In this wallpaper that William Morris designed, the striking effects derive from the use of non local colour to reinvent the distinctively golden flowers in blue. The effect is to cool the gold and to defamiliarise what could have easily been a cliched scene. Presumably, the inclusion of white in the scheme would have brought …
Today, 16 March, would have been the birthday of one of the greats – botanist and artist Anna Atkins (1799 – 1871). Atkins is believed to be the first woman to ever create a photographic book, and possibly the first woman to ever take a photograph. Her images are a type of photogram using what …
Chris Ofili lives and works in Barbados and Trinidad. The photographed plant segments below are taken from his thrilling artworks currently on show at Victoria Miro, London.
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 …
Seattle based photographer Cody Cobb’s images project atmosphere, silence and mystery. There’s a story in all of them: Where does the road lead? Why has that tree fallen? What’s on the other side of the river? The plants – tones of green and brown, textures soft and hard, growth both ordered and chaotic, environments exotic …
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 …
Peter Lippmann appears to be a photographer who would greatly enjoy focusing on shooting plants full-time. His personal portfolio has collections of rotting fruit, flowers in jars and assorted cacti. In his commercial work he takes haute couture photographs of expensive shoes, handbags and jewellery, yet even for these assignments he manages to slip in …