Living in London, you forget the power of a simple flower growing on the verge, in your lawn, or dotted through woodlands as you go for a summer stroll. I’ve been so overjoyed recently to have the chance to enjoy these little miracles of stored sunshine – nine years in London definitely made me appreciate the countryside a little more when I got back here in September!

My mum and gran worked together to produce some of my most favourite pieces of art of all time – all at the mercy of the humble wild flower.

Wild Flower Pictures

Last summer my Gran walked around the farm collecting pretty flowers, unopened buds from plants, interesting pieces of fern, and a variety of leaves from our local landscape. They all came from our own garden, orchard or fields, and caused a bit of a stir when we opened up some books and discovered them lying in wait for us!

The joy of the flower pressing for her was the process, and the flowers then went to mum to undergo the next process in their transformation. We sat around the TV as the evenings grew darker and longer, and mum gradually built up some absolutely beautiful pictures using these blooms, some of my own wool, acrylic paint and thin wire. The result was some canvases that shone with the splendour of each flower, grouped with a few others to create a scene that awoke memories of those beautiful sunny days while we were huddling int he dark!

Mum is a prolific artist (if you’ve seen any of the videos that have been filmed in her office, you’ll have seen her tools of the trade in the background – I’m thinking of the RSI one) and we are running out of wall space! So, the flowers are starting the next stage of their journey, and are now up for sale.

I’m super glad to have the pictures and the memories, and I can’t wait till the flowers we are picking now are done drying so that we can preserve more memories of spring, summer and beyond.

What are your favourite flowers, and have you ever tried pressing them? They make wonderful cards too, although sending them across customs boundaries can be a bit difficult!

Much love,

Corrie xx

PS I’ve been doing some lambing for the last two weeks, hence the radio silence! I’m drafting that post now, come back soon for the full story…