Flower and Plant Inspired Art

’Tis the Season of bursting patterns, inviting textures, colorful blooms, nuanced sensations and all sorts of inspiration from the world of plants.

At least here in the western North Carolina mountains in Spring and Summer. My senses are awake and in heaven.

It is LUSH… with so many bursting treasures, shifting daily in cyclical ways on backdrops of infinite greens and blues and earthy tones.

So much of my visual interest+language and art explorations comes directly from nature, consciously and unconsciously, whether I’m making paintings, sketches, or art journal pages.

Sometimes I do intentional studies and experiments in the studio.

magnolia sketch study with lumograph pencils

Sometimes I take it outside, even if just to the backyard for an hour with the textures and patterns of my own little planted pots of earth.

in-process paint-sketch of plants outside

Sometimes plant impressions naturally seed and grow in my more intuitive process of painting, becoming imaginal dreamscape gardens.

Other times, my creative time in nature really just looks like being with, seeing long and softly, and feeling deep - more than actually pushing paint or making marks.

This too nourishes my creative soul and art in the bigger picture.

What I love is how different inspiration, postures of creative awareness, and art-making approaches can percolate and inform each other to become something unique to each of us.

ink and mixed-media on paper

Something that says, I am here, now, in a call and response of wit{h}ness to the mystery, motion and beauty of creation speaking to and through my senses, my hands, my art.

Honestly, these days, I find something restful and hopeful in making art that is not so human-centric in its visual subject focus.

It’s not something I thought about and chose consciously, just something I’m now noticing in my art process from the past year or so.

There is, for me, an energy of attention that moves toward interconnection and harmony with non-human life (on which human life so deeply depends), and that is counter to so many of the narratives and ways of our culture that make everything about us, as if we are above, yet entitled to mis-use, the very matter+spirit we are made of.

My art-making focus may change again eventually, but this is where the creative energy + resonance is for me this season.

And like I tell my students, we need to listen for, notice, trust and follow this kind of energy in our creative art practices.

What sparks our soul awake is Creative Spirit herself speaking to our hearts with a nudge in a direction just-right for us, for now. We truly can trust this.

That’s all getting a bit deep, now isn’t it!?… but also, the same thing said another way, that’s also true…

There’s just joy and reverence and surprise in nature inspired art-making that can be healing and free-ing.

And I’m showing up for that presence+invitation in my process.

Flower Art Inspiration:

This timelapse video is a short peek from a longer demo in my Creative Practice Keepers membership this Spring.

Plant inspired tutorials for your art practice:

You can also find my newest plant-inspired lessons as part of the upcoming Make Create Express workshop!

I’m happy to be teaching for the third time for Galia’s lovely collective offering.

It all kicks off with a totally FREE Creative Retreat weekend, July 9th-10th, packed with mini art lessons from 28 teachers that you can enjoy from home.

There is an early-bird discount right now, but a great deal at full price, too.

My three lessons are:

Plant Pattern Play

Let's "forage" the plant world for patterns to expand and enhance your visual language vocabulary. Botanicals are abundant and overflowing with inspiration! Together, we'll experiment to capture some of the variety and nuances of plant world patterns, creating a collection of possibilities to enhance your art-making practice.

Flower Hour

In art-making, a "study" is the term used for practice pieces and trying to capture the essence of a subject or scene. And prACTice - with presence - is what carries us to being able to express our intuitive heart's desires in our art-making.

In this "flower hour" session together, our attention and creative presence will go to a joyful study and practice, using a few different approaches of expressing the is-ness AND essence of flowers, with simple and fun mediums.

Creation Vibration

Let there be Light! And abundance! Diversity AND unity!

Bringing our botanical play and practice experience with us - along with what resonates to your artistic soul - we'll create and tend a painting, from seed to bloom, that invites us to rest and delight in its natural curiosities, luscious contrasts, and cycles of creative transformation.

I had a ton of fun making these three lessons - 14 videos in all, and I do think they’re some of the best lessons I’ve put out.

I even bring in my new-ish love of gouache into a lesson for the first time.

Make Create Express is the only place where you can enjoy these three lessons from me - plus three lessons each, from 27 other teachers - so I hope you’ll consider joining us for some or all of the art-making fun.

You’re sure to get a ton of ideas and tips to try in your art practice!