Often called ‘Prayer Plants’ because their light-sensitive leaves fold up in ‘prayer’ in the evening.
These plants are all part of the Marantacae genus, and consist of Clatheas, Stromanthes, Ctenanthes and Marantas.
Plants always seem to me to be dancing and so I combined the image with dancers. I wanted my Prayer Plant ‘dancers’ to raise their arms like the leaves so at night, with the result that they appear as leafy angels shouting, “Halleluah!”
My first attempt was a drawing in oil pastel, pencil, charcoal and ink.




During this time of COVID I am working from photos, much smaller and in watercolour, as suited to painting at home. It has been an exploration of the some of the Prayer Plant family, and hopefully in the future I’ll be able to move forward with these new images. For more of these paintings see Gallery of Plant and People Paintings, and for more photos see my Gallery of Photos.
Very good!