Rory McEwen strummed his way onto the Ed Sullivan show, sat in on a
sitar session with George Harrison and Ravi Shankar, and was a leader in
the post-war folksong revival. Yet arguably his greatest legacy was not
in the field of music--a talented, precise artist, McEwen revolutionized
the field of botanical art.
McEwen developed a distinctive style working on unadorned vellum,
presenting botanical subject matter with scientific precision and
artistic flair, without ever compromising one for the other. At a time
when such paintings focused on perfect specimens, McEwen found beauty in
imperfections, which made his creations breathtakingly realistic. His
paintings have been an inspiration to later generations of botanical
artists and his work can be found in collections around the world,
including the MoMA, the Tate, the British Museum, and the National
Gallery of Modern Art Scotland.
This revised edition of the best-selling Rory McEwen: The Colours of
Reality adds more artwork from McEwen and a soulful foreword by
musician Jools Holland. Four sections consider McEwen from four
different angles: his life and music, his contributions to the
avant-garde, his work as a botanical painter, and his influence and
legacy.
Originally published to coincide with an exhibition at the Royal Botanic
Gardens, Kew, in 2013, and developed in close collaboration with the
McEwen family, this is the first major gathering of McEwen's work since
1989.
