Chrysanthemum Greenhouse
IRIS print

From the Original watercolor on paper, 24 ” by 18 ”, 1982
Painted on site, inside a Greenhouse at The Hunnewell Estate
Wellesley, Massachusetts

Note: Please click on closeups for detailed images.

I worked on this greenhouse painting during bright sunny afternoons, setting up between two long plant tables that supported cast-iron ventilation runners suspended over a bed of what I believe were porous volcanic rocks. On one side Walter Hunnewells’s astonishing collection of rare and exotic orchids was featured, many of which he had either discovered or cross-pollinated himself, - some bearing the names of his wife and children.

The other side featured pot after pot of tall chrysanthemums for cutting and for gifts for friends—I was generously given some beautiful ones right before Thanksgiving. What was remarkable about these flowers to me, aside from their abundance and rich color,  was their height. I loved that they seemed, from where I sat with my watercolor block , to grow right up into the ceiling, creating an almost gothic cathedral effect; the high stems of the flowers acting as pillars, literally blossoming  into finely decorated capitals. This idea felt especially apt considering the metaphorical possibilities of a greenhouse as a protective light-filled sanctuary  for growing things.

In addition to the display plants,  I loved all the “volunteers,” -unfurling ginger ferns and maiden hair fern seedlings with their first tiny papery leaves that appeared here and there between the grates and beneath the planting beds; remnants of plants that were possibly grown in the greenhouses as long as a hundred years ago. I also loved the signs of time passing,  as seen on the iron grates where the rust and corrosion resembled lichens, and on the terra cotta pots where the moss and algae grew green and black. Moreover, I loved the rich moist air and extraordinary sudden brilliance of light flashing in from above, magnified  through the glass planes, the intense luminous blue of the sky reflecting in surprising places,  as it glistened upon the dark water that collected beneath the shelving and sparkled off of pools along the cement pathway.