Jo Anna Poehlmann

Twenty Tulips.
Unique Artist's Book. Graphite, watercolor, photocopy, accordion-fold Strathmore paper, glass, silk ribbon, sealing wax.
9.5" x 4" (closed); 9.5" by 84" (opened).

"Twenty Tulips" began as an homage to some of the floral painters whose work I had seen on a trip to the Netherlands in 1999. When my sources began running out at “twelve tulips,” I conferred with Max Yela of the Golda Meir Library’s Special Collections, who brought out several wonderful botany books. From these I made sketches in the library, took them home to paint, and was then able to finish the book/screen to fill the box in which it is housed.

The final piece is a unique accordion-fold book or screen. Each image was drawn with graphite and painted in watercolors, lightly copied onto one-ply Strathmore with a Canon Laser, then reworked again with graphite and watercolors.

The book/screen is housed in a glass-covered box having a lift of ribbon to which sealing wax is attached.