Julia Asenbaum won the Botanical Award in Jackson’s Painting Prize this year with her watercolour painting Cibotium glaucum. In this interview, Julia discusses how science and illustration are interwined in her practice, as well as how she uses materials to get maximum precision in her botanical paintings.
Above image: Aristolochia salvadorensis, 2019, Julia Asenbaum, watercolour on HP 100% cotton paper 70 x 100 cm | 27.5 x 39.3in
Josephine: Could you tell us about your artistic background? How did you become an artist?
Julia: I was always fascinated with nature and always wanted to capture its beauty. When I was four years old, I pretended to be a red blood cell, I had a red jumper and tennis balls wrapped in blue paper as my oxygen, which I always carried around with me. At that time I already started drawing plants and insects. After school I had to decide between art and science. I studied biology for my bachelors degree and then botany for my masters degree. I never lost my interest in drawing and painting though and after receiving my masters degree at the university of Vienna, I started a three-year diploma in botanical illustration at the Botanical Garden of Edinburgh. Sir Joseph Paxton said “botany is the science of beauty”, and I couldn’t agree more, I want to capture and preserve this beauty in my paintings.
Cibotium glaucum, 2022
Julia Asenbaum
Watercolour on HP 100% cotton paper, 76 x 56 cm | 21 x 29.9 in
Josephine: Your work demonstrates extraordinary control and precision. How long does a painting like this take? Can you talk us through your process?
Julia: That’s true, for me it’s all about the details, especially when painting the natural world, all these little details are there for a reason and are the result of million years of evolution. That fascinates me, the closer you look the more interesting it gets. I can totally lose myself in, say for example, the surface of a leaf. I work using a binocular microscope and sometimes it really feels like walking an alien landscape, every tiny hair becomes like a giant otherworldly tree. It takes ages to capture this and sometimes it really makes me crazy. The fiddlehead I painted for the Jacksons Art Prize took about 6 weeks. I start with a pencil sketch, already capturing as many details as possible, it’s almost like a map for me. I break down everything I see into abstract little shapes, that tell me which colour goes where. Once I coloured them, they form a kind of optical illusion of a three-dimensional object. It’s a little bit like painting with numbers. I work with watercolours mainly using the dry in dry technique which gives you a lot of control over the application of colour. I only use very fine brushes.
Magnolia campellii, 2021
Julia Asenbaum
Watercolour on HP 100% cotton paper, 56 x 76 cm | 21 x 29.9 in
Josephine: Do you work on multiple paintings at once?
Julia: No I wish I could, but I am too much of a perfectionist. Also in my day to day life I can only do one thing at a time. Zero multitasking skills…
Josephine: What materials or tools could you not live without? Do you use anything unconventional?
Julia: Firstly, high quality hot press watercolour paper. If the surface of the paper isn’t super smooth it’s a lost cause… Secondly, brushes with super fine tips, again if the tip isn’t perfect its impossible to work with. I do sometimes use regular gelatine (the one you can buy at the supermarket). I dilute it with water and apply it to my paintings while it’s still hot and runny. When it’s dry it forms a super thin, super smooth coating. It locks all the colour layers in the paper beneath it. I then paint the finest details over it, it almost feels like painting on vellum. The newly applied colour will stay on top of the gelatine coating, it will look very saturated and will give even more depth to the painting. It even allows you to use whites over areas that had already been painted with dark colours.
Nepenthes, 2019
Julia Asenbaum
Watercolour on HP 100% cotton paper, 56 x 76 cm | 21 x 29.9 in
Josephine: How do you determine the scale of a piece?
Julia: I have astigmatism and I am a little short sighted. Basically I just want to be able to see everything without exhausting my eyes too much (even if I wear glasses). I always choose the scale of my paintings so I can capture extraordinary detail not immediately visible to the naked eye. I want to magnify it just enough to make it comfortable to look at for the viewer.
Samara (in progress), 2023
Julia Asenbaum
Watercolour on tracing paper, 56 x 76 cm | 21 x 29.9 in
Josephine: What about botanical painting and illustration excites you the most?
Julia: The mix between science and art. I find it so fascination that we as humans walk past a flower and think it’s beautiful, and it seems so simple. But actually there are million years of evolution behind every colour and shape and everything has its function, that’s got nothing to do with the human world. And the closer you look the more complex it gets. You could spend your whole life just studying one cell, and that’s not enough. I love the idea that you can capture all of this in a simple painting.
Aristolochia tricaudata, 2018
Julia Asenbaum
Watercolour on HP 100% cotton paper, 41 x 60 cm | 16.1 x 23.6 in
Josephine: Do you ever use the properties of your materials (drying time, transparency, viscosity) to your advantage when painting? Does this vary depending on the piece?
Julia: Yes I do, although I think that’s something I could get better with, especially when you work with watercolour the way the paper dries and how it absorbs paint during the different stages of the drying process opens up so many opportunities. And yes it totally varies depending on the piece, to a certain degree I have to invent a new technique of applying colour for every species I paint.
Attacus atlas, 2020
Julia Asenbaum
Watercolour on HP 100% cotton paper, 56 x 76 cm | 21 x 29.9 in
Josephine: Which historical or contemporary artists have influenced you the most?
Julia: Albrecht Dürer, Ernst Haeckel, Giuseppe Archimboldo and Hieronymus Bosch. One of my favourite contemporary artists are Asuka Hishiki and Isabel Mischka. I admire their work so much, and I learn from every painting I look at.
Coryanthes kaiseriana, 2021
Julia Asenbaum
Watercolour on HP 100% cotton paper, 56 x 76 cm | 21 x 29.9 in
Josephine: How do you deal with artist’s block or moments of creative stagnation during the painting process?
Julia: The best thing to do is being out in nature especially the forest. If that doesn’t work I just leave it be and wait till I feel like painting again. Artist block used to stress me a lot, but I see it as part of the process now. I even like the idea that you can’t force the painting process and that there is no logical explanation for that. Herman Hesse wrote “a magic dwells in every beginning”, and that’s how it should feel like when I start a painting. If happens while I’m working on a piece though and the magic is suddenly gone, honestly I just have to throw it away!
Quercus cerris, 2020
Julia Asenbaum
Watercolour on HP 100% cotton paper, 56 x 76 cm | 21 x 29.9 in
Josephine: How was your experience taking part in Jackson’s Painting Prize’s first independent large-scale exhibition at Bankside Gallery?
Julia: It was wonderful, I never expected that my painting would win a prize. I was so happy and honoured about it, and I still am. I am not really working as an artist, to me painting is sort of an escape from the stress of day to day life. It made me so happy that the one thing I really enjoy, is so much appreciated by others!
Julia with Cibotium glaucum
Josephine: How do you know when a painting is finished?
Julia: I am a perfectionist, I scan every square centimetre and look out for anything I could add without destroying the painting. If I can’t find anything it’s done. It just feels complete which is very satisfying.
Further Reading
A Guide to Stretching Watercolour Paper
Jackson’s Kite Brushes: How Synthetic Kolinsky Fibre Compares With Natural Sable Hair
Review of Michael Harding Professional Watercolours
A Guide to Watercolour Mediums
Shop Watercolour on jacksonsart.com
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