Pauline Goldsmith comes by her love of botanical watercolor painting by osmosis. Born in the United Kingdom, her beginnings stressed natures beauty in the British appreciation of the light hand of a watercolor brush and careful application of layering tints found in the organic world of lush, damp greenery in the English countryside. She didn’t begin this painterly phase of her life, however, until arriving in South Florida.
“I did not start botanical work until 2004 and I took to it like a ’duck to water.’ I think the combination of art with my science background, my degree is in Biology, plus a love of nature/gardening all came together at that point and I found my muse," says the artist. “Some of my botanical artist ’idols’ are Brits. I think there is such a long history of this art form in the UK that it seeps through the generations.”
IS: This is a very precise method of painting. May we assume that you are a precise person in other aspects of life? Does your art, in fact, imitate life?
PG: “Haha - this could be - I’m a project manager by trade and life style - I am cursed with the ’organization gene.’ Botanical art is detailed and watercolors are unforgiving, therefore, you have to carefully plan your campaign of attack, layering down every wash very gently and understanding translucency so the light shines through the pigments and does not become muddy. Small brushes and dry brush techniques are a staple in this area.”
Botanic artists possess an acute delicacy in the observation of their/our world. Life and it’s meaning is hidden in the tiny patterning of a leaf’s sepal, its veins and shapes mirroring all life forms and actions in ever increasing mathematical sequencing. (It makes Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who call for another look-see, doesn’t it?)
The Fibonacci numbering system appears in all of nature, which means every single living cell incorporates this patterning, as in the arrangement of leaves around a stem. The same pattern is found on seeds on a seedhead and the arrangement of petals around the edge of a flower. Ours is not a random world.
I can understand how fascinating it can be to concentrate on this small but not insignificant tiny world as the botanical painter quietly observes simple, yet complex, realities.
APauline Goldsmith states: “In my attempts over the last few years to render the likeness of these plants into a visual art, I have become mesmerized by their subtle transformations in the ever changing tropical lights and water reflections.” She has been in the United States for 26 years, finding her calm and, dare I say it, grounding place in the home we share with her beautiful subjects. It may be time to step away from the noise and glamor (what? your life isn’t glamorous?) and pull back to see the formation of the subtropical world we inhabit. Just for a minute. (You can go back to the glitz later.)
I asked if she worked in other realms.
PG: “I will be publishing work (with others) in pen and ink - that’s a fun medium to work with. The subject matter for this whimsical book was fascinating and I learned so much about strange plants & how they impact our lives.”
Her botanicals can also be seen on cards, prints and wearables as well as the original pieces.
Goldsmith worked in the global bio-pharmaceutical industry for more than 37 years (Europe and the U.S.). She now runs her own company, Goldsmith Consulting, in Coconut Grove specializing in business development and project management skills.
See Goldsmith’s work up close and personal at the Miami-Dade County Main Library, 101 West Flagler Street, Miami, July 11 through Sept. 2, in a group exhibition, Botanical Exploration in the Everglades, focusing on original watercolors of plants discovered in the Everglades. All work is presented by members of the Tropical Botanic Artists, a collective of local watercolorists established in Miami in 2006.
On Aug. 2, Jimi Sadle of Everglades National Park will present an English lecture at the library on Botanical Exploration in the Everglades.
On or around Aug. 5, the book Big Bad Book of Botany by local author, Michael Largo, will feature black& white illustrations by Tropical Botanic Artists.
The Tropical Botanic Artists will also be at the Frost Art Museum, In Deep with Diatoms, Feb 2 to 22.
Goldsmith’s work is also on display with the GroveHouse Artists on Exhibit at Deering Estates through July 25.
More Info
Be sure to catch Pauline Goldsmith exhibiting in Wynwood this weekend at the CuratorsVoiceArtProject, 299 NW 25th Street, along with other juried artists.
Opening, 7 to 10 p.m., June 26; 1 to 9 p.m., June 27 and awards ceremony June 28 from 7 to 11 p.m. Pauline Goldsmith
Tropical Botanic Artists
Miami-Dade Main Library
Fibonacci numbers and the Golden section
