Name/Title
British Columbia Wild Flowers – Blue Camas (Camassia quamash) and Shooting Stars (Dodecatheon hendersonii)Entry/Object ID
2016.03.02Description
Painting
This image is a study of several species of B.C. wild flowers.
Blue Camas (Camassia quamash) which is a perennial herb with blue flowers native to western North America that emerges in early spring, and was a vital, staple carbohydrate source for First Nations in the Pacific Northwest, particularly the Coast Salish.
And Henderson's Shooting Stars (Dodecatheon hendersonii) which is an herbaceous perennial resembling cyclamen blooms that grows on Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands and down to west central California, blooming from mid-spring to early summer.Artwork Details
Medium
Watercolour on paperContext
"Coast Salish ancestors of the Songhees First Nation (Lekwungen) had cultivated and maintained shrub-free grasslands [including Victoria's Beacon Hill] for centuries. They worked to enhance the growth of camas, their staple root crop, and other edible native plants...The Beacon Hill area was “one of the most productive camas territories on Vancouver Island, according to Dr. Lutz. The Lekwungen harvested bulbs for their own food and traded large quantities with west coast Nuu-chah-nulth people. They harvested the bulbs of both the Common camas, Camassia quamash, and Great camas, Camassia leichtlinii...The importance of camas...went beyond food and trade. Harvesting was a seasonal social and cultural activity and a time of reunion...Families owned and cared for individual camas plots."
From FBHP: Camas Country (see Web Links)Made/Created
Artist Information
Artist
Emily Sartain (1903-1990)Role
PainterDate made
1961Time Period
20th CenturyNotes
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Born in Oxfordshire, England, Emily Sartain was a British, later Canadian artist, a painter of wild flowers known as the “Audubon of the Flowers”. With a natural talent, Sartain started painting when she was six. She studied at the famous Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Lindley Library where she viewed the works of artists including Redoubté, Dürer and Audubon. She chose to specialize in flower portraits in a botanical style, although she occasionally painted animals and fantasy landscapes. In 1931, she decided to become a professional artist,
and she supported herself solely from the sale of her art for some 60 years.
Sartain achieved early success with the purchase of a work by Her Majesty Queen Mary in 1932. This royal recognition launched her career, and she was elected Fellow of the RHS in 1932, and she also worked on assignment with the Society. Visiting her sister in Vancouver in 1939, she was unable to return home with the onset of World War II, and she decided to stay and become a Canadian citizen.
Later moving to Victoria, she continued her painting and exhibitions, and as a conservationist worked to preserve the many unique wildflowers growing on Vancouver Island and elsewhere in Canada. Sartain was a traditional watercolourist who painted her floral portraits with a delicacy and accuracy few painters could duplicate. She was also prolific, reported to have produced 5,000 watercolours of various sizes, mostly on a commission basis. As her recognition at home and internationally increased, paintings were purchased by the British Columbia government and others to be offered as gifts to royalty and others. Sartain was a member of of the Island Arts and Crafts Society and the Victoria Sketch Club.Inscription/Signature/Marks
Type
Signature, InscriptionLocation
Signed lower right: E. SARTAINTranscription
Verso frame by Emily Sartain:
British Columbia Wild Flowers
Camas and Shooting Stars
Blue Camas Camassia quamash
Dodecatheon hendersonii
Shown London Exhibition
Silver Medal Exhibition
Royal Agricultural Society London
England 1961
Also inscription fragment in handwriting:
Emily Sartain Original
[D]escription by her [o]n back of painting
...n in London ExhibitionRelationships
Related Entries
Notes
By Emily Sartain:
2015.01.08 Western Skunk Cabbage (Lysichiton americanus)
2015.01.16 Lily
2016.03.02 B.C. Wildflowers – Blue Camas (Camassia quamash) and Shooting Stars (Dodecatheon hendersonii)
2016.03.03 Pink Lady's Slipper (Cypripedium acaule)
2016.03.07 Autumn’s Yield (Cyclamen neapolitanum)
2017.01.03 Rose Verona (Princess Verona)
2017.01.04 Prairie Lily (Lilium philadelphicum)
