Mushroom Art for Sale by Artist C Ribet 09

Fungi Art for Sale by Artist 09

While not the case for mushroom art prints, for the purpose of mushroom identification and mycology studies, it is perfectly acceptable and in many circumstances absolutely essential to pick the mushroom. If the mushroom is growing so that the gills are not visible, or if one needs to take a spore print, or if one needs to examine the base of the mushroom stem to determine if it is tapered or bulbous, one often can't do any of that satisfactorily without picking the mushroom. For a mushroom photograph to adequately present a subject for safe mushroom identification (which you certainly want if you are out mushroom picking), it should show clearly every feature of the mushroom. How does a mushroom photograph show the top and the bottom of a mushroom, from cap to base of stem, if the there wasn't at least a little mushroom picking in the photographic process! 


Mushroom Art for Sale by Artist C Ribet 05

Many things which some might view as hassles are in fact what make the process of stalking mushrooms for fungi watercolor …

Mushroom Art for Sale by Artist C Ribet 09

While not the case for mushroom art prints, for the purpose of mushroom identification and mycology studies, it is perfectly …

Mushroom Art for Sale by Artist C Ribet 13

Sometimes it is best to use the scene's natural light, although this kind of low light photography (particularly under …

Mushroom Art for Sale by Artist C Ribet 06

Why is it that taking pictures of mushrooms presents a special challenge for someone wanting to make mushroom watercolor …

Mushroom Art for Sale by Artist C Ribet 16

I do not intend my mushroom art photographs and prints to be used for mushroom identification, and, although I am often …

Mushroom Art for Sale by Artist C Ribet 14

There is no question that from a purely mechanical and practical standpoint, mushroom picking can make mushroom photography

Mushroom Art for Sale by Artist C Ribet 12

My mushroom photography for my mushroom art prints is most often not so much mycological photography of the mushrooms …

Mushroom Art for Sale by Artist C Ribet 10

Especially for the wild mushroom fine art giclee prints taken of fungi living on the forest floor such as that of the great California coastal redwood forests. The mushroom photographs taken there almost always show aspects of the life cycle of the redwood forest as well as their own. In those pictures there seems to always creep in some of the characteristic organic litter of the redwood forest or the mushrooms themselves in the pictures are growing from a log or fallen redwood branch. …

Mushroom Art for Sale by Artist C Ribet 15

If you chose to do so, you certainly could set out to make a fungi art gallery out of the actual fungus mycelia which produce the mushroom fruit bodies, but then you would miss out on all the great mushrooms the mycelia produce. Taking pictures to create that kind of a fungi gallery would be more like taking pictures to create a rose gallery of rose stems, roots, and petals, instead of a gallery of rose blossoms. …

Mushroom Art for Sale by Artist C Ribet 11

The forest provides absolutely everything required by the fungi mycelium. The decaying organic debris of the forest gives the mycelium all the nutrients it will need throughout its life. The organic litter gives it the nourishment it needs to fruit and to yield the beautiful mushrooms you see in the mushroom giclee prints like The Sage and in the

Mushroom Art for Sale by Artist C Ribet 08

A mushroom picture really only reveals a little bit about the life of the fungus mycelium which produces the mushroom fruit body you see in the picture. A snapshot of the life of the fungus is really a good term. Because the mushroom itself is merely the fruiting body of the mycelium, taking a mushroom picture shows a snapshot in time - of the time when the mycelium is fruiting, which may sometimes be very brief in a given season. …

Mushroom Art for Sale by Artist C Ribet 17

The mycelium which is fruiting and producing the mushrooms at the time of a mushroom picture may be anything from a relatively new fungus growth to a much older, established fungus. A well established fungus mycelium may stretch over great areas underground or throughout the mass of a rotting stump or log. It is particularly dramatic to imagine the hidden mycelium of a fungus in a huge redwood stump or log where one sees them within the vestiges of the old growth redwood forests and within the remains of the forests left after decades of ruthless logging. …


© C Ribet 2013