Wild Flowers
One Woman’s Story and an
Artist’s Found Inspiration
Untitled, Oil on Canvas 24’ x 30” circa 1920
Kathryn Woodman Leighton (1875 - 1952)
Wild Flowers - An Homage to Kathryn Woodman Leighton
17” x 17” Acrylic on Multi-Panel Acrylic Glass
This is a personal story. A story that travels through time as if it were yesterday. A story perhaps familiar to many, told by my friend, an Author, Art Curator, Fine Art Consultant, Art Historian and Art Collector. A woman who has not only inspired me but the painting I interpreted above in an emotionally resonate way. Because of her sheer love, raw passion and deep desire for the works of Kathryn Woodman Leighton, that for her seem to elicit a power so real, the only answer is to own an original work so she can stare into it day after day and be reminded of a beautiful life then and now.
~Please Read On~
“When I was a child and through high school, I spent all of my summers on my grandfather’s ranch in the most beautiful part of Montana. My grandfather used to take me irrigating with him. While he worked, I’d look for gold specks in the sand in the creek and catch water skippers. He’d tell me about the plants growing in the field, and along the river bank and on the hillside, they included Mules Ear, Indian Paint Brush (he told me the Indians used them to paint their teepees), Wild Iris, Flax, Wild Geranium, Delphiniums, Black Eyed Susans, Blue Aster, Buttercups, wild onions, and wild peppermint…I always had a piece of Sweet Timothy hanging from my mouth. I loved the taste and I imitated my grandfather who always chewed on one. When I was really young, he would bring me little bouquets from the field, later I would bring him bouquets.
During the summer, he had about 20 hired men working on the ranch during haying. One summer I found their empty Prince Albert tobacco cans by the bunkhouse and I collected them to use as vases. I placed a tobacco tin full of wild flowers at each of their plates for dinner. All the water leaked out, but I remember they liked the gesture and thanked me in their quiet way. Some of my uncles would tease me about the “weeds” I had collected, but for me, if it bloomed, it was a beautiful flower.
When I was about 20, I moved to Germany for 12 years. I spent the weekends on a beautiful farm in Bavaria. It was a paradise for wild flowers, wild herbs and roots. It was there that a woman from a local farm befriended me. She was known in the area as a benevolent witch. There was something to it because when I was out collecting wildflowers, she seemed to appear from nowhere and she’d tell me about the flowers and then she was gone. Schafrarbe (Yarrow) she said, was “good for women’s problems.” And she showed me a little plant with yellow petals, Blutwurtz (Blood Root), and how to harvest the root and cure it in schnapps for a good digestive. A few flowers I never picked were Siber Thistle or Edelwiess, they were rare and I just enjoyed them. The list of wild flowers in Germany is too long, but I loved them.
The closest thing we have in Utah is the magnificent fields of flowers around Alta in the spring. I don’t pick these flowers because they are too rare in Utah and I feel they need protection. In this respect, Utah is a desert for me. Some of the flowers that do bloom, like Flax, or Mules Ear wilt in an afternoon and aren’t good for bouquets.
The painting by Kathryn Woodman Leighton symbolizes all of these beautiful memories for me. She painted in Montana every summer and these are the flowers she would have found wild, growing everywhere. The beautiful blue crockpot is used as a vase for the Indian Paintbrush, wild Lupine, Black Eyed Susans, Blue Aster and Larkspur. The flowers comprise the primary colors, red, blue, and yellow with secondary colors of green and purple to fill in the spaces. For an artist, this must be a luscious subject to paint. The bouquet’s composition is not even, it was a spontaneous arrangement. It is not overthought or too well considered, which gives it authenticity and freedom from pretense, much the same as the flowers themselves. They are wild and enjoy an uncultivated existence.”
~Donna L. Poulton, Ph.D.
Donna’s Grandfather, Dewey Marchesseault, with two of his colorful sisters at their cabin in Montana, circa 1960!
“A celebrated Indian portrait and landscape painter. Kathryn Woodman Leighton created panoramic landscapes especially big scenes of glaciers. Having been told about Glacier National Park by Charles Russell, Kathryn spent much time in that region beginning in 1922. Also doing floral still life and landscapes, she repeatedly depicted her favorite subject, which was the desert in bloom.
~Abbreviated Biography from the Archives of askART~
How wonderful
That art can be an escape for the soul
Filling us with memories of a long forgot past
Connecting us with the present
Reuniting us with long ago
As we let ourselves get lost in
The creations of others.
~Janell James~
NEW: TRU VUE Museum Quality Acrylic Glass top sheet adds a museum grade archival superiority, protecting the work from UV rays, scratching and significantly reducing glare for a more crisp, clear viewing experience.
