2021: A year of monthly floral series'

Last fall, I quietly started choosing one flower a month and making my art centered around it. I mentioned it to my patrons, but I didn't make too much of a fuss about it because I was still figuring it out. But a couple months later, I can say that I've really been enjoying it. By choosing a specific plant, I take away some of the paralysis around "what should I paint?" because I've already answered that question. So I get to allow myself to just focus on more deeply exploring that one thing instead of getting overwhelmed by the possibilities.

I chose daisies for my first unofficial plant in October, and then I moved on to lavender in November. I still kept drawing some daisies in with the lavender, because why not. 

Alongside just exploring the plants through painting and drawing, I research the symbolism and history of the flowers and use the themes there to determine which poems I choose to add to the paintings. I've been using Flowerpedia by Cheralyn Darcy as a useful reference, as well as various internet resources as I dig a little deeper. It's been a fun adventure getting to explore both the external shape of the plants while I paint them and then the internal layers and meanings as I add in the poetry.

I'll be doing this more officially through the rest of 2021. You'll see me announce the month's theme at the beginning of the month here on the blog, then start sharing the work as I'm creating it (especially on my Instagram, though I'll try to write some blog posts about works-in-progress), and then at the end of the month I'll put many of the pieces into the monthly zine I ship to my mail art patrons, and then I'll release the original pieces for sale!

Then I'll start all over again with a new plant and theme 🌱

If you want to be sure you hear when the series is released, sign up for my mailing list 😘 Or if you'd like to get an exclusive sticker relates to the monthly series or my monthly zine, check out my patreon. I would love to send you some art 💌

Have any questions? Leave a comment!

love you,
mean it,
riles