I have an unlimited supply of these perfect little whorls of Sweet Woodruff, but perfection can be boring. Everyone sees something else in abstract art and probably in plants as well. In this case, I see Laugh-In and Volkswagon Busses. I love the rich color of the Sweet Potato Vine. Since my garden is shady, I usually choose the vivid green variety better to emerge from the shadows, but now that I know how nicely the deep purple dries, I’ll have to bend the rules a bit more this season.
A few posts ago, I showed the same graphic in different colors. That version was cropped and used dill as a filler to drape over the edges of the base. This time, I centered the full image, changed the color scheme and fashioned some minimalist “flowers” out of Roses, Sweet Woodruff, and Ivy. I have yet a third one in the works in some colors that will jump out of the frame. Can’t wait to design the contents of the vase.
I’ve been playing a lot with very organized foliage so thought it might be time for a return to a little craziness. This is also the first time I can remember mixing my Mexican Feathergrass with other plants. Some days you just have to go for it. I used a little simple origami to make trumpets out of rose petals and put them on dried twigs from a shrub that originally looked pretty much like this except without transplanted flowers. if you haven’t already noticed, there are no rules. See this and dozens more at my Etsy shop or, better still, see the work in person at The Art of Craft in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on May 11th (the day before Mother’s Day)
I loved making this vase which could have come straight out of a coloring book. It is simply constructed as a word document using overlapping ovals, squares and triangles with wide black borders. To erase the parts of the borders that needed to be invisible, I used more borderless circles and squares. In all, the simple little vase is probably constructed of about 10 or 12 superimposed shapes.
I filled my vase with dill and made the flower with dried petals from my Andromeda that I treated with floral preservative then dusted with shavings from blue pastel chalk. I think I’ll make another one in just black and white so the foliage will pop even more.
To see the whole collection, go to my Etsy shop.
I create all of my graphic backgrounds with Microsoft Word. For me, at least, this is never as easy as I expect. It’s taken me a long time to master the intricacies of adding shapes, erasing lines, modifying color, superimposing images, embedding text, and — today’s lesson — modulating color. For this swirl of Azalea leaves, I wanted a background that started light and deepened as it descended the page. I started by trying to wing it.Highlight a few lines, Click on “format” click on “shading” select a color for a stripe. Click on the same color, then click on more colors, then click on “custom”, then move the arrow…and so on. It didn’t go smoothly. Then it occurred to me to look at the luminosity numbers next to the color scale gauge. Eureka. Check out my other backgrounds in my Etsy shop.
I have other ideas that seem like they will be easy to execute, like creating a color block “vase” with nothing but lines and shapes. We’ll see. It never turns out to be as easy as I expect when I envision it at 5:OO AM.
Last season, my botanical art was strictly about pressed foliage. Going forward, I plan to continue to exand my exploration of the design possibilities my shade garden plants present. Lately, though, I succumbed to the temptation to begin incorporating some flowers as well. I think it all started when I became impassioned about saving my blizzard-damaged Andromeda. Following the advice of a master gardener, we waited until Spring to see if our listing tree would upright itself naturally. That didn’t happen, so we’ve moved to plan B — removing about 1/3 of the plant to lighten the load and make it possible for us to force the tree into an upright position. In the midst of all of this our Andromeda went on as if nothing had happened. By the time we pruned, we were removing brances laden with snowy clusters in full bloom as well as some still in bud stages. I chose a sampling to process in order to make my latest pressed botanical.
I always use my own plants to make my botanical art — well, almost always. I received these lovely little roses as a hostess gift a few weeks ago. Rather than waiting for them to fade, I dried some in silica gel and arranged them in a lovely little vase. I disassembled the rest and pressed them. When the time came to design a background for the first of them, I couldn’t resist my natural sentimentality. It is spring. These are roses. Love is in the air. Why not? Since I tend to go back and forth between my traditional and modern compositions the next rose collage you see may not be as sweet but it will still be as rosy. Did I really write that?
Anyway, you can find this and dozens more in my Etsy shop.
I finally got a chance to create a graphic for the vibrant fern I found still growing in my Stonington Garden. I’ve lost count of the number of snowstorms we’ve had this year, but the fact that this was still plump and green in March — and with a double tip to boot — was quite a happy surprise. I kept it simple with a little miniature ivy ‘bow’ at the base and a faux mat fashioned with graphics alone. (The outer mat is real of course)
Just when I thought my supply of pressed ferns from last year’s garden was finally depleted, I was walking the perimeter of my little property and found these brave winter survivors hiding under a hydragea. They were thriving there and none the worse for wear despite all the snow that fell in Stonington this winter. I could hardly wait the two weeks it took to get them prepared for a botanical collage. I have more waiting in the wings so watch for more in the coming days. In order to enhance their visibility against the ‘night’ sky, I mounted three of them with the lighter back of the frond showing. To see more of this growing body of pressed botanical work, click here.
Just when I thought the supply of pressed ferns from last year’s garden had been depleted, I was walking the perimiter of my (1/4 acre) property and found these great green ferns which had actually thrived all winter, snow and all. They were growing under my hydrangea where I never remember seeing ferns in the past. I could hardly wait to process them and get to work. Here is the first result. I have one double-headed one that will eventually make it into a larger composition. You can see I used the lighter back side of three of the fronds better to show up against the night sky. I’ve already completed the graphic for a companion piece that will have a wintery aspect. Maybe tomorrow. See the rest of this growing collection here.
My Stonington Garden 
