Flower Guide in Watercolor Series

It was an art form to create botanical flower guides in the 19th century. Cataloging and identifying different species of flowers was a distinct pastime. I was inspired by this art form to make my own flower guide in a watercolor series.

 

I began to create my own flower guide due to a love of flowers and nineteenth century literature. In Jane Austin’s “Pride and Prejudice” Mr. Darcy was asked to describe an accomplished woman. A woman proficient in the arts who could maintain showcase gardens and identify flowers while walking with their love interests.

“A woman must have a thorough knowledge of music, singing, drawing, dancing, all the modern languages, to deserve the word; and besides all this, she must possess a certain something in her air and manner of walking, the tone of her voice, her address and expressions, or the word will be but half deserved.”

The challenge was to paint flowers in the simple floral guide style while adding a modern perspective to the old fashion art form. It was important to emphasize the shape of the leaves, colours and flower petal to correctly identify the different species of flowers. The background needed to be kept simple hence maintaining the focus on the details of the flowers.