I am inspired by fungi at the moment, they are definitely one of my favourite subjects to paint. From the initial hunt;like finding treasure, then putting into 2D and creating all the different textures.
I found these beauties back in October in the Ystwyth valley woodlands; a mixture of conifer and broad leaved species grow here. They are Boletus chrysenteron or red cracking boletes, due to the cracked surface of the velvety cap which shows the soft pink and yellow flesh underneath. These boletes have yellow pores instead of gills. I have painted pine needles, a birch leaf and mosses as habitat indicators.
I wanted to show some of my inspirations for painting fungi.
Alexander Viazmensky, a wonderful fungi painter living in Russia. The link is already in my link list on the right here but I'll give it again.
I love the beautiful and intricate illustrations of Ray Cowell whose work is held in collections at Kew. Here is a link to Rays' Kew information.
Suzanne Lucas was the founder president of the SBA. She was an avid and prolific fungi painter and gained many gold medals with the RHS. I have one of her books called 'In Praise of Toadstools'.
Also there is Beatrix Potter, of course, a famous illustrator and mycologist. She has some of her fungi paintings in a book called 'Wayside and Woodland Fungi'. Now that's a book I'd love to find!
http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/24954/title/Beatrix-Potter--scientist/
http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/24954/title/Beatrix-Potter--scientist/