The birth of a new grandchild this week has put me in the mood to make a bit of children’s art. For this whimsical piece I chose plants that could have been the product of a child’s imagination – foam flower leaves and a crazy coleus on the bottom and fig leaves at the base of the two hills. The composition is rounded out with dainty little andromeda leaves.
I love what these undulating lines do to the look of the foliage I use. In previous versions of this basic design I’ve used feathery ferns and, in one case nothing but very tiny individual fronds. While this piece uses some ordinary ferns to balance the composition, the real stars of the show are the bold Sensitive Fern at the bottom center and individual leaf clusters from my Fringed Bleeding Heart.
This simple composition consists of three leaves — scented geranium, ivy, and sweet potato vine — surrounded by a faux double mat. Sometimes simple is best.
For this series of three small pieces, I reversed and alternated pairs of undulating colors to provide interest and contrast for some lovely ferns and well-shaped small leaves. I keep searching for new ways to use color as well as color shading and juxtaposition to enhance my plants. Some experiments work and some don’t. These three survived the cut and landed in my Etsy shop. Weather permitting they’ll be with me in Providence on Saturday.
Let’s treat this like a newspaper photo but with plants instead of people– Front Row Left to Right; Fern, Sweet Woodruff, Yellow Archangel, Sweet Woodruff Second Row: Dill, Fern, Sweet Woodruff, Fern, Dill
Back Row: Sweet Woodruff, Fern, Fern, Azalea, Ivy, Dill.
(Photo bombers in sky: Sweet Woodruff)
Meet the plants in person at Lippett Park in Providence next Saturday or check into my Etsy shop.
I don’t know what it is about graph paper, but I’ve always loved it. In school, I used it for note-taking. It’s also great when you hit a wall trying to solve the Times acrostic puzzle and need to start from scratch. So why not use a graph paper design to lay out some pretty foliage? I started with some individual fronds from my giant ferns and added some more delicate specimens to balance out the composition. They include Sweet Woodruff, new growth Andromeda and a single sprig of Candytuft.
Even though it is outside of the oval that forms the focal point of this composition, I think the Foam Flower leaf steals the show. It is placed against text which reads ” Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it – Confucius”
See it in my Etsy shop or visit me at the Providence Artisan’s Market at Lippett Park on Saturday.
This week I’m getting ready to show lots of my botanicals at the Providence Artisan’s Market which forms part of the larger Providence Farmer’s Market at Lippitt Park. If you haven’t been and live within driving distance, give it a try. It’s one of the best anywhere short of Union Square in Manhattan. I’ll have about 40 pieces on display including this simple arrangement of Fern, Fringed Bleeding Heart, Yellow Archangel, Maple, and a trio of Sweet Woodruff ‘stars’. I used just a blush of color in the background and divided the image with a crossed ribbon graphic.
While I pass the week making more botanicals and waiting for the weather to heat up I’ll tuck this into my Etsy shop.
For my latest pressed botanical, I used some asymmetrical whorls of leaves from my Sweet Woodruff and added miniature ivy. I like the juxtaposition of soft and severe shapes. For the background, I chose some soft blues and mild rather than dramatic contrast in the alternating colors. This is a continuation of a series I did with oranges, golds, and reds and featuring the variegated leaves from my Euonymus shrubs. See the others in my Etsy shop.
I played a bit with a design I made several weeks ago when the first pressed flower heads of my Andromeda were ready. I tweaked the color scheme, narrowed the divider ribbons, added a neat embellishment at the center and gave the little andromeda trees some clusters of pressed Sweet Woodruff for a more vernal look. Maybe I’ll consider a series that represents all four seasons. Off to the Art of Craft in Cambridge tomorrow. Visit me at the Fayerweather School between 10:00 and 6:00. In the meantime, most of the work can be seen in my Etsy shop.
Lois Lawrence Art 
