At Plant Curator we use the term ‘plant art’ to refer to any representation of creativity in the arts that utilise plants. It doesn’t matter to us if this is a poem or a painting, or if it’s a naturalistic representation or something altogether more abstract, we just want to celebrate plants because they do not …
If anyone is visiting the Canaries for some winter sun, then look out for the outlandish plant Dracaena draco, a.k.a Dragon tree or just Drago. A native of Macronesia and Morocco, it’s very exciting to see a mature specimen in the wild, rather than how we might usually see it here, growing as a house …
Finding fresh ways to represent plants is no easy thing. Varying the perspective, taking obscure viewpoints, playing with abstraction, looking at fine detail and engaging with elements of surrealism, are all possible approaches. One artist that utilised all of these was Mauritis Cornelis Escher (1898-1972). The son of a Dutch engineer, he studied architecture, graphic …
Upswept silky petals, delicate nodding heads, heart-shaped marbled foliage, often fragrant – cyclamen have a whole lot going for them. Although a favourite at this time of year, you could have one flowering every month if you so choose, as different species flower at different times and at the latest count, there are over twenty. Yet …
Lee Krasner, Self-Portrait, ca. 1929 © The Metropolitan Museum of Art Lucian Freud, Interior with Plant, Reflection Listening, 1967 Gilbert and George, Nettle Dance, 2008 Joni Mitchell, Clouds, 1969 Natalia Goncharova, Self-portrait, 1907 Anthony van Dyck, Self Portrait With a Sunflower, c.1633 Umberto Boccioni, Self portrait, 1905 Egon Schiele, Self-Portrait with Lampion Fruit, 1912 Frida …
After orchids, poinsettia is ranked as the UK’s most popular pot plant, yet it’s a plant with a difficult, but familiar story: Removed a long time ago from a poorer nation (Mexico), by Ambassador Poinsett, a representative of a richer nation (USA), it was then distributed, cultivated and sold, creating huge economic reward for the transporter and his nation. …
The Tower of London Poppies really captured the public’s imagination. It’s hard to think of a previous public art installation that created so much excitement and mass interest. Perhaps the sentiment behind the artwork had a lot to do with this, but for certain the scale, location and resulting visual impact were major factors too. In the aftermath of their glory, …
Marguerite Kelsey and a magnolia by Meredith Frampton, 1928 What an exquisite specimen. The woman is quite lovely too. When Meredith Frampton (1894 – 1984) painted Marguerite Kelsey’s portrait in 1928 he achieved excellence, stunningly matching her particular kind of beauty with a particularly beautiful plant. This is an image that is all about poise and pride, class …
It’s fascinating to see how much high-end art gets sold for at auction. How wonderful that Georgia O’Keeffe’s painting Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1 went for over $44m yesterday at Sotheby’s, New York. It’s about time a female artist moved into the higher echelons of the most expensive artworks ever sold list. The sale price …
The name dandelion comes from the French “dent de lion”, meaning lion’s tooth, which references the toothed edges of the leaves. In flower, it’s a plant that is so common, we scarcely notice it, apart from to designate to weed status when in our way. Yet when it turns to seed, it is appreciated much more: …