Portraits of Flowers

sewn paper
Art / Wood Engraving
Spring 1995
160 pages
ISBN 0-88984-157-8
$14.95

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Portraits of Flowers

G. Brender à Brandis and Patrick Lima

Patrick Lima's books and his articles in Harrowsmith magazine are considered required reading by garden enthusiasts across Canada. G. Brender à Brandis is a renowned wood engraver who has taught botanical art at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Hamilton. This book is their collaboration, a celebration of the beauty of flowers through Patrick Lima's fascinating commentaries and G. Brender à Brandis's elegant engravings. Perfect for both gardeners and those who delight in the delicate craft of the engraver, Portraits of Flowers is a unique collection of inspired portraits.

`The combination is deeply satisfying. Brender à Brandis discovers formal patterns in the rich luxuriance of vegetation, while Lima allows his thoughts to ramble purposefully like plant-runners. The drawings are accurate enough to provide assistance in identification of species but exist primarily as achieved artistic designs. Lima's descriptions offer hints for fellow gardeners but deserve to be relished as examples of fine prose; indeed, while reading him I was continually reminded of the wildflower books by Andrew Young, the English poet of mid-century, especially A Prospect of Flowers.'
- W.J. Keith, Canadian Book Review Annual

`Tending to the practical as well as the fanciful, Lima gives simple design schemes, soil formulas, and growing tips. ... You need not be a print expert to appreciate Brandis's engravings. Some appear in miniature, others fill the page, and thete's a bonus double-page foldout of rhododendrons. High-quality paper embellishes swaying tulips, beguiling snake-head lilies, and Oriental poppies. Even the lowly dandelion displays the uncommon art of this exceptional engraver.'
- Boston Globe Magazine

`Portraits of Flowers is, like a wild orchid blooming by a woodland path, a small treasure.... The publisher, a small press located in rural southwestern Ontario west of Toronto, has used an acid-free paper that is creamy soft and lightly textured, and the volume is sewn together rather than glued. The result is a book with an elegant production that matches its contents.

`The exquisite engravings have a magical quality. Lima's corresponding miniature essays are a mixed bouquet of gardening lore, practical advice, memoir and whimsy. When the weeding is done - or, at least, done for the day - Portraits of Flowers will remind gardeners why they garden.'
- Macleans

Visit the artist in his studio/gallery at 249 Ontario Street, Stratford, Ontario. The studio is open to the public during the Stratford Festival season (approximately 15 May to 31 October) -- Wednesday through Sunday 10am to 6pm (closed Monday and Tuesday) and at other times by appointment (519) 273-7523.

The front room of this 1877 Ontario cottage is an informal exhibition space, with a table and chairs -- even a rocking chair -- that is equally inviting on a warm summer afternoon or a rainy day in October. Here you will find many wood engravings of garden plants and wildflowers (some hand-tinted), birds and other small creatures, scenes and old buildings both local and remote, in a choice of framed or shrink-wrapped or unmounted formats. There are usually some studies in pencil, ink, watercolours or oils, a cabinet holds books and chapbooks in handmade, limited editions. Commercial books illustrated by the artist are also available, as are some hasti-notes.

The central room is the studio where it all takes place -- designing, engraving, typesetting, printing, bookbinding and weaving. The focal point of the studio is an Albion, hand-operated printing press made in 1882. There is always work in progress and a visit provides both an opportunity to learn about traditional bookmaking techniques and an insight into an artist's creative process.

Photo by Gordon Stephen

A member of the Society of Wood Engravers (England) and of the American Society of Botanical Artists, Gerard Brender à Brandis has produced hundreds of drawings, wood engravings and watercolours of flowering plants, many of which were studied in his own garden. These images have appeared in books, including Wood, Ink and Paper, At Water's Edge and Portraits of Flowers (all published by The Porcupine's Quill) as well as in his own handmade editions. His work is represented in the collections of the Royal Botanical Gardens (Hamilton, Ontario), the Missouri Botanic Garden, the Arnold Arboretum and the Hunt Botanical Library. His garden and his studio are located in Stratford, Ontario.

Contents © 2004 The Porcupine's Quill, Inc. - Updated: 10 April 2004 by Tim Inkster
The Porcupine's Quill, 68 Main Street, Erin, Ontario CANADA N0B 1T0
Telephone (519) 833-9158 Fax (519) 833-9845 e-mail pql@sentex.net

The Porcupine's Quill is remarkable in Canadian publishing in that most of the physical production
of our books is completed in-house at the shop on the Main Street of Erin Village.

We print on a twenty-five inch Heidelberg KORD, typically onto acid-free Zephyr Antique laid.
The sheets are then folded, and sewn into signatures on a 1907 model Smyth National Book Sewing machine.