Story behind the art of Betsy Rogers-Knox

29th Annual International

American Society of Botanical Artists and the Society of Illustrators

Forest Secrets

Monotropa uniflora, Apios americana, Arisaema triphyllum, Boleus bicolor, Cantharellus

cinnabarinus, Quercus rubra

One of my favorite hikes in the Litchfield Hills of northwestern Connecticut is in Hidden Valley. It is part of the Steep Rock Preserve, a local, nationally accredited non-profit land trust comprising more than 5,000 acres and supported solely by private donations. The magical bit of nature portrayed in my watercolor painting was spotted low on a hillside near a now abandoned nineteenth century quartz mine.

It appeared as if out of an imagined illustration in a children’s fairytale book - except it was real! The root formation and the hollow at the tree base provided a perfect habitat for the stunning red capped mushroom, which  inspired the composition. The Indian pipe and groundnut in the foreground drew me into the mushroom focal area and onto the Jack-in-the-pulpit berries seen hanging at the top left of the illustration. 

I used a variety of watercolor techniques to capture this scene including wet washes, masking and dry brush. To avoid losing the light values in the foreground, I painted the darkest background elements first and slowly built up to the foreground plants, leaves, roots etc. I also applied light glazes of a variety of colors to push areas into the background, such as the tree hollows and ground litter. I added minimal color with drybrush to the foreground elements and built them up slowly, hopefully not overpainting!

Depicting scenes like this are complicated and can seem overwhelming. Planning in advance and a step-by-step approach are vital to a successful outcome.

The forest floor often goes little noticed, overshadowed by the sheer size and number of trees in the forest landscape. Taking a closer look down at the forest floor may disclose a smaller but no less spectacular sight in nature’s showcase.

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