Botany

If you had told me a year ago that in a year I would be drawing & painting plants, I would have thought you were bonkers. First of all, a year ago I was convinced I had no talent for such a thing. Secondly, I thought botanical art was consigned to the realms of kitsch or science. I'm so glad I was wrong on all accounts.

Much credit must be given to my husband who first noticed how many of my drawings were of plants, & told me that those were his favorite. Not that I am committed to this for all-time, but for the time being it has been a quite fruitful pursuit. Botany is full of inspiration.

As noted in previous posts, I have been reading "The Pressed Plant" which is about "the art of Botanical Specimens, Nature Prints, and Sun Pictures", It has opened my eyes even more to the inherent beauty of our natural world. And I wanted to share a passage from it's introductory paragraph here:

"As a sculptor, I had long been interested in the geometry of natural forms. In the plant photographs of the early twentieth-century German artist and teacher Karl Blossfeldt, I had discovered riveting images that exposed this formal geometry with utter directness- and strangeness. Blossfeldt's magnified details of plants, which often suggest anthropomorphic or architectural forms, were stronger than anything I had seen in conventional botanical illustration. Later, when I stumbled upon botanical specimens, I recognized and was equally amazed by that same simplicity and directness."

And here are some images from Karl Blossfeldt (que magnifique! no?):

For more, check out these fine displays on some neighbor blogs:

http://beausamofficial.blogspot.com/2011/03/karl-blossfeldt.html
http://esoile.blogspot.com/2011/02/inspirations-karl-blossfeldt.html
http://myspinningwheels.blogspot.com/2009/02/karl-blossfeldt.html