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Plant pathogen paintings & photos

Pop-art style picture of a simplified branch, five leaves and a red/green apple. Four of the leaves are twisted, one is yellowing and all have black, scabby spots. The apple has brown scabby spots too.
The painting shows an olive twig. The leaves are green at the tip, gradually changing to yellow at the base. There are dark grey-green circles on the adaxial (upper) leaf surface.
Akase station - a tiny train station made of corrugated plastic sheeting and metal beams, by the side of a single track rail line, draw in in biro on white paper
a pelargonium leaf drawn in coloured pencil on vellum
Pop-art style picture of a simplified banana plant. The new leaves at the top of the plant are narrower and flatter than normal, causing them to appear bunched together. The leaf margins are wavy and chlorotic (yellow), with brown necrotic regions.
Alternaria: a simplified green cabbage leaf with pale green veins. Symptoms shown are round, brown spots with concentric rings and a yellow halo surrounding the lesion. Streptomyces: three simplified potatoes, with raised, rough patches of dark brown skin.
A tram, viewed at an angle, draw in in biro on white paper
Seven leaves drawn in coloured pencil on white paper. One leaf is red, one yellow and brown, and five predominantly green. One of the green leaves is a long blade of grass, which leads the viewer around the page
The painting shows a single, bright green, round leaf. Conidiophores cover the surface, illustrated as white round shapes (conidia) at the tips of black lines (conidiophore stems, branches and metulae). The overall effect resembles a mouldy green table tennis racket.
A picture of a simplified flat green leaf, with a black outline and details picked out in red, painted on a white background.
The painting shows a teleutosorus (or sori) on a wheat stem. A chain of ruptured epidermal cells visible on either side of the teleutospores. Below the teleutospores, there is a mass of hyphae amongst the host cells. A vascular bundle is present to the left of the fungal lesion. It looks a bit like a smiley face, with the metaxylem forming the eyes, and the protoxylem forming the nose and smiling mouth.
Kumamon, the Kumamoto bear mascot, draw in in biro on white paper
The painting shows five longitudinal sections of banana roots, progressing from healthy to heavily infected, along with one transverse (cross) section. The increasing number and spread of necrotic lesions are represented in dark brown ink, and there are progressively fewer lateral roots as the infection advances.
A picture of a simplified flat green leaf, with a black outline. There are black, tar-like spots on the surface, each surrounded by a thin outline of yellow chlorosis.
The painting shows a lawn daisy infected with Puccinia distincta. The daisy has three flower stems topped by small white flowers, and 12 leaves. There are yellow chlorotic regions on the leaves and stems, and small orange pustules. Infected leaves appear pale, stand more erect, and have rust blisters with cluster-cups (aecium/aecia) on both surfaces.
A pink toad lily (Tricyrtis sp.) in Shin-En Hana Garden, Japan
Three purple crocus flowers drawn in pen and ink with stippling, coloured with watercolour, with bright yellow and orange centres and slender green leaves against a white background.
The painting shows a trifoliate runner bean (Phaseolus coccineus) leaf. The three leaflets have many yellow, roughly circular, chlorotic lesions with reddish-brown centres
A picture of a cacao plant, with six fruit pods. One juvenile pod is deformed, and three large pods have black zones of necrosis, with white fuzzy areas representing fungal sporulation.
The painting depicts a young tomato plant with five leaves. Symptoms are more severe on the lower parts of the plant. The lowest infected leaves are curled and show brown, dried areas. The three bottom leaves display grayish-purple spots on the undersides and pale green spots on the upper surfaces. The top two leaves do not yet show any signs of infection.
A drawing of three men in a boat. I think they were fishing rubbish (trash) out of the harbour. The drawing was done in black biro on white watercolour paper.
Pink camellia flower drawn in pen and ink with stippling, coloured with watercolour, surrounded by green leaves with highlighted areas showing reflected light.
Ink painting/drawing of rice bacterial blight, caused by Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae. The painting shows three rice leaves with characteristic greyish white lesions with wavy margins. The lesions have spread from the leaf tip and margins.
A picture of a banana plant with nine leaves. Five of those leaves show leaf streaks, running parallel to the veins. The leaf streaks are yellow, with mature streaks/lesions having brown centres. In some areas, the lesions have merged leading to regions of leaf death.
A drawing of a selfie photograph, with two men (left and right) and one woman (centre) all wearing disposable face masks
The painting shows an alligator’s jawline and teeth. The alligator is painted with broad, expressive strokes, emphasising the shape rather than fine detail.
The painting shows a pearl millet seed head with a single leaf. The millet seeds are small and brown. The smut-infected grains are dark brown, and larger than the uninfected seeds.
A picture of a young cabbage plant with five leaves. Thick, irregular club-shaped galls have formed on the roots.
A slug, possibly the red slug (Arion rufus), from my garden
I painted symptoms of Cladosporium fulvum (synonym Passalora fulva) on a young tomato plant. This painting was commissioned for Professor Jonathan Jones’ retirement seminar and was used on the invitations https://hgpenningtonart.com/plantspathogens-2025
I drew the flower in in Derwent Watercolour, Prismacolour and Karisma pencils, on Strathmore 400 Toned 118gsm Gray paper, so that the white edged petals would stand out. The image depicts a mostly white Hippeastrum with fine red markings. The drawing shows two flowers, one of which is fully open. The petals are green at the centre, with red lines and speckles that increase in density toward the outer edge.
