Jody Williams
Missouri Mushrooms

January 6 - February 26, 2022
Opening Reception January 7, 5-8 PM

In the Ameristar Gallery, Foundry Studio Artist Jody Williams presents Missouri Mushrooms.

Dazzling diversity, amazing color, and magical forms make mushrooms an irresistible subject to hunt, draw, and paint. Red, orange, yellow, green, even blue and purple, as well as every shade of grey, brown, and white are represented.

Jody Williams draws virtually every mushroom she collects, resulting in hundreds of drawings of mushrooms in sketchbooks of every shape and size. She photographs each specimen in-situ in the woods, then again as she draws it under controlled lighting and records color notes so that she has enough information to render a mycologically accurate painting. All of Jody’s works are done to scale, including a 20+ inch chicken of the woods which many mistake for a flower.

Williams is fascinated by the beauty, variety, and intricacy of the botanical and mycological world. The color, shapes, and patterns of plants and mushrooms captivate her attention, fuel her imagination, and are the catalyst that drives her creative pursuits as an artist. Her favorite subjects are those that grow around her in nature.

She can regularly be found foraging the woods of her St. Francois County farm seeking fungal gems to draw and paint. Her interest in mushrooms started at an early age as a 4-H member where each year she chose a different area of natural history to study, learning to identify trees, wildflowers, birds, seashells, rocks and minerals, and mushrooms.

She has always had a passion for art and now combines her love of mushrooms with her pursuit of watercolor painting to bring attention to these lesser known jewels of the forest.

Jody is the Executive Director and prior President of the American Society of Botanical Artists, an organization of nearly 2000 members in over 40 countries. ASBA is dedicated to perpetuating the tradition and contemporary practice of botanical art. (www.asba-art.org). She is a frequent contributing writer for and the coordinator of the ‘Botanica Collected’ column of ASBA’s quarterly journal The Botanical Artist. She is a studio artist and the founder of Botanical by Nature TM located at the Foundry Art Centre in St. Charles, Missouri.

Missouri Mushrooms will be on exhibit through February 26th in the Ameristar Gallery, the home gallery of the Foundry Art Centre’s studio artists.