Gordon Beningfield: Pacific Calypso Orchid

Artist: Gordon Beningfield
1936 - 1998
Nationality: British
Artwork Year: 1984
Image Size: 11.75 by 13.75 inches
Overall Size: 15.375 by 17.375 inches
Medium: Water Color on Water Color Paper

The noted horticulturist, O. O. Nylander, delightfully described one of the first times he came in contact with the Pacific Calypso Orchid ... also known as the Fairy Slipper. In his words ... "An inviting coolness seeped from the forest as I strolled between the rough corrugated trunks, and an undisturbed quietude lay over the green plateau. The feet of heavy forest denizens had left their impressions in the lush cover of lichens and mosses. All animate life lay still in its retreat. Beneath low hanging bows of conifers could be seen the bearded lips of the Fairy Slipper -- the delicate nymphal orchid which hides in wet bogs in our eastern states and trails in deep moss of woodland in the Rocky Mountains. The solitary pastel pink-purple flowers, touched here and there with white and yellow, diffidently nodded on the tips of short slender stems. Myriads of these dainty little plants grew in a mossy cushion in the dense shadow of low horizontal spruce branches. As if to secrete their beauty for some sylvan sprite, they had hidden themselves in solitude, for no other herb kept them company." The Pacific Calypso ... named after the sea nymph in Homer's Odyssey ... is indeed a remarkably beautiful flower.

This painting was originally published on the Fleetwood® First Day Cover for the U.S. 20¢ Pacific Calypso Orchid stamp issued March 5, 1984.

Artwork Copyright © 1984 Unicover Corporation. All Rights Reserved under United States and international copyright laws. You may not reproduce, distribute, transmit, or otherwise exploit the Artwork in any way. Images of the Artwork may be watermarked and/or digitally watermarked. Any sale of the physical original does not include or convey the Copyright or any right comprised in the copyright.

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