Why do artists and creatives love flowers? Flowers are inspirational. With their vivid colours, wonderful scent, magnificent beauty, and gentle petals, they conjure up strong feelings within us.

Flowers are exquisite for still life inspiration. As well as their beauty, they entice us to paint them, and also hold secret meanings and messages.  

The Dutch artists were masters at painting floral displays.  During the Dutch Golden Age Baroque movement, artists like Abraham van Beijeren, Hans Boulenger, Ambrosius Bosschaert, Jan Davidsz de Heem were specialists at painting flowers which included images of shells, insects and other things like wheat and bones.  All these images held special meanings. 

During the Pre-Raphaelite period, artists such as Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett Millaise created spectacular paintings of woman which included representations of flowers and again these held meanings.  William Morris used flowers and leaves to create wonderful textile designs which are still popular today. 

Vincent van Gogh, post impressionist artist, fell in love with sunflowers which is why he painted his iconic sunflower panting. In the 1800s, Claude Monet is renowned for painting flowers; his particular favourites were Irises.

Below are a series of some of my floral artworks.

Some of my watercolour paintings are shown below. These were created during my 30 day watercolour painting challenge.

Flowers inspire some of my paintings, particularly when combined with other images.

Flowers will always hold importance for artists and creatives because of their overpowering beauty, vivid colours and subliminal messages and meanings they hold.