Floral Paintings to Inspire Your Springtime Projects

Flowers are integral to both my art, my home and my heart. They are part of my soul. There are many reasons I find flowers so deeply influential to my art work, but not least is their ability to bring joy. From lighting and furniture, to textiles and of course floral paintings, floral-inspired interior design products bring the joy of flowers straight into your living space and add joy to your everyday world so effortlessly.  Flowers are simply delightful things that make me feel irrationally cheerful.  They are happy makers.

“People from a planet without flowers would think we must be mad with joy the whole time to have such things about us”.

Iris Murdoch

Flowers Entwined With my Heart

I was raised with a love of flowers. My mother has always been a wonderful gardener. Mum’s plot is a mixture of wild and tended flowers and is like a slice of heaven. It is full of tiny wild strawberries creeping over worn paths, old-fashioned pink roses tumbling from stone walls, nectarine coloured snapdragons that have pollen-laden bees crawling drowsily from their mouths, scented stocks filling the night air with a heady fragrance and much more!

Throughout my life I have been constantly inspired by flowers. Whether I am wandering through urban landscapes, stomping on coastal paths or walking through woods or exploring meadowlands in Tuscany or Provence, my eye is constantly drawn to the colour around me; the vivid rainbow of petals and blossoms brightening the green and brown of the earth is like an ever-changing kaleidoscope.

Throughout the year flowers weave their magic into my heart. Spring is full of delicate pink and white buds and the earth is humming colourful secrets. Summertime brings bright, showy flowers that celebrate life. Meadows are saturated in bright washes of wildness. The warm golds and crimsons of autumn offer treasures for our hearts and for me wintertime has its own special atmosphere of gentle quietness. Skeleton flowers laced with ice, trees silhouetted against a backdrop of cool grey skies. Bringing flowers into the home by introducing a smattering of ditsy floral prints, or perhaps a lampshade flaunting a psychedelic floral design will not only evoke a smile every time you catch a glimpse of that particular floral-infused interior product, but will also bring life and movement to your interiorscape.

Bringing the Outside, Inside

My studio is nestled in deepest Devon and is surrounded by fields and ancient banks of floral psychedelic bursts. Cow parsley, elderflower, purple campion, daisies and foxgloves are wild and ragged and tumble into the lanes against a background of startling green.  I often bring some hand-gathered bunches home. Our Victorian terrace is always bursting with flowers overflowing from old milk bottles, enamel pots and misshapen jars. They make my heart sing. Vintage bouquets scattered over surfaces offer a sweet-smelling visual feast of colourful ribbons and blooms. Floral interior design inspiration fills my heart with joy, and of those who share my world too. When visiting my daughter Poppy in London I also bring a bit of nature to her. My favourite florist in the city is Scarlet and Violet who make exceptional arrangements that bring an old-fashioned country garden into the urban environments.

‘I paint flowers so they will not die.’

Frida Kahlo

Floral Paintings Inspired by Nature

Here in Totnes we are blessed to have the wonderful florist Busby and Fox. It belongs to Emma Vowles, who unleashed her artistry at my own wedding. She creates exquisite bursts of colour that never fail to take your breath away.  Tall sticks of hollyhocks and delphiniums jostle with blush roses and the bold heads of nodding peonies.  Emma’s blooms have a sophisticated vintage feel that transforms any interior instantly.

My profound love of the countryside spills over into all areas of my home. Floral interior design inspiration and the lively interiorscapes it brings about is, for me, just as much about creating a sense of intimacy and a welcoming environment as it is about colour, line and objects.  Putting a unique stamp on one’s surroundings is what I believe turns a house into a home.  I like to create an atmosphere in our home that has a living quality. Warm, nourishing and inviting. Great tunes, dancing fires and beautiful fragrances are all important.

But its the flowers that provide sunshine for my soul. As Monet said,

“I perhaps owe having become a Painter to flowers.”