Botanical Serigraphs The Gane Bauer Collection

Redlands, California—Botanical Serigraphs: The Gene Bauer Collection, just released by ESRI Press, is the first compilation of the entire series of flora prints and related writing created by Gene Bauer in the 1970s. Bauer visited 56 California botanical gardens and arboretums to complete this work.

Each visit was recorded with a pencil drawing of a plant or tree that caught her imagination. The drawings were later used to create serigraphs (silk screen prints) in Bauer’s studio. In addition, she wrote a description of each plant, its environment, the circumstance in which she chose to draw it, and her personal musings. Each print and description was published in a booklet and distributed to members of the California Garden Clubs, Inc.

Observes Bauer, “The choice for each drawing was made on the day I visited the garden, and it was always a plant that was particularly attractive to me on that day and not necessarily what was typical or characteristic of the garden. I intended to show that these gardens are interesting every day of the year.” The jacketed, cloth-cover edition published by ESRI Press was created to share this sentiment with a larger audience.

After her personal collection of the booklets was destroyed in a wildfire that burned her home in 1997, collectors of the series returned their original copies to her to complete this publication. Bauer’s attention to detail and keen sense for the extraordinary make this book an excellent gift for artists, gardeners, and anyone who can appreciate the care with which the beautiful serigraphs were created.