Cenizo Journal Spring 2009 | Page 9

A G REEN T HUMB FOR C REATIVITY Petei Guth is a busy woman. While she manages the Hallmark apartments in Alpine by day, her free time leads her to hand-paint canvases for needle- point, design jewelry, take photo- graphs, bind books, weave, lead hikes for the Sierra Club and write poetry about the natural world around her. Among other things. She credits her varied interests to being a Gemini, a sign which she says represents people who love to try to learn about as many different things as possible. Astrologically preordained or not, Petei’s desire to explore led her to botanical illustration. “It’s something I always wanted to do, and I never thought I’d have the opportunity. I’m an artist, but I’m not a botanist.” That didn’t stop her from collecting and mounting plant specimens for the Sul Ross herbarium, then drawing the plants. “I would pull out plants I like and draw for half the day.” There she attracted the attention of Dr. Powell and Sharon Yarbourough, who were in the process of writing Ferns and Fern Allies of the Trans-Pecos and Adjacent Areas (2002, Texas Tech University Press). She took the photos that appear on the book’s cover and says, “That was very rewarding, and Anna’s Bakery Doughnuts • Kolaches Cake • Pies • Fudge Cookies • Brownies FRESH BAKED DAILY 432.345.6784 116 W Oak St • Sanderson Mon.-Fri. 6-2 Sat. 6-12 Dr. Powell liked what I was doing.” He needed drawings for a book he was writing on monocots and recruited Petei to create 10 or 12 detailed illustrations. Petei first sketches the plant in pencil on very fine Bristol board. She then traces that with a Rapidograph – a tube with a pen through it to ensure a consistent width to her strokes – onto a special vellum, using a light table. It’s a time-consuming process, and she admits, “It’s tedious. It would probably make a lot of people crazy, but I thought it was fun. You really have to be focused and concentrate and not be interrupted.” She happily soaks up desert life, would “love to do a lot more” botanical draw- ings and sums up all of her works simply, “I just do what I do because I enjoy it.” I N P ERPETUAL B LOOM Ellen Ruggia, Big Bend Beardtongue, Penstemon haverdii Like Patty and Petei, Ellen Ruggia began illustrating plants while working for the Sul Ross herbarium. She says, “When I left, I was still interested in drawing them, and so I started doing that.” A graphic designer and co- owner of Vast Graphics in Alpine, Ellen applies a somewhat different perspective to her drawings. “Most of these are landscape plants,” she says. “That’s my focus. I mainly do native plants that are avail- able for landscaping here in the Big Bend area. I like drawing things that are accessible not only to me but accessible to the viewer.” She first sketches live plant clippings, often using samples from her own yard, then adds color and washes with acrylic inks and colored pencils. Although her illustrations are meas- ured and to scale, they are not meant to illustrate a typical plant but rather the one in front of her. “It’s important to me that they’re accurate. I’m attempting to depict the specific details of the species I’m drawing. Part of that is capturing the attitude of the plant. That’s why it (the drawing) runs off the page, like a snapshot. It’s not isolated.” The artistic perspective, combined with bright colors, helps her communicate more than the basic parts of a plant. “It’s important to me that they feel alive. Ideally you would get a feeling for the plant – alive.” She explains that she isn’t tied to the more scientific aspects of botanical illustration because “these aren’t for a scientist. I’m not making the ideal. I’m drawing the plant in front of me. I like continued on page 24 judd donald flavin dan blumenfeld, erika hirschi, david tabatabai, hadi tillinghast, eric inde / jacobs 200 e san antonio po box f / marfa tx 79843 [email protected] Baxter Studio and Gallery vilis inde Paintings of the Big Bend Rabbit building, Marathon hours vary, please call first 432-386-4041 • baxtergallery.com wed - sat 12 - 5 www.indejacobs.com Cenizo Second Quarter 2009 9