Talk of Margaret Mee prompts me to mention that the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford has a very fine exhibition of botanical paintings running until August. I do not know what draws an aesthetic line between a photograph and a near-photographic representation - idealization, perhaps? - but it is precisely the same dynamic that draws a line for me between a species orchid and a hybrid. There is plainly nothing wrong with the latter, but it just does not fire the spark for me.
_____________________________________ Oliver Sparrow Tel: UK (0)20 7736 9716 www.chforum.org www.treknepal.org www.trekperu.org www.datafreeze.com _______________________________________________ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) [email protected] http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
