Artists have been depicting flowers in many different styles for centuries. They were an especially popular subject during the 17th and 18th Centuries, in the Golden Age of Dutch painting. For example, artists such as Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder painted meticulous flower studies of expensive floral bouquets. His ‘A Still Life of Flowers in a Wan-Li Vase‘ (1609-10) shows a lavish flower arrangement against a dark background. This sumptuous oil painting is acutely observed and still has clear and vivid colours today.
Japanese Flower Studies
In Japan during the 17th to 19th Centuries, many beautiful woodblock prints were produced, including lovely flower studies. Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858) created exquisite floral images with asymmetrical compositions and areas of flat colour. A lovely example in the Victoria & Albert Museum is the woodblock print, ‘Irises‘. This was created in 1840-1842, during the Edo Period of Japanese art. The cool blue and monochrome design was originally designed to decorate a fan. The Japanese artists influenced French artists like Claude Monet (1840-1926). He painted flower studies in oils, such as ‘Waterlilies‘ (after 1916), using a very different, loose ‘impressionistic’ style.
Modern Flower Studies
The more modern style of Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986) in her flower paintings draws on the influence of macro photography. For instance, her large-scale, magnified flower portrait in oils, ‘The White Flower‘ (1932), has a close-cropped, enlarged image in a semi-abstract style.
Goldcrest Gallery Flower Designs
There are many varied stylised flowers in the Goldcrest Gallery collection of prints and greeting cards. ‘Chrysanthemums‘ from our A3 print range is a detailed, realistic watercolour study of amber chrysanthemums in a china jug. The abstract, transparent tulip blooms in ‘Tulips‘ were created in acrylic washes on paper. A loose, impressionistic style was used in ‘Watercolour Garden‘, relying more on colour than line and form to portray lupins, and other garden flowers. In ‘Joie de Vivre‘, the artist has worked in a more illustrative style, with ink and watercolour. The bright colours and spray arrangement in this design have an informal, contemporary style.
There are so many styles in which to paint flowers, and so much variety in our range of attractive greeting card designs. You’ll be sure to find one that suits your style!