The painting shows a brown barley seed head with three dark-brown ergot kernels (sclerotium), which are larger than the uninfected grains.
The painting shows a sour orange branch with three fruit and 10 leaves. The symptoms shown include leaf yellowing, fruit asymmetry, and discolouration of fruit.
The painting shows a cluster of ivy leaves, from which three ivy broomrape flower stems are emerging. From left to right, the stems are at different stages of development: partially open, tall and fully open, and short with closed flower buds.
10 round cysts in shades of tan and brown, on a white potato root
a photograph of a baby robin standing on the edge of a bird feeder and staring at the person taking the photograph
The painting shows two olive twigs. The leaves on the left-hand twig have completely dried out, and turned brown, and the four olives are grey and wrinkly. The right-hand twig has begun to dry out. The leaf points have turned brown, with desiccation being worse towards the twig’s tip.
The painting shows two leaves, each with seven leaf lobes. The leaves are a mosaic of yellow, light green and dark-green patches. The key symptomatic difference between these two viruses is the distorted leaf lamina (right).
A drawing of two suitcases with luggage straps around their middles
The drawing shows three yellowing leaves, each with bacterial brown lesions. In the two lower leaves, the lesions at the edge of the leaf have dropped out, leaving characteristic holes. Chlorotic halos, surrounded by islands of green tissue, appear strikingly unusual against the yellow and brown tones of the dying leaves.
Left: citrus leprosis - The painting shows an orange branch, with 10 leaves, three twigs and one underripe green orange. The leaves and fruit have chlorotic pale yellow lesions, while the mature lesions on the leaves and lesions on the fruit contain brown necrotic (dead) regions. Right: citrus canker - The painting shows an orange branch, with seven leaves, two twigs and one underripe green orange. There are brown warty lesions, on the leaves and fruit, each surrounded by a yellow chlorotic halo.
The painting shows an orange branch, with seven leaves, two twigs and one underripe green orange. There are brown warty lesions, on the leaves and fruit, each surrounded by a yellow chlorotic halo.
The painting shows a strawberry, where leaves have formed at each point where you would usually expect a seed.
A drawing of tea set in a hotel room including a water bottle, kettle, two mugs, two teaspoons and a tray of tea, sugar and coffee sachets, and tiny pots of milk. The drawing was done in black biro on white watercolour paper.
The painting shows wilted brown pine needles, a whitespotted pine sawyer - Monochamus scutellatus, and a nematode. The illustrations are done in black fine liner and ink paints on white watercolour paper
The painting shows both the adaxial (upper) and abaxial (lower) faces of a peanut leaf placed side-by-side. . Peanut leaves are compound, with four leaflets arranged in two pairs along the stem. Reddish-brown pustules are visible on the abaxial surface, each surrounded by a chlorotic halo. Chlorotic areas, some of which contain brown regions of necrosis, can be seen on the adaxial surface.
The painting shows a corn cob, with a brown opened husk, and an exposed cob. The kernels on the cob are yellow near the base. Near the tip, infection has taken hold, with white and pink cottony mould surrounding the kernels. The infected kernels are a tan colour.
Mount Fuji from the Aeroplane: the view of Mount Fuji through the aeroplane window.
A magnolia flower with an attached stem and leaves, drawn in ink pen on white paper. I used stippling to give the flower depth and form.
The painting shows a wheat seedling with 10 leaves. There are yellow stripes on the leaves parallel to the venations of the leaf blades. Orange uridenia, shown as orange dots, on the stripes produce urideniospores.
The painting shows a green area representing turf, with some individual blades of grass picked out in shades of darker green. A white, patch circle represents the fungal mycelia, surrounding a brown, dead region of grass. There is some green, healthy-looking grass in the centre of the circle.
Two paintings of Aspergillus flavus, depicting the stipe (stem), vesicle (bud), metulae and phialides (cells on the vesicle surface), and conidia (spores). Rendered in dark blue to represent trypan blue, with black outlines.
Luna Moth, Tamagawa Yuen: a lunar moth, with its wing tails missing.
Iris, Alstroemeria and a tulip, arranged in a cluster of three stems. The three subjects have been drawn using graphite pencils on white paper.
A single green Fatsia japonica leaf, with eight large ringspot lesions. The lesions have a wide chlorotic creamy-yellow margin, and concentric green narrow-banded rings at their centres.
The painting shows a peach twig, which terminates in six leaves. The leaves are puckered and distorted. Two leaves are more heavily infected than the others, showing a characteristic downward and inward curl. The thickened, puckered leaf areas are orange-red, with some nearby zones showing chlorosis (turning yellow).
The painting shows a quadrant of a cross-section through the ergot stroma, with the internal fungal tissue stained blue. Around the periphery, perithecia are outlined in black, and the lines within them represent asci.
Liminal Space - Long Hotel Corridor: an incredibly long hotel corridor, which disappears into a point in the distance.
purple aster (Callistephus chinensis) in watercolour paints.