Mary, Mary, How does your garden grow?

Mary Katrantzou Spring Summer 2012

I do like a flower installation and Mary Katrantzou really wowed me with her carnation catwalk at London fashion week recently.  Her collection was "inspired by nature, but viewed through a hyper-real lense".  This proves that the humble carnation has serious flower power when a creative eye has a hand in it.  Image courtesy of The Guardian

Yuki Aruga (part two)

Sweet Dreams, 2011

Everlasting; Circular Fragmentation, 2011

Untitled; Circle 1, 2011

Perpetual Bloom, 2011

Well, I told you to expect more from the multi-disciplined artist Yuki Aruga and here it is.  Her beautiful oil paintings are so evocative of the roses in them that I can almost smell the heady scent.  Intoxicating.

A little Friday fancy

A few images that have been inspiring me lately.  It's always nice to start the weekend with visual elevenses.  

I can't credit them because I don't know their origins, very sorry 'bout that.  

Feast the eyes (and soul)

Lys Cheri, 2008

Amaryllis Rubis, 2008

Pivoine Grand Jour, 2009

Tulipes, Baiser Rose et Baiser Rouge, 2009

Chrysantheme Flamboyant, 2008

Lys d'Hiver, 2008

Sandrine Bihorel is a French sculptor who turned her hand to painting to create these large decorative panels.  The fusion of clay and paint gives these pieces a textural surface that has been described as old embossed leather and the patterns peeking out from behind the blooms are inspired by her collections of fabrics.  For me they are reminiscent of many things: the glossy cracked ceramics of my childhood, travels to exotic souks and heady Moorish nights, the smell of mysterious Victorian volumes depicting strange and wonderful floral specimens.  I'm never quite sure whether I prefer the beautiful printed textile motifs or the curling, fluid lines of the flowers but in truth I can't imagine one existing without the other by her hand.  You can see more of her work here