Published: April 05, 2009 03:00 pm      

Local artist paints plants for sake of public awareness

Five years ago, Lotus McElfish needed a career change.

The self-taught artist, who had dabbled with aromatherapy while residing in Colorado, wasn’t even exactly sure what being a botanical artist entailed. But she liked the sound of it. She knew it would take her places.

Thanks to her ongoing project with endangered plants in Texas, it’s leading her straight to Washington D.C.

The 61-year-old area artist will speak at the Department of the Interior Museum on May 16, where she will share the beauty of the Texas Hill Country and its endangered plants. Her speech is part of the traveling exhibit currently at the museum called “Endangered Species: Flora and Fauna in Peril,” where several of her paintings are currently on display.

“When a lot of people think about endangered species they think of the birds or the animals first,” McElfish said. “With my speech, I’m hoping to get people to really pay attention to other plantlife... and also to tell people, even if these plants are endangered, it’s not too late to save them.”

Her program will include slides of plants such as the Texas Snowbell, the bracted twistflower, the toubusch fishhook and the Texas Wild Rice, as well watercolor paintings of each of these. McElfish received a grant from the American Society of Botanical Artists in 2005 to paint the rare plants of the Texas Hill Country. She’s spent years traveling to places like the San Marcos Fish Hatchery, the Bamburger Ranch near Johnson City and Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center to examine the plants and eventually paint them.

Following her program, she will lead a two-hour workshop on graphite pencil.

McElfish, a Colorado native, moved to Texas in 2004 and lives with her artisan husband at SummerFish Studios near Canyon Lake. She’s worked as a wedding planner and she and her husband ran a mineral hot springs resort for years: It’s there where she initially became turned onto aroma therapy. Her appreciation for plantlife has only grown since.

She says it’s important for her to continue looking for new plants to paint, but, more importantly, also bring them to the public’s attention.

“Texas Parks and Wildlife just put out a book on the rare plants of Texas,” McElfish said. There’s 200 or more in the book. I think it’s enough to keep me busy for a while.”