of the new building, and I went. With money donated by a Birminghamian, a friend to my family and benefactor of the Birmingham Art Museum, the hall offers classrooms and labs with the most sophisticated equipment and design, including large windows into which one can peer. We peered, happily.

At the end of the morning, we wandered around and looked at the drawings and paintings. One in particular impressed everyone. The maker, shown below at the far right edge of the photograph, is an oil painter. Everyone was impressed by the graceful way she captured the whole plant. Some even thumbed through the rest of her sketch book.I couldn't resist taking an additional photograph of her tools. They are beautiful, well used and respected as an artist's tools should be.
The plant, the eye, the hand, the tools -- creators, all.