The Flower project

In the past couple of months, I started working on a personal project centered on flowers and their role in myths, legends, and religions throughout history. Like most people, I enjoy looking and savoring the smell of flowers. They are a marvel of nature and a balm for the eyes and the spirit. My love for them, however, is not matched by my knowledge of them. I am terrible at remembering their names as well as the names of plants in general, both in Italian and English! What to do about that?

Many years ago an Italian journalist, Alfredo Cattabiani, wrote a book, Florario, about the meanings of plants and flower in different cultures. I don't know if it has been translated in other languages,

My mom bought it for me and I began to read it, but my teenager self found it too dense and erudite for my tastes. So I decided to put it aside for when I would have reached a more mature and reflexive age. Apparently this is the time! When I went to Italy last summer, I recovered it from my old bedroom's bookcase and took it back to the US to give it another try. After perusing it, more than 20 years later, I still think it's best taken in small bites (I have a short attention span!), yet it's a fascinating summary of flower lore that I find very inspiring.

My plan is to follow the book, chapter by chapter and dedicate to each flower an illustration that evokes not onlythe natural beauty of flower or plant but also the symbolisms and stories that such beauty has inspired in humans in the ages past. I will finally learn my flower nomenclature... and hopefully much more!

I started with roses in Sub Rosa. I left several meanings out, by focusing on the love and secret symbolism. I followed with the Lotus of Creation, that I am about to complete (I got stuck because one crucial marker needed an ink refill and I could not bring myself to go to Blick's to buy it! ...it's to cold: I just want to stay home!!!).

Well, of course I knew what roses and lotuses looked like, but I am sure I will soon encounter several names that have to find a "face"(or viceversa "faces" that will finally find a name).

Hope you'll stick with me in this discovery journey.
Talk to you soon! :)

Sub Rosa

It's done! I've been working hard during the holidays to finish it...here it is finally.

For once, there was no drama and everything went pretty smoothly: I added layer after layer of color, fixing things here and there as I went without stressing out too much. True enjoyment!

 Now I have a couple of small drawings in mind for Bella's room plus a new big project work related that I will not probably going to show here, at least at the beginning...but I'll come back to this series as soon as I can (taking advantage of the days off around Christmas).
Talk to you soon!

I hope you all had a fun Thanksgiving (or, for those outside the States a restful weekend ;)).

Weekend update

Getting there!

By the way, with all this painting of ordered gardens and roses, I suddenly felt the need to clean up the backyard rose shrub. It was a mess. It had not been pruned in years, so I snipped my way to the core of the plant. Now I am crossing my fingers in hope I did not exceed what's good for next year's blooming. The rose branches look rather neat, now, but my husband expressed a certain level of skepticism at my zealous clipping. I am more optimistic, though. This year we had very few flowers, so I figure next year can only get better.  Let's hope so! :)

Coloring....

Ok, here is the promised update. It's not much, but I am proceeding cautiously. To give you an idea, it took me a couple of hours (while watching Iron Man 3 with my husband...not very poetic or attuned to the theme of the drawing, but time is precious...;)) colored the central  more prominent rose. Now I am getting a bit faster with the other roses, because I figured out the technique I need to use.

I like my roses very much, for once. I liked the fairies very much too at the beginning, but I am not so sure of it anymore. Their skin color is quite flat and I believe I need to work more on it to bring the little creatures to life. BTW, notice that this time I started from the main characters! ;)

Have a great rest of the week!

Almost done with the inking...

I am looking forward to color this...

Inking the roses

Little by little the secret of the garden emerges....