On the first floor of the V&A is a corridor full of stained glass. It illustrates the art of the glazier and glass painter from the middle of the 12th Century to the present day. Whole plants and plant motifs appear frequently in the detail. Creations found in the V&A must be an endless source of …
The white lily has got to be up there as one of the most popular plants to be rendered in Western art. Over many centuries the main provider of these floral depictions has been paintings of The Annunciation; the Christian and Catholic celebration of archangel Gabriel’s announcement to the Virgin Mary that she would be the mother of Jesus. The majority …
The South Asia section of the Victoria and Albert museum is awash with plant patterns. If you are looking for a large amount of inspiration in one place, or you just want to plagiarise – everything a few centuries too old to be in copyright – then head here. Textiles, paintings, sculpture and more hang inside huge …
In general, we either tend to be plant people or animal people. Sometimes, the more holistic and evolved among us, are both. Artist Ann Marshall, in her Biophilia series, has surrounded some magical looking animals with some mystically lit plants, collectively resulting in something much more. In addition, she produced some detailed botanical work as …
Brooklyn based artist Eddie Perrote captures the essence and life-force of plants in his expressive, bright, chromatic Stoney Point Flowers series. In Vegetables and Cooking he mixes colour, lines and chaos to fun effect. Artist’s website Stoney Point Flowers is a cut and dried flower wholesaler located in the beautiful countryside of southwestern Wisconsin. For …
The plant-inspired backgrounds to Kehinde Wiley’s (b.1977) portraits are decorative devices to displace the subject from their expected environment. This helps us lose some of our preconceptions, allowing us to see better. Plants being plants, they do a whole lot more than that. They play with stereotypes of young black male masculinity and sensitivity, highlight …
Cedric Morris (1889 – 1982) was a Welsh artist who painted plants – showy, colour drenched, often densely packed, floral arrangements. He was also a plantsman, cultivating a garden in Suffolk where he bred thousands of irises. His painting Iris Seedlings (1943) held by the Tate, no doubt inspired by the latter pursuit. He was …
American born Daniel Ridgway Knight (1839 – 1924) painted women outdoors surrounded by a diverse array of plants, many in flower, always beautiful. The women are interesting, but they are there of course to draw our attention to the main attraction. Tending The Garden Tending The Garden (detail) Spring Blossoms Picking Wildflowers The Rose Garden …
Below is a selection of plant-inspired cover designs from recent fiction releases by some inspired contemporary artists. Underneath those are more artworks, from older books, mostly non-fiction, taken from the fabulous Pinterest board of João Henriques. Landmarks by Robert Macfarlane, Hamish Hamilton. Cover by Stanley Donwood Weathering by Lucy Wood, Bloomsbury Publishing. Cover by Greg Heinimann The Betrayers by …
Botanical accuracy should always be our aim, but if we fall short, there’s no real shame in it, well, only a little. When someone corrects us it’s important to show humility and thank them. They will feel good. Mis-identifying plants is very common because it’s difficult to know the names of 350,000 flowering plants in the …