The power of flowers

  

Wild art at its purest!

 

Everyone knows the regular art forms that can often be found in museums like paintings, sculptures, …

Although really loving these, I'm also very much drawn to lesser known ones.

Have you ever heard of Skullmapping, shadowology, beach art, infinity rooms, … ?

These are just some of my favourite alternative art forms.

And now I've discovered a new one: foliage art!

 

 

 

For a little over seven years Vicki Rawlins (° 1960) has been creating art with gathered foliage.

Twigs, leaves, flowers, pine cones, … everything that can be found in nature is turned into amazing temporary portraits and sceneries by this extremely talented artist.
And once she's finished a masterpiece? A photograph is taken and Vicki gives everything back to nature where it belongs.

 

There are só many talented artists whose works aren't exposed in a museum, while that should be the case.

Vicki Rawlins is definitely one of them and it would've been a real shame if the rest of the world couldn't savour the beauty of her creativity.

That's why a very big thank you is in order here to Vicki's daughter Brooke!

Because she recognized this beauty and deciding to share it with the outer world, she became the driving force to promote her mother's artwork. She came up with the idea of an online artwork store and thus Sister Golden was born. In the beginning they started by selling prints of the watercolor paintings Vicki used to make. But as she became obsessed by foliage art due to serious health problems, this art form became increasingly important.

And guess what? Today they not only have their online business, but they have a thriving brick and mortar store in Fish Creek neighbouring the Peninsula State Park in Door County (Wisconsin) as well. Should I ever travel to the USA and be in the neighbourhood, I'll make sure to pop in.

 

Anyway, all I've been doing until now is talking about this amazing foliage art.
But a picture says more than a thousand words 😉

So, let's take a look, all the while keeping in mind that there's no glue, marker or anything else used.

What you see is pure nature!

 

On the website of Sister Golden you can click on 'flower art' to see prints, greeting cards, a 2023 calendar and this book.

But the best introduction are definitely the prints which you can see here.

 

Although the book The Power of Flowers mainly consists of pictures, there's also an introduction in which you learn more about how Vicki started with this art form and how she proceeds.
Here and there she shares some details about how a specific artwork came to be and sometimes she also offers a glimpse of pieces at different times in their progress.

 

Here's a short movie to showcase a part of the artwork:

 

 

 

And there are several interesting interviews on the internet with Vicki Rawlins and her daughter Brooke in which you can also see even more amazing pictures:

 

-  Women Create

-  The Bubble Joy

-  Rogue Habits

-  La Jolla Light

 

 

If one would ask me which picture I like best, it would be an impossible choice to make because each and every artwork was truly beautiful.

There are cosy and dreamy sceneries like Fireside friends and Stargazers.

Or fascinating animals like Succulent hummingbird or Owl you need is love.

And lots of portraits. Some are from famous people like Frida Kahlo or Einstein. Others aren't famous, but nevertheless breathtaking like Sophie.

The portraits that reflect most of my own personality are Free spirit and Wild heart which is probably why those really spoke to me.

 

And then there's a portrait that says it all: Be someone's sunshine.

Vicki Rawlins, you sure let the sun shine in the lives of many admirers.

Keep up the good work!

Signed by your new fan from Belgium,
Tau