Picturesque Botany (Still Life Painting of Colorful Flowers on Indigo Blue)

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Julia Whitney Barnes
Picturesque Botany (Still Life Painting of Colorful Flowers on Indigo Blue)
2023

About the Item

Realistic still life painting of bright flowers on dark blue Hand-painted cyanotype by Julia Whitney Barnes "Picturesque Botany (Tulip, Foxglove, Morning Glory, Snowdrop)" made in 2023 Image dimensions: 20 x 16 inches / Frame dimensions: 26.75 x 22.5 inches Custom Flemish/Dutch Ripple Frame Anti-Reflective Museum Glass Glazing Using various paint mediums and cyanotype — a printing process that yields a blue image when a chemistry-coated surface is exposed to sunlight — the artist Julia Whitney Barnes cultivates Edenic vignettes. Rooted in the work of women artists and scientists like Anna Atkins, Whitney Barnes’ compositions exalt all plant life “with equal importance, regardless of whether it is a weed, rare species, wildflower, or cultivated flower,” said Whitney Barnes in an interview with Create Magazine. Cyanotype is a camera-less photographic printing process invented in 1842 which produces a cyan-blue print when a non-toxic chemistry-coated surface is exposed to sunlight. Through the use of this medium, Whitney Barnes manipulates physical impressions of plants grown locally in her Hudson Valley garden and other nearby areas, along with intricately cutout photographic negatives. Given that sunlight starts the exposure process with cyanotype chemistry, select flowers are carefully arranged into compositions at night, followed by long exposures under natural or UV light to create the final prints. Once the unique cyan imagery is fused, Whitney Barnes meticulously paints the exposed watercolor paper with multiple layers of watercolor, ink and gouache. Each cyanotype is created by the power of light, inspiring viewers to look at these very recognizable images in new and different ways. Artist Statement: In this series, I approach each growing thing with equal importance regardless of whether it is a weed, rare species, wildflower, or cultivated flower. Most works have several species fused into one composition, often to the point where the exact plants depicted are open to interpretation. Each composition starts as a blue and white print onto watercolor paper and then I work in watercolor, gouache, and ink. Even the works that appear all blue and white are usually augmented with brushed on media. I am most interested in creating objects that feel both beautiful and mysterious. I want them to be familiar yet slightly outside of time. In the summer of 2015, I moved from Brooklyn to a hundred-year-old house in Hudson Valley, along with my husband, Sean Hemmerle. Four weeks later, I gave birth to our daughter, Magnolia. Instead of a baptism for the baby, we organized a tree planting ceremony and positioned a magnolia tree in our front yard, including the placenta as fertilizer. This small act was the beginning of my intimate connection to plants growing in our yard. After the birth of our son August in 2018, we had a similar ceremony with a dogwood tree in our back yard. Throughout the eighteen years I lived in New York City, one of the things I felt most lacking was a direct relationship with nature. After moving to Poughkeepsie, the influence of having green space of my own for the first time in my adult life started to creep into my studio process. The simple action of frequently going outside, then inside, then outside again made me think about interior/exterior in formal and metaphorical ways. It is deeply satisfying to take something that is ephemeral and represent it in a way that can live on forever.

Creator:
Julia Whitney Barnes (American)
Creation Year:
2023
Dimensions:
Height: 26.75 in (67.95 cm)Width: 22.5 in (57.15 cm)Depth: 1.5 in (3.81 cm)
Medium:
India Ink,Watercolor,Gouache,Archival Paper
Movement & Style:
Contemporary
Period:
2010-
Condition:
Gallery Location:
Hudson, NY
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU22714233052

Picturesque Botany (Still Life Painting of Colorful Flowers on Indigo Blue)

View Similar Items

Julia Whitney Barnes
Picturesque Botany (Still Life Painting of Colorful Flowers on Indigo Blue)
2023

About the Item