Preserve:- to keep alive or in existence;
- make lasting, to protect or spare
- to keep possession of; retain
- to prepare so as to resist decomposition
preserving the beauty of flowers and saving them from their eventual demise.
Pressing is one of the simplest methods of preserving flowers, but the relief is lost and the flower is reduced to flatness. It is questionable if the essence of the flower is maintained. Perfection is difficult to attain and maintain. A walk around any garden is a reminder of this.
8 comments:
Margaret, I am catching up with my blogger friends. I am very taken with your sequioa piece. You achieved such realism with your collage and paint.
Is this piece with the pressed flower a painting? I love your writing style and the way you express your feelings about gardens.
You've said it all, both in words and in your painting. This is a wonderful work that provides the viewer with both complexity and simplicity. It's beautifully rendered and fits so well with your series. Now I REALLY wish I could see your exhibit in person.
Hi Mary,
I know the catching up feeling. My days are very busy lately. The sequoia work took a long time to come together. It was difficult to determine how achieve the hugeness of it, the history of collecting and then have it complement the other pieces. An on I go solving other problems as I try to represent my varied experiences there. I really only have a month left to work . Panic!
Kathy,
I appreciate your comments. This work had about five lives and it kept getting painted out. I like what I did. I am also doing acrylic pours over the piece to really give it the preserved look. I wish you could see the exhibition too. It will all be up on the gallery website but it's not the same.
Genial fill someone in on and this mail helped me alot in my college assignement. Thank you for your information.
Margaret, your post invokes the herbalist in me in considering the capture of the 'essence' of the flower as in the concentration of power attached to its essence, such as used in Bach's flower remedies.
The ritual of collection of the essence is magical and interesting in terms of inspiration for painting, involving a glass bowl, early morning sunshine and a flower.
Jeanette,
I'm intrigued by this idea. We'll have to talk more about it. It was great meeting you finally this weekend.
Hi Margaret,
I think your painting maintains the essence of the flower!
I remember doing a hike during the fall in the high country quite a few years ago and I collected a bunch of fall colored leaves and put them in a book (mostly for my kids). I forgot about them until recently when I was thumbing through that book. The colors had changed and they were totally flat but still they created an interest all their own by being preserved in such a manner.
my artist statement involves the cyle of life and the passage of time. I recently found a notebook- in a second hand store-- of someone's book of pressed flowers-- carefully catalogued and recorded- with the actual pressed flower- I snatched it up -- thinking they might find their way into my artwork someday.
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