Story behind the art of Diane Shane-Schuldt
28th Annual International
American Society of Botanical Artists and Marin Art & Garden Center
Succotash Harvest
Phaseolus vulgaris
In late winter of 2024, I was scanning Baker Creek Rare Seeds catalog for new vegetables to grow as potential subjects for the exhibition A More Abundant Future: Diversity in Garden, Farm, and Field, the United States exhibition mounted for Botanical Art Worldwide (BAW) 2025. I noticed the description of the purple succotash, Phaseolus vulgaris, and bought a packet to try out.
Purple succotash is described by the Thresh Seed Co. as: “a rare heirloom variety of dry bean developed by the Narragansett Indian tribe of Rhode Island. Its vigorous pole-type plants produce excellent yields of large, bright purple beans shaped reminiscently like corn kernels. Purported to be the original bean used to make succotash, the iconic corn and bean dish served by the Wampanoag people at the first Thanksgiving feast, this rare Native American heirloom remains an important living artifact of our national and cultural history.”
I am fond of beans. I feel that when one sees them in a package in the store, isolated from their pods and vines, one can’t fully appreciate their beauty. Initially I was interested in portraying the complete life cycle, from sprouting beans, vines, blooms, and fresh pods to the ripened beans. I sketched the early sprouting and leaf stages. The vines grew rapidly and enormously. However, the vines did not begin to set blossoms until late August, and the beans only started appearing in September. The deadline for submitting to the BAW 2025 exhibition would not leave me enough time to finish the piece should I wait until the beans matured. I set the subject aside for a while and turned my attention to a ground cherry drawing that I was delighted to have accepted for that exhibition.
I returned to drawing the succotash in September when the pods appeared and began to ripen. Focusing on the harvest end of the growth cycle appealed to me at that time. I arranged the beans coming off their respective vines in the different stages of maturing. The painting records the color changes of the pods from green, fading green to yellow and then to brown when they split open and reveal the purple bean treasures inside. Interestingly, some of the pods turn a light cream color with splotches of purple. I had to include one of those in the composition as well. The beans are a very deep purple, so dark they almost appear black. To add depth to the composition I included a layer of leaves and vines in graphite.
A final note, the beans are delicious. I enjoyed the harvest all winter long. I am growing them again this year along with a new variety of pole bean.
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Read more about this artist's work: BAWW 2025