Dark Botanical is the entry point for Katrina Moorhead’s solo exhibition at Inman Gallery, seapinksea, and the work from which the exhibition takes its name. Two botanicals float in a field of black, one overlaid on the other. The plants are cropped at the right suggesting movement out of the picture plane, and they leave a contemplative void to the left of the composition. Both botanicals depict the robust and hardy sea pink, a flowering plant found across the northern hemisphere, and that for Moorhead resonates specifically with her native Northern Ireland. The sea pink lives on the coast amid rocky soil and salty sea air conditions, and the plant is described as a survivor. Moorhead set out to make a portrait of this plant using a traditional rendering (seen in color) and a ‘spirited’ rendition of the plant taken from a 100-year-old drawing by Charles Rennie MacIntosh (seen in black). For Moorhead, this portrayal of the plant describes its emotional qualities and collapses time, further emphasizing the plant as a survivor. This survivor trait resonates throughout the exhibition and provides a contemplative—and spirited—beginning for this newest body of work. 

Moorhead worked directly with the printers at Hare & Hound Press in San Antonio, TX, to develop the technique for Dark Botanical. Moorhead first made a watercolor on white paper, then the work was photographed and digitized, and a black background was added digitally. The file was then output as an inkjet print on Somerset Satin 300 gsm paper. The second botanical, which reads as a black line drawing made in black salt and glitter, was achieved through lithography by printing with black ink directly on the inkjet print. Finally, the salt and glitter were adhered to the black lithographic ink. The print exists as an edition of five with one artist proof.