Matthaei Botanical Gardens Conservatory - Succulents

As I mentioned in my last post, I visited the Matthaei Botanical Gardens in Ann Arbor in early April. Nothing was yet growing outside, but the conservatory had plenty of interesting plants to look at, especially in the succulent room. There were so many bizarre cacti and other spiky plants, many of which were in flower at the time. Here are some of my favorite photos, below:

NYC Photos - Botanical Gardens Greenhouses

This will be my last blog post featuring photos taken on my recent (early April) NYC vacation. I've posted so many already - skyscrapers, other buildings, street views, urban flowers, Central Park views, and lots and lots of pictures from the Botanical Gardens in the Bronx - that you're probably sick of all these posts. :) But for me, they're a nice chance to share part of my vacation with the world, as well as make sure I have a back up of my favorite photos, so that just in case something were to happen to my computer, my external hard drive, and my cloud backup of all my thousands upon thousands of vacation and flower photos, I also have this blog to house some of my photos too.

We were very fortunate when visiting the Botanical Gardens to get a sort of backstage tour, courtesy of my husband's cousin Eric, who is a horticulturalist there. He took us around the grounds in a golf cart, pointing out some of his favorite places and introducing us to his coworkers and students - and also took us into the staff-only greenhouses to show us what flowers they have growing/are keeping in storage there. Just like art museums have more to their collection than what is shown to the general public, so too does the NY Botanical Gardens have more to their plant "collection" behind closed doors.

Here are some of my favorite photos of some of the plants we saw on our whirlwind trip through the staff greenhouses with Eric (and some photos from the staging areas, where staff were getting ready to add plants to various gardens or planters around the grounds):

NYC Photos - Botanical Gardens Cacti

The New York Botanical Gardens' conservatory greenhouse has two desert rooms in addition to its many tropical rooms. These desert rooms are reserved for cacti and other succulent plants that thrive in the desert - one room for "Old World" plants (like those in Africa), and one for "New World" plants (found in the Americas).

Below are some of my favorite photos from those rooms:

In general, I tend not to like cacti as much as more colorful flowers, but I still do sometimes use cacti or other succulents as the subject matter for my artwork, and it's always good to have more source photos!

"Class Bouquet (Stronger Together)" - Finished

Another 19"x25" colored pencil bouquet drawing is now complete for my "Stronger Together" series! There's just one more left to do ("Ability Bouquet").

If you're interested, you can check out the other completed bouquet drawings here:

• Race Bouquet (this post)
• Gender Bouquet (this post)
• Sexuality Bouquet (this post)
• Religion Bouquet (this post)

The fifth drawing is called "Class Bouquet" and it uses two-dozen flowers to symbolize the different social classes. America is made up of very poor people, very rich people, and everyone in between. It is important that we acknowledge all of these people - and help those that need assistance, remembering that we're all human and deserve equal respect.

Here is the finished drawing, which uses a general yellow-pink-white-green color scheme, with hints of orange, red, and purple.

I used a total of 26 colored pencils for this drawing (fewer than I've used for some of the others in this series!). Many of them were shades of green, red/pink, and neutrals (black, white, cream, and browns), though I also used a lot of the single yellow colored pencil for all those yellow flowers, as well as a few shades of blue, purple, and orange/peach.

Here are some details of the entire drawing:

This is not yet available for sale, but I will probably list it (and the others in this series) in my Etsy shop at the end of the year.

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To read about capitalism and the disparity between the rich and the poor, please read this blog post. For some interesting things to consider about the intersectionality of class, visit this one.

To read about the idea behind this colored pencil drawing and an explanation for the symbolism of the specific flowers used, check out this post.

To see "the making of" photos of this drawing, please visit these:

• Preliminary sketches ("In Progress 1")
• Drawing and lightly coloring in the first 12 flowers ("In Progress 2")
• Drawing and lightly coloring in the last 12 flowers ("In Progress 3")
• Adding detail and dimension to the hibiscus, hollyhock, bells of Ireland, sunflowers, French honeysuckle, and dandelions ("In Progress 4")
• Adding detail and dimension to the lupine, blackthorn, cactus, myrtle, tansy, and marigold ("In Progress 5")
• Adding detail and dimension to the kingcup, peony, carnations, coronella dahlia, clematis, and orchids ("In Progress 6")
• Adding detail and dimension to the angrec, lettuce, thyme, trumpet flowers, edelweiss, and poppies ("In Progress 7")

"Class Bouquet (Stronger Together)" - In Progress 5

This colored pencil drawing uses flower symbolism to represent the entire spectrum of social class from poverty to wealth and everything in between.

To read about capitalism and the growing disparity between the lower and upper classes, visit this blog post.

To read about the symbolism of each flower used in this bouquet, visit this blog post.

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I've already completed six flowers - the hibiscus, bells of Ireland, hollyhock, sunflowers, French honeysuckle, and dandelions. Today's post will focus on the next six - starting with lupine.

For the purple lupine in the upper right corner, I used a white colored pencil for highlights, yellow-green and green for the stalks and leaves, light purple for the petals, and magenta and blue colored pencils for shadows.

For the group of blackthorn blossoms, I used white, yellow-green, tan, two shades of red, and black.

In the middle of the bouquet is this group of flowering cacti. I used two red pencils, pink, white, yellow, three green pencils, and black.

Off on the left side of the bouquet, I next worked on these myrtle flowers, with black, two shades of brown, red, pink, cream, yellow, white, and two green colored pencils.

The tansy flowers below the myrtle got built up with orange, yellow, white, black, and three shades of green.

Finally, I worked on this trio of marigold flowers. I used white for the highlights, dark red for the shadows, and orange and yellow for the petals. I also employed two green colored pencils for the leaves.

My drawing is now halfway complete! I now have a dozen more flowers to finish up.