Alternative Flower Fairies
These are the Flower Fairies as you have never seen them before. My alternative look at these perennial darlings began with 'The Flower Fairies go to Seed' - a little series about the fairy of more mature years. The whole point of flowers is, of course, to make seeds, and soo it seemed only natural to celebrate the later years of these creatures.
Following this, I discovered another strain of fairies had been a little overlooked - the inhabitants of those less popular plants, some of them to be handled with caution, some of them downright deadly. Of course it is the dose that makes the 'poison' and many plants which are poisonous are also very important medicinal plants, so 'Poison Flower fairies' is perhaps a bit of a harsh title for some of these. It is more arresting than 'Medicinal Flower Fairies' would be though, so I have stuck with it for the moment.
Above are flower fairies as far as I have got with the series, but there are many many more possibilities. Each flower has been quite carefully studied, each fairy observed in her specific botanical characteristics, and so I progress very slowly with this collection of gouache paintings, adding to it over the years. I have so far also limited myself to the selection of plants where I can get a very good look first hand at a particular specimen: some of them are almost portraits of flowers as well as portraits of flower fairies. The majority of the specimens were growing in my garden, which may tell you something about my other interests as a gardener.
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