Our Daily Dead

From the LA Times…Anne Ophelia Todd Dowden, botanical artist known for detailed paintings of flowers and insects, has died at age 99.

Anne Ophelia Todd Dowden, a botanical artist who wrote and illustrated a number of books and displayed her watercolors at museums and botanical gardens around the country, has died. She was 99.

Dowden died Jan. 4 in her sleep at Frasier Meadows Retirement Community in Boulder, Colorado, according to Carolyn Crawford, a longtime friend.

A native of Denver, Dowden spent many years in New York City but returned to her home state in 1990. She was known for painting flowers, herbs and insects in precise anatomical detail, using only live blossoms as models. She also kept a large collection of beetles and bugs for her work, and once said she had spent six weeks painting the hairs on a bee’s leg for one of her works.

You may find examples of her work here: Hunt Institute For Botanical Documentation

Several of her books won awards. “Look at a Flower” (1963) and “Wild Green Things in the City, A Book of Weeds” (1972) received awards from the American Library Assn. “The Blossom on the Bough, A Book of Trees” (1975) was named an outstanding book for children by the National Science Teachers Assn.

She also illustrated books written by others. “Shakespeare’s Flowers” by Jessica Kerr (1969) and “Roses” by Louis Untermeyer (1970) are among her best-known collaborations.

~~The ODDones for OurDailyDead.com

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This entry was posted on Saturday, January 13th, 2007 at 7:06 am and is filed under ODD Guests, Science, Arts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.