Work in progress - Scarlet Elf Cup Mushroom Painting
We found these amazing red mushrooms in the woods a month or two ago, and every walk since then I sought them out but never spotted them... they were so beautiful and unusual with their inverted cup shape & otherworldly bright red and I wanted to see them again!
Weeks later we discovered some in our garden and then read about them in a book (The Foragers Calendar by John Wright). They’re Scarlet Elf Cups, apparently there edible, are lovely with wild garlic pesto plopped in there, and their fruiting body appears most commonly in damp wooded areas around February.
I went out on Saturday to try again to find them so I could take pictures to paint from, and after a bit of looking and retracing my steps was so happy to spot them again! They’re now a bit nibbled and holey but still so vivid and amazing.
After that encounter I weirdly found LOADS more teeny ones on rotting old sticks and in the mud, in places I walk all the time. It always amazes me how you can go for so long missing out on seeing things because you’re not looking for them, but then as soon as you have your heart & mind set on finding them you become like a radar for it! I probably found about 6 more little clusters or individuals after finding these ones.
After all the bright colourful Easter vibe paintings I wanted to paint something a bit more from my heart and my own experience, and these little beings kept coming to mind. Really drawn to painting the darkness, magic, life and death of the woods more.
This painting is quite a new size for me at this level of detail, usually I paint tiny things that are no more than about 3.5 inches square! This when finished will be about 6x7”. Not huge but a bit of a jump for the level of detail that will be going in for me.
Finished prints of my paintings can be found at beckyruistudio.etsy.com!