INKQ Edition #11

In issue 11 of INKQ we are thrilled to be showcasing the intensely colourful work of San Francisco artist Gary Bukovnik, whose impressively large watercolour paintings of flowers are an absolute feast for the eyes. Primarily using the media of watercolour, monotype, and lithograph, Bukovnik fuses sensual vitality with fluid yet powerful colourations to create his floral images and imbue them with great depth and intensity.

Gary’s huge Dahlias mirror the work of Dr. Rachel Pedder-Smith; another extraordinary painter who is also known for her large paintings. For the first time ever, we have designed this issue so that you can join the pages together to see the scale and complexity of Dr. Rachel Pedder-Smith’s Herbarium Specimen Painting in its entirety. Made up of seven panels, the giant watercolour painting measures 18 feet long and features pressed plant specimens from the herbarium at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, London. The painting took Rachel 766 days to complete. In this edition of INKQ, Rachel reflects on how she felt when she first saw the herbarium at Kew and why she choose to create this monumental piece for science and the botanical arts.

From one preserved leaf to another, INKQ 11 also introduces us to the fascinating textile work of Hillary Waters Fayle who is working to revive our connection to the natural world and its geometry using her knowledge of textiles and printmaking. Hillary uses found botanical and organic material to symbolically bind nature and the human touch with a needle and thread to make dried botanical embroideries and blueprints.

Canadian graphic designer and author Jason Logan writes about his experiments in making his own natural inks using the plants he finds in his neighbourhood. We feel that Jason’s inks are a beautiful argument for tangibility: the delight of complex hues and tactile ink on paper in an era of pixel generated data on flat screens. As we turn the page, pondering pigments and colour, we are given a glimpse into the exquisitely delicate and beautiful studies of white flowers inside Dianne Sutherland’s sketchbook as she writes an insightful piece on what it is to truly capture the luminosity and radiance of the colour white in flowers.

From white to silver, we are thrilled to be featuring Maya Ando’s installation piece ‘Ginga’ (Silver River) which was installed at the Socrates Sculpture Park in New York in 2019. Weaving through the park, Ando’s starry textile banner embodies Ginga; the Japanese word for galaxy and reflects on the relationship between the natural and imagined ordering of the world. It connects the two phenomena associated with time: the flowing water of a river and the movement of the stars. Jessica Wilcox has written an enlightening piece about the artwork and its place within the Japanese summer Star Festival, Tanabata.

This issue would not be complete without a representation of art produced throughout the Pandemic and we are delighted to be reproducing a selection of 40 pansies from Jessica Shepherd’s Pandemic Pansy Collection as a full colour, A1 poster. As always, Jessica’s inspiration is her botanical knowledge and a desire to record what she sees. This year, as 2020 unravelled, she saw lots of little faces in the adorable pansy flower as she painted alone throughout the long period of imposed isolation in Spain. Jessica intends to paint 195 pansies to represent every country in the world. When available, these original pansies can be purchased in our shop under ‘original works’.

As with every issue of INKQ, issue 11 is limited in edition.