Artist Interview with Alexandra Gorchakova

What inspires you to create botanical art?

It's a plant, it's nature, it's a pure creation of the universe, what's not to love about it? Botanical art helps people to find a way to observe nature again, notice the curve of a branch, the light, going throw a leaf, color of a flower. Loads of information, leaving in concrete cities, and indoor possibilities of entertainment have distanced us from nature's roots. Botanical art is the process of observation of nature, meditation, and creation portray of plants. It can be more scientific and give you knowledge, more artistic and give you emotion, it can also give you something to think about. Botanical art is where art meets nature.

How do you select the plants and flowers to paint?

Some plants have an absolutely fascinating shape, looking alien (paphiopedilum, stanhopea orchid, banksia seed pod), some plants or leaves can create a great contrast of light and shadow when they are lit by one source of light. The plants that I choose are created to catch attention, they are unique and unusual.
I often go to botanical gardens (I think Berlin botanical garden is the biggest, and Bremen botanical garden has an interesting collection of Asian plants and rhododendrons), it's good for knowing the scientific name of a plant, which is often required for exhibitions. I collect a lot of dried things in autumn, like leaves, seed pods, and pine cones. Almost every botanical artist has "the box", where we store our natural treasures. Also, I grow quite a lot of orchids at home (you can see them in my "Paphiopedilum collection").

Can you walk me through your process from start to finish when creating a new piece?

The first thing is to choose the right object. Find its scientific name and do herbarium and description research. Then match colors from a live plant, on photos, it's usually not correct, especially greens and reds. If I work not from a live plant, I take a lot of pictures, usually with a ruler for scale. It's important to understand the shape and color of a plant and how parts are connected to each other (leaves and flower to steam or brunch). Then comes the composition part - single object, a group of objects, the best representation of natural position. After that, I make a pencil drawing with measured dimensions and color study, check if the composition is good, transfer the pencil drawing to watercolor paper, and start watercolor.

What challenges do you face when working with botanical subjects?

Most botanical objects fade quickly, and often I have to finish painting from photographs, big works like 50×70 (it is big for botanical art!) take about one month to finish. You need a lot of patience, precision and concentration to paint botanicals, some days I just don't have enough. Often it is difficult to get the scientific name of a plant, and then you need to consult with botanists to identify and write it correctly. There are artists, who paint mosses, sometimes they even need chemical analysis of plants for identification.

Is there a particular style or technique that you prefer to use when painting botanicals?

I use cotton paper, which can hold layers of watercolor, I start with light washes on wet paper to get watercolor effects and show medium possibilities, then I build up color, usually using a drier technique, especially for dark parts. At the end comes dry brushing and adding details, sometimes I add color pencil if I want to get more saturation (concentrated color) or deeper darks.

Can you describe a particularly memorable or significant piece that you've created?

I think the most memorable piece is black contrast maple leaf, and it is a dark memory of coronovirus years. That work is called "Death is the new color of 2019-2022", and I was discovering how botanical artists could express feelings and personal experience in artwork. It was created to mourn and face dark reality with the symbolism of dry dead leaf with black shadows and find a hope in white lights. I also think the shape of that leaf reminds me of someone in black cloth. This work participated in the Society of Botanical Artists Plantae 2022 exhibition.
My Paphiopedilum collection is a celebration of science and nature, those orchids (orchids are a huge family of plants, not only phalaenopsis) are hybrids, created thanks to human creativity. If you create a new hybrid, you can register it under any name you choose!
When I found my last painting object, Leucospermum, I was so surprised, how easily you can get such an exotic plant just by walking to a nearby flower market, you don't need to fly half the world to see it. On the other hand, a lot of plants are created and exported only for commercial purposes, to get you surprised and catch your attention for a minute.