Fungi of the Pacific Northwest

To anyone who knows me, it’s clear that fungus is definitely not one of the things I like to find in my meal. It surprises some people, therefore, that some of the things I find the most aesthetically pleasing are things that I hate to eat – the same applies with fish and sea creatures, and insects, which I also do not eat. It’s a correlation, rather than causation, but it’s certainly interesting. 

As many of you know, we are in the immigration waiting line, hoping to move to Portland, Oregon. to get a better idea of the world into which I am moving, I joined a lot of Facebook groups that reflect my interests, and so my feed was briefly absolutely flooded with images of harvests – fruit, vegetables, and foraged treasures such as elderberries and mushrooms. 
In New Zealand, it was the very start of spring, so it felt odd to be researching and drawing things that were absolutely not growing in our garden at the time – I have mentioned in my new designs -so many plants post that many of my designs are inspired by our garden – my meadow design was inspired by the little “frens” that grow under the trees in autumn. 

There seem to be a great many chanterelles and other mushrooms that I recognise from mushroom-gathering in Europe. It was nice to know that I will have a lot of familiar varieties, as well as some that I haven’t seen before. My favourite kind of foraging is to take nothing but photographs, but it’s great to know that some of the subjects will also help feed my husband, who adores fungi but doesn’t often get to have them, because of my aversion.

Most of these photos were supplied to me by that Facebook group of foragers, and I am grateful for all the references!

I worked through a great many resources, and added in a few of my meadow drawings, too. 

Once I had all my drawings done, I matched the colours to one of my existing designs – this is a really important part of my process. I keep my background colours consistent, but I also make sure that the colours I use in my designs reflect the palettes of other designs, too. Here, you can see me matching the colours of the fungi to my recent “boulangerie” design. Those with the grey background are completed.

And once it was complete, it came out really well!