The composition of Dutch still life artist Joke Frima’s (b.1952) paintings, choice of plant, combined with her hyperrealistic style, give her botanical work a distinctive feel. In some of her paintings we are drawn into sweeping botanicalscapes by getting a low-down, enmeshed perspective. In other works, like her still life arrangements, she manages to evoke …
Since the turn of the century the following nine artists have used flowers or plants in a call for peace, to counteract images of violence or to highlight social injustice. We celebrate them all here along with the life-affirming nature and beauty of plants. 1. Collages of Mister Blick, 2014 Blick’s collages substitute weapons with …
Do you ever wake up in the morning and think your hair seems a little all over the place. Count yourself lucky, some out there have truly wild hair. Cleverly creative street artists incorporate living plants into their artwork by using nearby vegetation to add hair to their subjects heads. When done well it offers …
The second instalment of our two-part series of tree paintings. On Friday we showed 20 paintings by women and today it’s the men’s turn. It is interesting to note the type of tree that is chosen as subject matter, and how they handle the respective rendering of these vegetative masterpieces. 1. Lucian Freud – Acacia, …
Plant Curator has been scouring the web for plant cartoons and cartoonist with only a modicum of success. Why the dearth? As Berger and Wyse have shown, there is so much humour to be had with plants. However, theirs tend to be focused on produce (i.e. fruit and vegetables) and we want plant plant cartoons. What …
Yesterday we looked at a 19th Century natural history artist with enduring appeal, today we focus on an outstanding modern day one. Rachel Pedder-Smith is a contemporary botanical artist who achieved acclaim for her Herbarium Specimen Painting, first exhibited at Kew Gardens in 2012. At five meters long, this large-scale watercolour montage of plant bits …
Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919) was a German zoologist, philosopher, professor, physician, naturalist, biologist, writer and natural history artist. So somewhat of an overachiever then. He is on record for having done lots of significant things, like discovering over a thousand new species, coining the term ecology and selling Darwin’s theory of evolution to Germany and the …
On paper the Goaman’s marriage was made in heaven. They both lived together and worked together, but that’s not the good bit. They also designed stamps together and better still, a large number of those had a botanical theme. Is there a more pleasurable activity you could possibly do with your partner? Michael and Sylvia …
Fabric designs are teeming with botanical and floral artistry this Spring as always – plants are always on trend, every season, in one form or another. We particularly like those designers that avoid the well-known plants and floral cliches, going instead for something different. Ferns seem to be popular at the moment with both Sanderson …
Patrick Caulfield, CBE, RA (1936 – 2005) is a celebrated UK artist, immediately recognisable for his bold, reductive, outline heavy creations of everyday objects. The critic Christopher Finch described him as a “Romantic disarmed by his own sense of irony”. He somehow managed to paint very little but portray so much. Although considered an ‘urban …