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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 20, 2015)
Translating nature into art Seaside artist, forager and teacher Dorota Haber-Lehigh shares the beauty of botanical drawings and the wonder of native plants D Dorota Haber-Lehigh is fascinated by SOants 6Seci¿ caOOy natiYe SOants seeing how they grow and change through the sea- sons; identifying different species; learning which are edible which are Pedicinal and which are poisonous. $nd especially drawing theP. Whether she’s hiking a trail or biking around 6easide Haber-Lehigh carries her sketchbook. With a PeditatiYe detailed eye she follows the lines of a plant translating it froP real world obMect to beautiful botanical drawing. “When you start looking at plants and at the diYersity of shapes and colors and pat- terns in nature it’s Must so fascinating´ she says. “, loYe botanical art because , like the structure of plants. And looking at it really closely you kind of get lost in it.´ Photos by Joshua Bessex A botanical artwork typically consists of a close-up portrait of a plant on a white back- Dorota Haber-Lehigh shares her love of native plants and art ground soPetiPes showing different stages by teaching botanical drawing classes on the North Coast. of growth side by side sprouting seedling À owering fruiting and withering. While where she’s taught 6panish (nglish as a sec- soPe Pay consider botanical drawings to ond language art and other classes at Broad- be illustrations or a scienti¿ c replication way Middle School and Seaside High School Haber-Lehigh disagrees. for 17 years. “)or soPe people it Pight seeP a little “, grew up hiking and caPping and this tedious or obsessiYe but it’s beautiful ¿ nd- area Must kind of ¿ ts Pe´ she says. ing all these different te[tures and colors´ With a bachelor’s degree in art under her she says. “)or Pe it’s a cre- belt Haber-Lehigh has pre- atiYe process. <ou Pake a Yiously focused on print- lot of decisions. <ou take Paking and landscapes soPe liberties too what and she still creates pastel you want to show what you landscapes and collag- want to hide and what you es today. But to foster her want to ePphasi]e. interest in botanical art “7here’s always soPe- two years ago Haber-Le- thing. <ou can go for a high becaPe a PePber of walk anywhere and , al- 2regon Botanical Artists. ways ¿ nd soPething color- Meeting other artists and ful or uniTue-shaped´ she taking classes froP nation- says. al established botanical art- Growing up in Poland ists like Wendy Hollender in the s and s has helped her hone her art. Haber-Lehigh was exposed Haber-Lehigh’s interest to a loYe of plants at a in natiYe plants was also young age. Bicycling to her “Indian Paintbrush,” a fi nished botanical easily cultiYated by local faPily’s coPPunity garden drawing by Dorota Haber-Lehigh. experts including .athleen and going PushrooP for- Sayce who leads a local aging with her grandparents were coPPon chapter of the 1atiYe Plant Society; 1eal pastiPes. 6he caPe to 2regon in as a Maine Seaside wildlife photographer and high school foreign exchange student and founder of the North Coast Land Conser- after graduating froP Paci¿ c 8niYersity Yancy; and 5oberta Basch a PePber of the Haber-Lehigh eYentually settled in 6easide Clatsop-NehaleP tribe. 8 | August 20, 2015 | coastweekend.com With her plant sketches piling up and her interest in botanical art and ethnobotany only growing Haber-Lehigh decided to col- lect her drawings into a book — a coloring book. ,n 1 she self-published “ABC of NatiYe Plants of the Coastal Paci¿ c North- west´ which features black and white pen- and-ink drawings of À owers Parine plants PushrooPs trees ferns and lichen. ,nforPa- tion about the plant — description habitat uses — accoPpanies each drawing offering a Pix of art and education. As a follow-up in 1 Haber-Lehigh published “NatiYe Berries of the Coastal Paci¿ c Northwest´ a coloring book that focuses on proli¿ c edible berries like 2re- gon grape red and eYergreen huckleberries elderberries and Pore. Additional coloring books are coPing soon. Haber-Lehigh is busy working on a natiYe wildÀ owers book. And À uent in Polish (nglish and Span- ish and haYing studied 5ussian ,talian and )rench she wants to use her language skills to also create a Pultilingual coloring book focusing on the ecology of Haystack 5ock in Cannon Beach. Her coloring books are aYailable at the )ort Clatsop Yisitor center Beach Books in Seaside and the Cannon Beach Arts Associ- ation. “, Peant it to be for both kids and adults because I was hoping the adults would read it to the kids while the kids could color´ she says “and Paybe that would encourage soPe intergenerational learning.´ 7o ¿ nd that people on the North Coast Pight not know they haYe edible salal or salPonberries growing in their backyards Continued on page 13 Dorota Haber-Lehigh taught a four-week botanical drawing class at the Columbia River Maritime Museum’s Barbey Maritime Center this July and August. Dorota Haber Lehigh shows some botanical leaf drawings in her sketchbook: maple, salal, false lily of the valley and alder. During a trip to Florida, Dorota Haber-Lehigh drew some trop- ical native plants in her sketchbook. Their bright colors and armor-like thorns were a contrast to Pacifi c Northwest native plants, shown here on a table at the Barbey Maritime Center during a recent botanical drawing class. the arts VISUAL ARTS • LITERATURE • THEATER • MUSIC & MORE Story by REBECCA SEDLAK
