May Florals: Floral Art

Posted on: May 20th, 2023 by Art Leaders No Comments

May Florals: Floral Art

Name: Art Leaders Gallery
Price range: $$$

Art That Speak Universal Language, Lasts a Lifetime

Since humans have inhabited this planet, the beauty of nature has immersed their lives. In nature, flowers have one simple purpose – reproduction. And in essence, the reproduction of beauty and life itself. Much like the reproduction of life and beauty is where we also find the reproduction and perpetual replication of floral art. The use of flowers for adornment, decoration, and artistic representation has played an integral part in the traditions, cultures, and connections of humanity over the centuries. Flowers enhance one’s feeling and impression. They connect people to the simplicity and sensitivity of nature. They drive emotion and passion. Evoke sadness and remembrance.

Floral design or floral arrangement is the skill of using plant materials or flowers to create eye-catching and harmonious composition, along with choosing whichever medium an artist may see fit. This aura of refined floristry can be traced all the way back to ancient Egyptian culture. This origination of artistic floristry has played a significant role in the interactions and relationships amongst humans over the course of history.

Page through the chapters of time and centuries past and you’ll find that flowers in contemporary art have retained the same symbolic value of life and beauty since the beginning of time. Few things carry such timeless symbolism and connection that flowers and artistic floristry deliver. A universal language for all and a powerful way to connect with people. A language of love, emotion, beauty, sadness and celebration that universally speaks to all. Flowers and floral art evoke such emotions within us. Love, passion, desire, innocence, joy, sadness or even death. They can represent a multitude of emotions and feelings. Likewise, it is a transferable and giftable language that can be spoken through canvas and florals mediums. Furthermore, a timeless one at that.

In conclusion, flowers are not just pretty decorations or gifts, but powerful sources of emotion and beauty. They have the ability to transform our lives, enhance our emotions, and connect us with each other and with nature. Whether as a depicted as a simple bouquet or a complex floral arrangement, flowers and floral art stand as a testament to the integrity and beauty of the natural world, and a reminder to appreciate and cherish the wonders that surround and connect us all.

Scroll down further to learn more about some of our featured floral artists here at Art Leaders Gallery.

(Featured Artists: Konstantin Savchenko, Anastasiya Skryleva, Andrii Afanasiev, K. Nari, Lun Tse, Jamie Lisa, Emilija Pasagic, & Maya Eventov)

Konstantin Savchenko

World renowned artist, Konstantin Savchenko creates paintings that are full of color and textures. Each oil painting is a textured-study of blending paint with palette knife that creates stunning landscapes, cityscapes, seascapes, and florals. Further, he expresses emotion and beauty by building up his shadows and highlights with heavy textures. He currently resides in the Ukraine, but spends time painting at his residence in Michigan every year.

Anastasiya Skryleva

Anastasiya was born on February 18, 1997 in Kharkov, Ukraine. Her life has been centered around art since she learned how hold a paintbrush. This has shaped her into the young artist she is today. Skryleva’s oil paintings utilize deep tones and layered colors to create stirring images that speak to the viewer. Among landscapes of her native Ukraine, she favors depicting still life arrangements, and the beautiful fluidity of decorative koi fish. Art Leaders Gallery is proud to be the first gallery in the United States to represent this young, blossoming artist.

Andrii Afanasiev

Andrii Afanasiev has spent years studying fine arts in Ukraine. He began this passion in his youth. Over the years, his passion developed into creating stunning abstract florals and textured seascapes. Moreover, he creates large scale paintings with layers of oil to draw out texture and depth. Furthermore, his stunning paintings cross boundaries between classic and contemporary.

K. Nari

Nari is an abstract contemporary artist. She was born in Seoul, Korea and was immersed in art from the earliest stages of her life. K. Nari has used her various experiences to develop her own style of fine art painting. As an abstract artist, she spends her days in her studio. She creates paintings that concentrate on movement. Additionally, she adds varying layers of paints and textures to convey a range of emotions in her work. Furthermore, she enjoys creating most of her artwork using acrylic paints and ink on canvases and paper. Her artwork consists of floral, abstract, transitional, and landscape in modern contemporary looks.

