Painting of a Honeybee in ink and watercolor by Crystal Hartman, a study during residency at Willowtail Springs Nature Preserve and Education Center, Mancos Colorado, while studying pollinators and specifically the feral honeybee. 2015
honey-based watercolor and ink on handmade paper scroll, Crystal Hartman, The Bees
The Bees
In the spring on the sun soaked, rich, red dirt that held my body, stuck in my hair and remains in my pockets and heart, I lay with the wild honeybees that carried me to their trees and changed a cold concept of nature and service into a warmth and harmony worth sharing. I began my studies of pollination while carving wax for sculptural jewelry, hoping to find a recipe that would lighten the process and embrace the natural inspiration within the lines, I found beeswax. Diving into the science and conversation of honeybees, I reached out to Willowtail Springs where I found the space, wild honeybee trees and time to develop a process that shared the beauty of pollinators. Inspired by the quiet and hum of life, by the accumulation of creatures that make life possible, and by the ripples in the lake that found their way onto handmade papers and scrolls, this series of pollinators was created over the course of several years. The illustrations are detailed meditations on life, the natural world we share, lines and repetition. The scrolls, all painted at Willowtail Springs, were created in a temporal process with honey-based watercolor, ink, charcoal, wine and tea.
honey-based watercolor on handmade paper scroll
ink and honeybased watercolor on handmade paper scroll
honey-based watercolor and ink on a handmade paper scroll, Crystal Hartman
Detail shot/installation view of the Bee scrolls
ink and honeybased watercolor on handmade scrolls
detail view of The Bees, ink and honeybased watercolor on handmade scrolls
Scrolls installed at Illumin Arts, Durango CO, 2018
detail of scroll painting, honey-based watercolor on paper scrolls
Installation view of The Bees scrolls… each swarm is different, together they create new stories.
ink and honeybased watercolor on handmade scrolls, Crystal Hartman from Residency at Willowtail Springs
Detail from the first painted bee scroll of the series…
This is the scroll I carried on my first days hiking the land, basking in the sun, sprawled across the warm dirt beneath the junipers and piñons, the one I peeled from the surface of the lake.
I tore it from a larger roll of soft, handmade paper to carry along and to learn with. I folded it up to tuck inside the cover of a sketchbook. One afternoon, I found myself on a canoe with paints and scroll and the sun reflecting across the water. I was learning about ripples and the way they unite and teach us about nature and our actions. A breeze came up and grabbed the scroll, danced her about and gently lay her on the surface of the water. I peeled the paper up, cradled it in my lap and rowed to the dock where I peeled it from my legs and placed it on the wood to dry in the sun. I added bits of honey based watercolor while it dried, I learned about paper, fibers, pigment and density, I learned the process that unites all of the bee scrolls created at Willowtail that spring. Over the following weeks, I painted, expanded, listened, and I fell in love with pollinators.
-Crystal Hartman
the process of creating this body of work about pollination and honeybees… in the studio with Crystal Hartman at Willowtail Springs Nature Preserve and Education Center
process picture working on the paper scroll paintings of the bees…
Swarm.... a pen and ink by Crystal Hartman, cover of Assembly by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, Oxford University Press and Asemblea by Michael Hardy and Antonio Negri, Akal Press
honey-based watercolor and ink on Rives BFK, Crystal Hartman, The Bees
pen and ink on paper, Crystal Hartman
one of many ink on paper scrolls drawn to support The Bees