Skip to main content

Gianna Marino, Illustrator - Artist

Ms. Marino is known for many things:  illustrator, storybook writer, designer, as well as an artist.  While she has many talents, it is her flower portraits that give me pause, they are soft, sophisticated, realistic and tenderly executed.  Many of her flower portraits remind me of the famous floral artist of the 1970s, now deceased, Lowell Blair Nesbitt, whom accomplished over-sized singular flower(s) on canvas and in screen prints.  

Nesbitt's flowers were widely collected and are included in numerous museum collections.  He was frequently described and grouped with the photo realists.  Unlike Nesbitt, Marino works with gouache that she frequently washes out to almost watercolor consistency.  Yet, the both of them claim that they are not interested in capturing the botanical/scientific details of a flower.  

Nesbitt's flowers captured the entire canvas and he used a flat colored background.  Likewise, Marino's flowers capture the entire space of her artworks, the difference is that Marino builds up a colored background that gives more intensity to her flowers.  On that background she captures the petals, stem, and leaves.  While claiming that she in not interested in the scientific elements of flowers, she illustrates the sexual parts with detail:  the carpels (pistil), stamens, and stigma.  Remember the stigma top is sticky and receives the pollen during fertilization.  All that is missing is the insects that assist with the fertilization process. 

Below Marino's "Hollyhock" 2003, is painted with a single blossom and stem.  The petals have a gadrooned rim that moves from dark maroon to almost black.  The singular leaf takes on a dotted pattern and in nature is made up of silicon, phosphorus, chlorine, sulphur, potassium and calcium.  While we frequently think of hollyhocks as a tall Eurasia plant with a long cluster of large showy flowers, Marino breaks down the details for us to see just one blossom.    


      
Hollyhock, 2003
Watercolor on Japanese Mulberry Paper
Approximately 7.5 " x 10.5"
Signed on Mat: Gianna Marino
In the second watercolor, "Poppy" also from 2003, the petals have a variation in color and each petal has a decorative rim.  While it is not totally visual in the photo below, the stem is hairy along the stock.  The black dots in the center of the flower represents the rounded seed capsules.    

Poppy, 2003
Approximately 7.5" X 10.5"
Signed on Mat:  Gianna Marino



Marino inspires us to look at the flowers around us.  Seeing how a flower transforms from a dead seed, to a living strikingly beautiful piece of nature that adds pleasure to our active lives as we move through daily work and play.

Ms. Gianna Marino's artwork and storybooks can be found on the net complete with background details. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

MARCEL (Marcella Anderson) Torpedo Factory Artist

Marcella Anderson and/or Marcy Anderson (1946 - 2015) was better known as "MARCEL", a popular serigraph/silkscreen artist, at the Torpedo Factory Art Center in historic Old Town Alexandria, VA. She maintained a gallery and work space at the Torpedo Factory from 1976 to 2015. At the top of the stairs on the 3rd floor was this large light filled studio with a charming blonde woman surrounded by her silkscreens. In the early 80s, her work consisted mostly of water reptiles, fish, birds and environmental scenes. She kept with nature themes during most of her time at the studio. Her obituary stated: "Marcel was known for her bold, yet sensitive, use of color and design. Her images in all media reflected her love of nature. Her glowing color, both intense and delicate, was achieved through the use of transparent layers of color." Marcel was born and raised in Seattle, Washington and studied at the Cornish School of Allied Arts. Before arriving in the DC area, she had

Japanese Wooden Dolls: Kokeshi-Ningyo "こけし-人形"

This article is dedicated to my Japanese (nihongo) Sensei, Atsuko Kuwana, who helped me learn to speak Japanese. Collectors come in all varieties, some plan their collections, others start by chance.  I saw my first kokeshi(こけし) wooden doll in 2005 while participating in a grassroutes exchange program between the U.S. and Japan.  I was staying with a family near Nagoya and the couple’s young daughter had one.  Years later when I was named a Mike Mansfield Fellow from the U.S. government to the Japanese government, and was living in Japan, I would see them frequently at flea markets and souvenir shops next to the natural hot spring resorts in the area known as Tohoku.  Before leaving for Japan, I studied all things Japanese at the George Shultz Foreign Service Institute (FSI), including a professor that covered domestic and family life and some short statements on kokeshi.  After arriving in Japan, the National Personnel Authority ( jinjiin ) was responsible for my continued studies, b

Japanese Dolls - Ichimatsu Doll by Kyugetsu

On the top floor of the Matsuya Department Store in the Ginza shopping district of Tokyo, was a large exhibit space that rotated shows about every two weeks. It was one of my favorite places to visit, as there were fine artists and craftsmen showing their creations with the assistance of the most attentive staff and sales associates. They always exemplified elegance and class. During a drop-by-visit, there was a Ichimatsu doll exhibit. Dolls are dolls, a play thing, until they become an artform. The exhibit was part educational seminar and part wonderment. These Japanese dolls were not produced on a factory floor with production quotas. Each doll was handmade with painstaking details by an artisan that rendered a doll with personality, charm and beauty. The keeper of all knowledge, Wikipedia, describes Ichimatsu dolls this way: the doll represents little girls or boys, correctly proportioned and usually with flesh-colored skin and glass eyes. The original Ichimatsu were named a