Olives |Olea europaea | Olea oleaster| Plants of the Qur’ān

From the tiny green wild olive Olea oleaster, in the mountains of Oman and the ancient thousand year old gnarled trees of the domesticated Olea europea on the Saiq plateau, I had to choose from over a thousand varieties . I covered a few of the more common eating and pressing varieties from different countries, kindly supplied by growers in Australia and New Zealand. Always essential to work from living material to capture the finer nuances of colour and shape. Painted from specimens (clockwise from top right): a large green Maraqi in Oman, Nabali from Palestine, Greek Kalamata, French Picholine, Spanish Sevillano, Chilean Azapa, black Italian Pendolino, pink and green Spanish Manzanillo, Spanish Picual, Greek Koroneiki, Italian Latino and Leccino. The flowers and small green wild olive of Olea oleaster were painted at Jebel Akhdar in Oman. Watercolour on paper © Sue Wickison