Morning Glories in Art and Historical Record

Ceej1963 just posted a painting of Ipomoea stolonifera by Israeli artist Michael Berkovich, who unfortunately says he's going to close his website do to low traffic. I think Berkovich's paintings are gorgeous - not the least because of the way his brush captures both the sublime delicacy of Mediterranean wildflowers and the brutal majesty of these plants' disappearing habitats. He has written background to each plant that he has painted that includes information about the geologic history of some of their habitats, historical uses, things that make some of them unique, so this is a website, I think, well worth reading, as well as appreciating and perhaps by increasing appreciation keeping it going a while longer.

Here's the link to Michael Berkovich's Ipomoea stolonifera - hope you check out his other botanical art - http://www.animalisme.com/ipomoea%20stolonifera.html

ps - here's the main link to his site - http://www.animalisme.com/index.html - and I am inferring that he is also that kind of person that synthesizes art, science and a passionate concern for the impact of human activity upon the disappearing habitats of these beauties.

This message was edited Mar 27, 2009 10:32 PM

I love them... very beautiful... thanks for posting the link...
Brittany

Thanks, Brittany - and thank you Colin for bringing Michael Berkovich to our attention.

He comments about one of his flowers whose portrait he includes here that it existed in southeast Asia before the Tibetan mountains rose; that is, before the tectonic plates crashed enough into each other to create the Himalayan mountains as they now tower high in the skies. Imagine that! Well, there are other plants around, too, that predate movements of continents as they are now disposed around the earth. I found his commentary for each painting fascinating and hope y'all enjoy them, too.

I added a biographical note about him to my original post.

Martin Johnson Heade has been especially known for his paintings of hummingbirds in their native South American habitats. Here's one he did with Ipomoea quamoclit, which I title in my files -

HeadeMartinJohnson_RubyThroatedHummingbird_Athen_1864_5
source: http://www.the-athenaeum.org/art/detail.php?ID=11433

(Since The Athenaeum allows general use of its images as long as the images are credited to it, I think it's okay to post it here. We need to pay attention to copyright requirements, so that's why I try to use the links.)

I'll be adding more artists who produced paintings that included some member of Convolvulaceae - how about anyone else out there chiming in with any they know of, too?

Karen

Neat thread! And love the art work by the above artists! So sad to hear that

What about Georgia O'Keeffe's paintings. She did a few of Morning Glory paintings that I love:

http://www.clemusart.com/explore/artistwork.asp?artistLetter=O&recNo=3&woRecNo=0
http://posters.seindal.dk/p323499_Blue_Morning_Glories.html

http://www.okeeffemuseum.org/home.aspx

Edited: Took out a link.

This message was edited Mar 28, 2009 10:52 AM

Some more by various other artists:

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/good-morning-glory-jonathan-galente.html
http://www.dailypainters.com/paintings/61816/Morning-Glory/Barbara-Fox
http://chineseartstore.com/catalog/cats-playing-under-morning-glory-chinese-painting-p-1222.html (This one is cute!)
http://www.dailyartpainters.com/2008/sep/24/2008-09-24-karla-nolan.htm
http://www.xabusiness.com/painting-preview.asp?s=BR-0624
http://www.paintingdreams.co.uk/image.php?name=morning_glory&productID=1 (This one I like! Original has already sold!)
http://www.ghostwomanstudios.com/ZinMorn.html
http://www.trademe.co.nz/Art/Paintings/Flora-fauna/Acrylic/photos/a-208354027/p-89240147.htm

Wonderful, Becky. Yes, I love her work, too. I'd be careful, though, about images from your third link - Superstock. I wonder if that image might have been photoshopped.

I do have some great scans of her work to which I'll list links later when this headache subsides.

Meanwhile, here's a great index of links to her work that includes many museums and other sources: http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/okeeffe_georgia.html . The best scans are often under "Pictures from Image Archives" further down the webpage. Although that list has grown since I was last there, I see that Rasiel* is gone - it had the best scans of them all. So, if anyone sees anything they like, better download it now, because none of these links is permanent, and copyrights keep changing.

Note that artcyclopedia tells you which sources provide scans that can be shared - in different ways. Generally, these sources don't want you sharing images due to copyright restrictions, and in that respect, O'Keeffe is particularly iffy. However, the green check beside Wikimedia's entry indicates "image use allowed" - so Wikimedia's images can be posted here. Copyright restrictions aside, I think it's always courteous to credit the artist and source of an image.

* http://www.rasiel.com/do/artscans.html - rasiel Two of the artists no longer available for free on Rasiel, Dali and O'Keeffe, due to copyright restrictions, did some wonderful morning glory paintings. It'll take me a while to find the links that had the best scans for y'all.

Karen

Another great thread - thanks Becky. Gotta nurse this headache, so will be back when I've been able to compare scans - any individual painting, watercolor, etc. can have quite a variety of scans of different quality, and it makes all the difference to find the best.

Y'all keep 'em coming.

Karen - I took out the link that was questionable. Thanks for catching that! :-)

I am going to learn a lot from this thread, thanks so much!

Joseph

Does Michael B. have a print for sale of his Ipomoea stolonifera painting? I did not readily see it offered on first scan throught his web site.

Joseph

Joseph - It doesn't appear so. You might try contacting him through his website.

That photo Ceej posted is beautiful, I haven't see the rest of the links, but will do so.

TKS.
A.


edited to add: Your seeds went out on the 30th...

This message was edited Apr 1, 2009 4:40 PM

great thread and links Karen... and thanks for those links Becky...

It seems the Michael Berkovich web site is offline. What a shame.

I found this nice JMG print online, wish I had the seeds that made the artist's subject!

Me too Joseph, it's a real beauty.

that is very exquistite' ( I still can't spell)

Perhaps some day we will see these cultivars in real life! ;-)