Love for Flowers by Painting and Using Colored Pencils

This week has been rainy, but I still want to talk about the love for flowers!

Over the years, my husband and I have become more and more interested in plants. This summer we have renovated our backyard garden and reduced the amount of grass. The garden now has a large pond, a pergola, new trees and shrubs, deep perennial beds, and natural slate paving. It takes time for the plants to take root, but it’s already looking better than before.

The renovation has strengthened my inspiration for flowers and plants. In August, there are still flowers in Finland, but when fall comes, I am comforted by grasses and mosses. In winter, I focus on houseplants. The presence of plants puts my life in perspective, but in such a way that there is room for play and imagination.

I feel my core unit is a flower and everything else is born from that.

Growing Love for Flowers

When I look at flowers in the wind and rain, the bending of their petals and stems in different directions creates an endless number of abstract compositions. I find it artistically inspiring, but I’m also inspired by the spiritual connection I feel with flowers. Flowers have expressions and gestures just like people have. Any big theme can be expressed through them.

Already in 2017, I wrote about the secret language of flowers and now six years later, I feel I don’t only understand it but can use it myself. This ability has made my art more expressive, and there’s a lot I want to share with you too.

Coming Up! – Freely Grown

Last month I started to feel the urge to do a new online course. I toyed with many ideas, but again, flowers were the only ones that inspired me. So I have now been building a flower painting course called Freely Grown. It declares love for flowers and explains how to catch their free spirit.

The course is a bit different than many of my other courses, as this one focuses on one project instead of many different ones. The project is first painted with watercolors and then finished with colored pencils.

Painting with watercolors is fun and colored pencils make it easier to finish the painting. It’s much easier and faster than working in oil, but I share many tips that can be used with any supplies. We will paint freely without any photos but aim for a natural impression.

My plan is to start the sale in September and the actual course in October. I hope you will come and paint!