Herbaceous Art Appreciation 101

You've never heard of 'Herbaceous Art'?  Neither had I.  In fact, I made up the name, just for this post.

I guess I need to do some explaining.

It all started with this:

You may have already seen it on my Facebook page, where I called it "Leaf Art".

I saw it one morning in our yard when I was out feeding the birds.  It inspired me to go for a walk and look for more art in the snow.

I was not disappointed!  However, I did learn some things.  Such as, compared to the number of herbaceous plants (definition: plant lacking a permanent woody stem) around, not many of them are artists.

Let me interject and say that I know very little about 'Art Appreciation', since the last formal art class I took was in 7th grade.  (Not really sure I should call 7th grade Art Class 'formal' but you get the idea.)  Anyway, I do know what I like...

and what I don't.

 

I think I was gesturing that it was time to leave the Modern Art section.  (This was a few years ago and I don't really remember)!

Since I never formally studied Art Appreciation, I needed to learn a bit about it to teach this '101' course.  To the wonderful world wide web I went.  So, if I sound at all educated on this subject, it's because I studied! This blog is about beauty in my Father's world, and I think learning is beautiful.

As I said, not all herbaceous plants are artists.  (You may be wondering why I don't just call them weeds?  Well, I did learn about horticulture, and the definition of a weed is "a plant out of place", or "a plant where it is not wanted".  So these artists are not weeds)!

As you can see, one was making an etching in the snow while another right next to it was not.

Some, like this grass, used the tip only, while others used the bottom of their stem (though this was less common).

Of course, the palette of colors was consistent with all the artists, since they had the same materials to work with (snow).  The blue shadows and brown weeds made a lovely complementary color scheme, brown and blue being opposites on the color wheel.  (Yep, I looked that up!)

 Notice the bold stroke of this Goldenrod (and also, that the one next to it is not an artist?)!

Grasses had more delicate styles.

The largest work I saw was this one:

Looking closer, here's some of the detail of the work:

One of the things about this type of art is that it is ephemeral.  (definition:  lasting for a very short time).  On the first rainy or above-freezing day, they are gone.  Except in photos.  

I do know from dabbling a bit in art myself, that adding a mat and frame can really enhance a work.  I've taken the liberty of doing that for a couple of my herb-artist friends.

I'm not really into such elaborate frames, but perhaps it suites this one?

 The original leaf that caught my eye (which I since learned can be called a 'leaf compass') deserves a frame.   I checked lots of leaves frozen in our yard and it was the only one that made a work of art.

Now, I have a surprise for you!  One of the artists consented to doing a WIP video.  I'm not bragging, but I think this may be unique to the web.  I have not found any other herbaceous artists doing a "Work In Progress" video.  Enjoy.

In the video, you can hear the other necessary tool for the artists, which, of course, is wind.

In closing, here's a small gallery of other Herbaceous Artworks for your enjoyment!

You will recognize this one from the video.

I think this one nicely balanced its etching with its shadows.

This Goldenrod managed to make many marks.

This grass eventually had to give up when it got frozen in the snow.  Perhaps it was done... I am!