Artist Linda Stewart is presenting her watercolors of a wide variety of California wildflowers, as well as those native to Europe, in her new exhibit at Faculty/Alumni House on the UCSF Parnassus campus.
Most of the California natives represented in the exhibit grow within 100 miles of San Francisco and can be seen in local parks and undeveloped areas. Stewart's field notes accompany each wildflower piece displayed.
For variety, the show also includes a few sketches of places where Stewart has visited or lived, including Saybrook College at Yale University, Villefranche-sur-Mer, France, the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy, and a barn along Highway 128 in Mendocino County.
The fetid adder's tongue (Scoliopus bigelovii), image shown here, is one example of a fairly common native flower found in redwood forests that blooms early in the year, usually from January to around March, according to Stewart.
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"The flowers are amazing when looked at closely: They resemble small orchids, with green and purple stripes," Stewart says. "They emit a strong odor (hence their name), which attracts flies for pollination, but makes painting them from inches away sometimes challenging. Hikers may see the spotted leaves, which become flatter and larger once the flowers are spent, and never notice the flowers, which are by this time nothing more than adder-tongued seeds on long, floppy stalks."
Stewart's interest in exhibiting these products of nature stems partly from the fact that many lovely California native wildflowers are relatively obscure because they grow in remote areas, are not cultivated and bloom only briefly, so that many people never see them, she says.
"When they are shown together in an exhibit, they draw attention to the tremendous variety of native wildflowers in the state: California has more species of native flowers than any other state," Steward explains. "The flowers are often delicate rather than grand, and deserve their share of attention."
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Stewart has painted all her life. She studied art at Newcomb College of Tulane University. She works at UCSF as department manager of the Francis I. Proctor Foundation. Stewart also currently serves as president of the Visual Arts Club at UCSF. This group, in conjunction with the Performing Arts Fund and Arts & Events at Millberry Union, mounts a faculty and staff art show each fall at UCSF. She exhibits a painting each year at the Faculty/Staff Art Show at UCSF.
Recent shows of her wildflower paintings have been held at the Moffitt-Long Hospital at UCSF Medical Center (2001), at Pacific Echo Winery in Philo, in the Anderson Valley, California (2003), at the San Francisco Botanical Garden at Strybing Arboretum (2004) and at the Ross Valley Winery in San Anselmo (2005).
The exhibit may be viewed weekdays through Friday, March 30 by appointment. For more information, call the Faculty/Alumni House at 415/476-4723.
