With Paintbrush and Shovel: Preserving Virginia's Wildflowers, Watercolors by Bessieniemeyer Marshall Hardcover - 2000

From the publisher

With Paintbrush and Shovel showcases the botanical watercolors of Bessie Niemeyer Marshall, a Virginia artist who received scant recognition during her lifetime. Reproduced for the first time in this volume, Marshall's beautiful paintings are the primary surviving record of a unique WPA project that put women to work creating a wildflower sanctuary in Petersburg, Virginia, during the 1930s.

Nancy Kober affectingly recounts the story of this fascinating project and the women involved: the horticulturist Donald Claiborne Holden, who directed the sanctuary's creation; the women of the Petersburg Garden Club and of Petersburg's African American community, who worked hard, in spite of segregated tasks and facilities, to establish a botanical preserve in the city's Lee Park; and the artist Bessie Marshall, whose difficult personal circumstances kept her in obscurity during her lifetime despite her obvious talent and repeated expressions of interest from curators and benefactors. Marshall eventually produced 238 watercolors for the Lee Park collection, 222 of which appear in full color in this book.

With exquisite detail and a subtle palette, the paintings depict a host of native flowers, shrubs, and trees, including some rare or imperiled species. Here, arranged by habitat, are dogwood and cat-tail, pokeweed and passion-flower, angelica and witch-hazel, redbud and rattlesnake-master. Although many of these species still grow in the vicinity of the former sanctuary, the collection is a reminder of the precarious state of many wildflower habitats and the need for continuing efforts to preserve our botanical and historical heritage.

As a gift, a reference, or simply an inspiring read, With Paintbrush and Shovel is a fittingly beautiful representation of a unique meeting of the forces of nature, history, and art.

About the author