I did these for a small pop-up art fair in my home town.
I got into the flow of it and PLAYED. Initially I had been drawing cool retro mugs (something else I like) but that just wasn’t going well. Clearly not organic enough.
So I looked through some old sketchbooks and found these. They had been an exercise in working in a minimally, stripped-down, get-to-the-essential-stuff kind of way – one where you consciously decide what it is you want to say with the image. Instead of merely slavishly copying all there is in front of you. I guess the story I want to tell with these cacti is how much fun I think these types of plants are.
I used watercolour & pencil , even drawing on small boards painted with gesso – which works really nicely with watercolour.
I’d definitely like to find the time to do more – maybe more closely related to actual types of cacti and succulents but without being slavish to the truth. It makes sense that I enjoy plants as a subject matter because I love growing them – how you feel about something, well – I think it usually shows in the drawing, you know.
There’s few subjects more fun than these weird plants (except, perhaps, dried frogs).
Agree?
Natalie Eldred 