MARGARET MEE’S AMAZON
Diaries of an Artist Explorer

Some books are a slow read, this was one. But slow read not because it was boring…hardly! The story of Margaret Mee’s encounters with snakes, armed poachers, malaria, electric eels, and storms, read as high adventure, to say the least! What made the book a slow read was the art. Aaah the art. The gorgeous paintings of flora and fauna by Margaret Mee, the writer/artist/adventurer who journeyed to the Amazon to paint the rare and unknown flowers of the region. There is no way you can rush through this story because you will linger at every page that has a painting accompanying the text.

Artist As Explorer

Expect to be faced with the choice, at every turn of the page.....Do I read the wild story or do I gaze at the magnificent art? Decide. It will be near impossible to do both. The strange and otherworldly plants of the Amazon are painted in such exacting detail, you will be forced to stop and stare, thus forgetting about the story of the Amazon adventure you were reading. Decide to just look at the paintings? You mean you will miss out on reading the adventure the artist recounts of hunting plants through the Amazon via dugout canoe, “I swam in the black water of the river, fearful of the currents....” This is Margaret Mee’s Amazon Diaries of an Artist Explorer

A Typical Day

Mee did not begin her travels deep into the fertile rain forests until the age of forty-seven. She continued until seventy-six. Ever focused on her mission to paint rare and unknown species, she brushed off the misery of mosquitoes, hunger, humidity and drenching rains. When conditions favored such, she set up an easel and painted, she also painted seated in the bottom of a rocking canoe, and when approaching dusk made either method of painting difficult, plants were piled into the bottom of the boat and painted later.

Her Biggest Triumph

Her work combines the rare ability to commit to paper, the strictest botanical detail of a plant, while at the same time, imbuing it with artistry. Her will and determination triumphed in a series of paintings of the Moon flower, which blooms briefly. And only at night. She set up an all night vigil to witness the opening of the night bloomer. As it unfurled she painting furiously, by torchlight…until daybreak, at which time the ephemeral flower withered and was no more. The resulting body of her work represents the only known images of the nocturnal beauty!

Place this book at your nightstand. Read the wild adventure of this tireless explorer or gaze at the magnificent paintings of a brilliant botanical artist …or do both. You will be lured back to it nightly, like a moth to a Moon flower.

 

-Cynthia Padilla

Cynthia Padilla-Come along as we learn and improve drawing skills through direct observation.  Explore the traditional dry media applications of graphite pencil, colored pencil, pen and ink, charcoal, and pastels.  I am a national instructor of drawing and sketching through the traditions of Plein Air Field Sketching, the Botanical Arts and Naturalist Illustration.