Sunflower Season

Perspectives from The Artist's Road

Still Life with Sunflower 1907 Piet Mondrian

It is Sunflower season here and we are lucky enough to live very close to one of the most picturesque (and well-visited) fields around, making plein air painting amongst the flowers a yearly event for us and for our students.

The Sunflower subject in paintings has a rich history, famously from the works done by the European Impressionists and Post-Impressionists. But the Sunflower itself (Helianthus) is a plant native to North America with evidence suggesting that it was cultivated by American Indians in the Southwest as early as 3,000 BC. Just about every part of it had a use. It was ground into flour. The seeds provided oil and a purple dye used for textiles. Even the dried stalk had a use as a building material.

Helianthus reached Europe through Spanish explorers probably in the 1500s, becoming cultivated primarily for its oil by the late 1700s with Russia leading the way in propagation and breeding programs…