FLOWER PAINTING

Flower Painting is a type of painting in which one or more flowers or plants bearing flowers are depicted. Flower Painting is generally associated with "still-life painting". The painting of flowers has its antecedents in the herbal and scientific depictions of plants. Chinese flower painting, particularly that of lotus flower, gained popularity in the world of art today.

Flower Painting began to emerge as a specialism in northern Europe in manuscripts produced in Bruges and Ghent in the 15th century, particularly those executed by the Master of Mary of Burgundy, whose paintings are surrounded by scattered naturalistic flowers or compartments with still-lives; for example, the glass vase with some flowers in a folio in the "Book of Hours of Engelbrecht of Nassau" (c. 1485-90; Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Douce 219, fol. 145v), which discusses flower painting as a distinct genre in Western art.

Chinese Flower Painting

The Chinese have always loved Chinese lotus flower paintings. These flowers are thought of as being like a gentleperson, who keeps themselves clean, alive and healthy in a dirty environment. Essentially the Chinese lotus flower represents creative power and purity amid adverse surroundings. It is also a symbol of the seventh month, summer. In China, there are many poems about the lotus flower, often describing how they come out of the dirty mud under the water and yet retain their pureness, freshness and beauty.

The influence of a lotus flower in Chinese paintings is to open us up to beauty and light. A good Chinese lotus flower painting can act as a reminder of the miracle of beauty, light and life. This reminder, communicated on an emotional level, is said to aid both spiritual and practical understanding of Tao, the world and our place in it.

American Flower Painting

American Flower Painting during the later half of 19th century was dominated by the flower paintings of Julia McEntee Dillon, an accomplished painter of floral still lives. The art of flower painting was carried forward by Georgia O´ Keeffe(1887-1986). When she died in 1986 at the age of ninety-eight, Georgia O´Keeffe left behind approximately nine hundred paintings, rooted in a uniquely American vision. As early as 1897 flowers had interested O´Keeffe, but it was not until 1924 that she began to investigate the potential for abstraction in a single flower filling an entire canvas. The blossoms themselves fascinated her, not foliage or plants in their natural setting.

Poppy is one of a major, early series of her flower paintings. The flower fills the canvas, and its petals open to reveal its dark velvet inner core. Brilliant, expansive reds create strong, warm shapes from which small details emerge in powerful three-dimensionality. The light background of this solitary image can be read as an undulating mountain range or alternately, as a cavelike enclosure. O´Keeffe´s Poppy is one of the Museum's most widely published works and has been reproduced in a number of leading studies on the artist. In Becoming O'Keeffe: The Early Years (Abbeville Press, 1991), Sarah Whittaker Peters breaks the measured tone of her book by calling this Poppy "breathtakingly beautiful."

Rosemaling/Norwegian Flower Painting

Rosemaling means "rose" or "flower" painting. Rosemaling, the decorative folk painting of Norway, began in the low-land areas of eastern Norway about 1750 when such upper class artistic styles as Baroque, Regency and Rococo were introduced to Norway´s rural culture. At first Norway's painters followed these European styles closely. Persons who rosemaled for their livelihood would not have been land owners but poor, city dwellers. After being trained within a "guild" they would travel from county to county painting churches and/or the homes of the wealthy for a commission of either money or merely room and board.

Norwegian rosemaling continued its westward migration all the way to America. Emigration was heavy from some of the areas where rosemaling was well established. Travelers packed beautifully rosemaled trunks to make their journey across the Atlantic. Well known as well as lesser known painters traveled to the New World. However, the contribution of this generation of emigrants to American rosemaling was negligible. Rosemaling went out of style in about 1860-1870. Rosemaling experienced it´s revival in America in the 20th century when Norwegian-Americans gave attention to the painted trunks and other objects brought to America by their ancestors.

Per Lysne, who was born in Norway and learned to rosemal there, is credited with inspiring this revival. He came to America in the early 20th Century and was employed as a wagon painter in Stoughten, Wisconsin. When business slowed during the Depression he began to rosemal again. Other Norwegian-Americans, most notably Ethel Kvalheim, observed Per´s work and American rosemaling was born. Today Norwegian rosemaling is taught in many areas of the USA. Rosemaling associations sponsor classes and competitions. The Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum in Decorah, Iowa, known for its large collection of both Norwegian and American rosemaled objects, offers rosemaling classes throughout the year.

Flower Painting On Porcelain Vessels

Although the secrets of porcelain production had been known in China for centuries, it wasnít until the early eighteenth century that Europeans succeeded in producing a true hard-paste porcelain. Under the rule of Augustus the Strong, King of Poland, the Meissen Porcelain Manufactory was established at Albrechtsburg Castle in Meissen in 1710. In 1865 the manufactory moved to the Triebischtal where production has continued with few interruptions. The Staatliche Porzellan-Manufaktur Meissen is now under the ownership of the Free State of Saxony and employs 1100 people.

The development of new porcelain forms and floral decorations has continued at Meissen into the twentieth century. Now, floral decorations in manifold designs have up all over the world. Starting from flower vases to dinner sets to tea cups and various house-hold tiles... nothing is an exception to the flower art forms on porcelain.

Flower Painting On Clay Pots

Clay pots used as flower pots and such other pots used either for domestic or commercial purposes, are painted with beautiful flower figurines to make them look attractive. Usually, they are first handpainted with acrylic paint and then sprayed with an acrylic sealer. Most often, these flower painted pots are used to grow flowers in the houses - both indoor and outdoor. Such flower painted pots even serve as good gifts on special occasions.