Tam O’Neill Fine Arts in Cherry Creek North is a gallery with a garden — a lavish one in which all four seasons occur simultaneously, and delicate flowers don’t wilt or fade, even after centuries.
The gallery traffics in antique botanical prints that include images of riotous tulips, feathery grasses, ferns with their Fibonacci swirls and flourishes, vegetables in paint-box colors, herbs and tropical plants. An exhibition of such prints is hanging in the gallery through May 14.
“These prints are hyperinclusive,” said O’Neill, herself an avid gardener. For example, in depictions of fruit trees, “You might see a drawing from bud to blossom to fruit on the branch — all the seasons at once. It’s more information, and beyond what you can see” in nature.
Some of the prints were once color plates in such widely revered, rare horticultural books as “Hortus Eystettensis” or “Temple of Flora.” Others were designed as limited-edition prints by lesser-known artists. All give a gardener a detailed view of the microcosm.
Though they possess artistic appeal, the drawings were rendered to record natural history, O’Neill said.
“Gardening is an intellectual endeavor, as well as a pastime that requires you to get your hands dirty. These prints provided a scientific description.”
They also gave viewers hints about what the plant wanted.
“From the artistic side of gardening, you can’t grab a plant and say, ‘This will be pretty there.’ It has to like being there,” she said.
The prints also told early collectors of plants about new cultivars. “Somebody could look at the illustration and identify this plant when they found it, based on the shapes of the leaves and the form of the drawing.” That’s why students from the Denver Botanic Gardens’ botanical illustration program frequent the gallery.
The gallery has images of garden fauna as well as flora. The subjects of the works often include intricate butterflies, elegant birds’ eggs and a fanciful series of flower fairies.
“Gardens have creatures,” said O’Neill. “You have to make peace with the insect world in the garden. You’re going to run into a caterpillar here or there. The prints can help people embrace the insect world and learn that some are friends and some are foes, but they’re out there.”
Botanical art also captures the passage of time. O’Neill points out several large prints in a bin. Printed on 100 percent rag paper that more closely resembles fabric, their pigments have held their vivid colors, despite the fact that they date to 1613.
The prints were commissioned by the Catholic Church. They documented a German bishop’s garden and included the first full-folio flower illustrations.
“Prints, for me, become this other extension of thinking about gardens through time,” O’Neill said. The fleeting and ethereal nature of flowers has long appealed to artists.
“Flowers come and go. Petals are falling on the table in front of artists as they’re working away,” she said. “When you cut flowers and bring them into your home, they are only going to last a short time.”
Not so botanical art, which maintains its beauty year after year — come rain, hail or even snow.
Colleen Smith gardens in central Denver. Her first novel, “Glass Halo,” is available through .
Botanic Gardens illustration courses
The Denver Botanic Gardens offers a certificate in botanical illustration that involves 13 required classes and 100 hours of electives and culminates in a portfolio. Also offered is an introductory course that isn’t part of the certificate program. For more information on the program and other events at the gardens that focus on illustration, go to .
