Jul 05 2010
My creeper plant at sunset
Now with more time on my hands, I could devote some effort in looking closer at the colours of the plants that I have in our home garden. I noticed that the colours of the flowers and leaves of the plants took on different shades at different times of the day, especially at sunrise and at sunset.
At first I thought that my eyes were playing tricks on me until I remembered a friend of mine who is a photography nerd telling me that he would only take pictures of nature either at sunrise or at sunset. It is because the natural sunlight gives the best colours to the object of nature. I’m talking about painting or taking photographs outdoors.
Last week, one of my creeper plants became the focus of my attention – I managed to capture it on paint canvas during sunset. This is one of the few creeper plants I love because of the unique shape of the leaves. It is called a cheese plant.
The common name is Swiss Cheese Plant or Ceriman. The Botanical name is Monstera Delicasa. This is a poisonous house plant with a poisonous component called Calcium Oxalate. The leaves can cause problems if chewed by humans or family pets. Experimental rats and mice died after they were fed plant extracts. General symptoms of poisoning are immediate and painful with aphonia (loss of voice), blistering, hoarseness and irritation of the mouth. Anyone with children or pets should be made aware of the toxic nature of this plant.
It took me about 3 hours to complete the acrylic painting. I’m quite pleased with the result.