Ai Weiwei seems to be everywhere these days, which is ironic considering he remains country-bound, prohibited from travelling outside of his native China for dissident activities. Hasn’t seemed to have stopped him, with the help of social media and an exponential growth of western fans, it will be fascinating to watch how far he can …
Paul Morrison’s monochromatic botanical landscapes give us a bit of everything we love. Firstly, he renders plants in a reasonably botanically accurate way, clearly taking inspiration from the shapes and patterns that plants produce. But he then shakes it all up a bit to great effect. Not only does he add some more cartoony impressionistic …
A multi-award winning photographer, hailed as a “Landscape Master” by Outdoor Photographer Magazine, and called “one of Canada’s best photographers” by CBC, Graham Osborne has not been short of accolades in his career. His publication list includes many picture book triumphs including Plant Curator’s personal favourite Wildflowers: Seasonal Splendors of the North American West, which beautifully …
Has anybody noticed the way vine plants are creeping into the design of the Beatty Street Mural in Vancouver? It is as if they seem to know exactly where to go and how to perfectly accentuate the look of each individual rendered. An eye-patch to David Suzuki, a goatee for Terry Fox, a bit more …
Not sure what exactly it is about a badly groomed or recalcitrant shrub that is endearing. But they generally are. Even more so if found in a slightly less than salubrious locale. They’re like the kid that just doesn’t realise how special they are, you just want to help their self-esteem while not changing them …
Yesterday’s Google Doodle (27th May) celebrated the birthday of marine biologist, nature writer and conservationist Rachel Carson (1907-64). Her dismay and outrage at the impact of pesticides on the environment and public health led to her writing the influential book Silent Spring in 1962. The illustration was designed by Doodlier Matthew Cruickshank. Gaining inspiration from her quote ‘In nature nothing exists alone’, he …
If you are an emerging artist looking for a place to sell your art online there are an increasing number of options to choose from. The percentage of sales acquired this way is still low compared to local art fairs, dealers and word of mouth, but it is on the up as online galleries make …
Forget Tracey Emin and Damien Hirst – where are their plants? Our favourite of the celebrated ‘Young British Artists’ that studied at London’s Goldsmiths College in the late 1980s is Gary Hume (born 1962). A painter who fairly recently (end of last year) had a retrospective with another of our favourite artists Patrick Caulfield at …
Today we look at two artists who took inspiration from still life past masters to create their own floral artwork, each with its own message and purpose. Dan Tobin Smith’s Still Life with Flowers Currently exhibiting at The Storeroom at L’Entrepôt in Dalston until June 8th as part of this year’s Chelsea Fringe, Dan Tobin Smith’s Still …
There is only one thing better than a postage stamp rendered with a plant-inspired design, and that is a complete collection of postage stamps ever issued within a specific plant area. Thematically ‘plants’ is too wide an area to begin a foray into the most interesting OCD activity ever invented. It needs to be narrowed down a little. This can be done …