FLORA ART
I am fascinated with flowers – all sorts from dandelions to roses, fuchsias to Australian wildflowers. Whenever I am out and about, I am easily distracted and will detour to enjoy a closer inspection of a colourful bloom with its intricate details and weirdly shaped stamens and petals. The visual feast is only the beginning as the other senses soon take over as the perfume comes into my consciousness. There is a need to touch their petals and remember what it was like before it grew in that spot. I love the visitors. The little creatures who feast and provide more interest in the perfection of a leaf. The colours are beautiful and so random in their mixtures and combinations in the blooms. They can be surprisingly complex or simple in their forms. I love the seeds especially those of dandelions as they float carrying wishes into the sky.
I am addicted to photograph them and learn about their shapes and special features. I zoom in to get the details and it isn’t long before I want to commit them to paper in ink, paint or coloured pencils. I even love to embroider flowers and at present I am exploring artworks composed of both. Like Frieda Kahlo, “I paint flowers so they will not die.”
I enjoy the meaning of flowers and are drawn to quotes that make you think. I only grow dandelions in my garden now and I can hear Eeyore saying, ‘Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them. The roses I am gifted from my mum’s garden are like treasures.
My family have always loved to garden. It is a favourite time, sharing the view of their labours and a joy to watch their garden’s grow.
Whenever I view a garden of blooms there is always a symphony of sound, a flower or a scent that takes you to a place of love; invoking happy memories or quite contemplation of those we have loved and have gone. Flowers are a link to childhood memories, happy moments of celebration, the belief that everything can survive and live on to bloom again. This is evident in the lone bloom, a dandelion that has pushed up through my concrete driveway. It has great determination to live and enjoy life.
‘When flowers bloom so does hope.’ Lady Bird Johnson
‘Happiness is to hold flowers in both hands.’ Japanese Proverb.
This is why I like to draw flowers, their inhabitants and their landscapes
