The Beauty of Wildflowers

Hi all, thanks so much for stopping my very fresh seedling of a blog. I’m really looking forward to using this as a space to document, journal and connect with you through my passion for plants and how they feed into my art practice.

In this first blog post, I wanted to share some of my favourite wildflowers I’ve spotted this year that inspires my textile art. I do love a beautiful flower border in the garden but there is something very magical about seeing flowers appear in unlikely places. Whether that’s in the middle of a dusty track or in the cracks of sea battered rocks, wildflowers have an amazing resilience that brings beauty & colour into these often barren spaces.

Green Alkanet (Pentaglottis Sempervirens) is one that I haven’t noticed before this year but I find the bright blue flowers have such a great contrast against it’s green foliage, not surprisingly it is part of the forget-me-not family. Here (in Scotland) I found it growing at the side of the drive and along the stony verges where it seems pretty happy and the bees love it.

Sea thrift (Armeria Maritima) is one which I spotted on a recent trip to a rocky beach nearby. It spills over the rocks and roots itself into the crevices & has the most delicate pom-pom flower heads. I think the thing I love the most about them is how the frothy flowers soften the edges of where the rocks meet the fields beyond. Again it is loved by insects and is seen as a symbol of love and protection.

Red Campion (Silene Dioica), is a stalwart of wildflowers populating our roadsides and woodlands. The potent pink petals of Red Campion stem from a rounded base and it is thought in folklore to be a guard of bee’s honey stores. I’m not sure if bees are being guarded by the plant but they certainly love to visit and pick up nectar. I found this living next to the Green Alkanet’s bright blue flowers and I really can’t get enough of this bright colour combination. I’ve sometimes felt unsure when picking colours for new designs as the endless options can be overwhelming but I have found trusting your instincts on what you are drawn to when experiencing colour in the natural world, a less stressful way to select and play with colour.

Both Red Campion and Green Alkanet have been included in a new piece of embroidery art ‘ Wildflower Haze’ where I focused on these small beauties of our botanical world. Buttercups also get a feature in the piece as their cheerful yellow pop can’t be missed from our lawns and pretty much every where you look at certain times of the year. I love using watercolour on fabric to create a dreamy backdrop to embroider details into. I also used a satin embroidery thread from DMC for the first time and the shine is the perfect finishing touch to the pink petals.

Let me know in the comments below if you have found a joyful colour combination in plants from your garden or out in the wild.

My available works including ‘Wildflower Haze’ can be found in my Etsy shop. Alternatively if this has you thinking of a piece you would like to commission, please email me and I would be delighted to chat with you.