November 10, 2009

A Walk in the Woods: a Red Mushroom



This beautiful mushroom, a deep red, glossy-surfaced polypore, starts out as a wackily obscene knob topped with a ruby shine. I first saw the knob last summer, and watched as it grew outward into a fan. Looking at my mushroom book, I'm guessing that it's called a Hemlock Varnish Shelf. It's lovely to see the color red among the greens and browns of the woods, the hard bright surface alongside the soft mosses.

6 comments:

  1. Looks like an old Chinese ceramic with an ox blood glaze! Life imitating art imitating art maybe?
    Carolyn x

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  2. That's a wonderful reference, Carolyn. I love the simple shapes and beautiful colors of Chinese ceramics. There are a few cases of classic Chinese ceramics on the second floor alongside the Great Staircase at the Met in NYC; I visit them whenever I'm in the museum.

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  3. Very much like a shell you would pick up along the beaches of Sanibel Island

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  4. I paint on these shelf mushrooms (the flatter side) as taught to me by Rudy Burckhardt. They are already magic mushrooms, the images aspiring towards even more.

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  5. ah, yes, Kim, I've drawn on them too, inspired by Rudy. I also have a "folk art" painting on a mushroom in my collection. I've been enchanted by mushrooms this fall.

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  6. I have used that polypore in a number paintings and reliefs over the years. But I have never noticed its growth in its initial stages. I have never seen them much bigger than your hand.

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