I can say with Picasso, “I do not find, I steal.” (He said something like that.) I did not create, rather I adapted this cardoon. I found it in the Hortus Eystettensis and have inserted it into several of my paintings, as here. It doesn’t, so far as I can determine, look anything like the actual cardoon (thistle). Perhaps some gardener out there can illuminate the mystery prompted by a comparison of the Hortus Eyestettensis image with an everyday thistle.
I “transplanted” four or five of the Eystettensis thistles into my painting, of which you see a detail here. This one seems to be doing well. Could use a little more sun. This is my kind of gardening. My green thumb’s got a little cadium pale mixed with viridian.
[Top of the post: Cardoon emblem, detail of a painting in progress, by Aletha Kuschan]
