Close Cactus II - Agave

by Debbie Hart

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Price

$250

Dimensions

20.000 x 20.000 x 2.000 inches

Title

Close Cactus II - Agave

Artist

Debbie Hart

Medium

Painting - Oil On Canvas

Description

I've been setting a goal for myself of staying to series work, mainly nature and wildlife since this is my formal training. This also was an exercise in staying looser. I plan to do several more of these close up, almost abstract compositions with a limited palette to stay clean and crisp. Some artists don't like being compared to Georgia O'Keefe because they like to be original. Not me; this is a huge compliment.

I used to think agave plants were tough and only available in climates like deserts. What I didn�t realize is that agave also adapts well to home and commercial landscapes in the Midwest, where they thrive in the sometimes harsh and extreme conditions we experience here. I have noticed this more and more since a vacation in Arizona.

Agave and yucca plant use has grown recently, partly due to increasing water restrictions in arid areas. Agave and yucca are found in native environments that typically are dry, hot, sunny, and windy with low rainfall and poor soil. This adaptability translates into low maintenance since typically they need little or no irrigation, fertilizer, pruning, or spraying. Many agave and yucca plants withstand drought, heat, strong winds, and cold weather, and have few pests and diseases. They are tolerant of poor soils and therefore rarely develop nutrient deficiencies. The wide variety of sizes, shapes, and growth characteristics allow for many landscape uses, including groundcover, bedding plants, container plants, shrubs, and, especially, dramatic specimen plants.

Beside their toughness, agave and yucca have dramatic architectural forms and unusual shapes. In addition, these plants have fascinating leathery leaves, often adorned with barbs or spines. There are more than 200 species of agave.
Agave varies in size from a few inches to more than 12 ft. tall. Leaf colors are diverse from deep to lemony yellow green to blue green to gray, and leaves may be striped or mottled with white, cream or yellow. It takes a while for flowering to occur, and then they develop spikes of several colors on tall stems. After flowering, the parent plant usually dies, however a number of small plants form around the base of the parent plant. The small plants are technically called offsets or pups. These may be separated from the parent plant for propagation.

In the APG III system, the genus is placed in the subfamily Agavoideae of the broadly circumscribed family Asparagaceae.[4] Some authors prefer to place it in the segregate family Agavaceae.

Uploaded

November 18th, 2012

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