Lun Tse

Lun Tse was born in Hong Kong, China where he channels the ability to incorporate Chinese tradition into each painting. H creates original paintings of stunning floral arrangements and cropped floral compositions. Furthermore, Tse paints each large-scale piece with stunning, metallic gold and silver leaf. Each of these floral pieces are alluring due to their rich colors, metallic finishes, and bold brushstrokes.

Jamie Lisa

At an early age, Jamie Lisa began to draw and paint images of the lush, Korean countryside. She loved the colors and beauty of nature. Because of this, Lisa paints still-life floral bouquets. In fact, the colorful countryside of European landscapes are some her favorite subject matters. For example, fields of sunflowers, lavender and poppies inspire her. Her use of color is excellent, and her technique involves the use of pallet knife work with thick strokes and paint on canvas. In turn, this adds a great amount of depth to her landscape and still-life paintings.

Emilija Pasagic

Artist Emilija Pasagic grew up as a native of Belgrade in the former Yugoslavia. She grew a fascination with art at an early stage as a child. Her canvases come to life through the placement of flowers and fruits that seemingly narrate life’s journey. Her unique technique involves using a blending of bee’s wax and oil paint applied to canvas, paper, or board. Pasagic often creates texture through fusing cloth and paper, along with added gold leaf and various gels to induce unique effects.

Maya Eventov

Maya Eventov grew up in Leningrad, Russia where she studied classical art at the young age of six. Her paintings evoke feelings of well-being and the joys of life with her beautiful colors and stunning florals. Maya’s paintings show harmony and abstraction through color and balance. Furthermore, Eventov applies layers of paint and then etches back into each piece to enhance her abstract compositions. A technique she was inspired to try due to her childhood fascination with Faberge Eggs. Additionally, she draws inspiration from the rich, bold, and bright colors of the Mediterranean that can be identified within her artwork.

The Floral Still Life: Its Stems and Roots

Posted on: June 26th, 2018 by Art Leaders No Comments

The Floral Still Life

Published June 26th, 2018

In this month’s exhibition we’re celebrating flowers and their appearance in various artwork styles from traditional to contemporary. The roots of this subject matter, so to speak, lie within the still life.

The still life grew in popularity, especially in northern Europe, during the 17th century. The intention of the still life at this time was to teach a moral lesson. This was to remind the viewer of the transience of life. Each bloom was imbued with a personal, cultural, or even religious significance. Wilting flowers reminded the viewer of mortal life, lilies indicated the Virgin Mary, and pink roses signified love, etc. Despite their beauty and significance, “floral still life” as a subject matter remained at the bottom of the painting hierarchy, trailing far behind grandiose history paintings.

“ . . . Even if the painter of flowers need not make the same studies to make or conquer the same difficulties as the history painter, does that mean flower painting is a lower or more limited genre?”—a review of the 1817 Salon

In the 19^th century, French realists and impressionists alike began to move away from painting still lives as Memento Mori/Vanitas artworks and began to paint scenes of everyday life –their objects and subjects –for their own sake. This shift was very unpopular; the painting was no longer edifying –just beautiful. Can you imagine a time when the impressionist “still life” was considered “modern” and ruffled the feathers of traditionalists? To best appreciate this genre, it’s important to understand that even the simplest subject matter faced criticism.

“(The) poor fabricators of still lifes, who have been so violently disbarred just when they least expected it . . . [T]hey are multiplying at an alarming rate. The rats in the Paris sewers are less numerous and less menacing. If the academic order ever crumbles, it will be because the still-life painters, down below, have gnawed away, one by one, at its foundations.”—Critic Jules Castagnary, writing about the Salon des refusés in 1863

Here are some quotations from the floral artists from the 1800s to help give some context to this genre (and perhaps redeem the critics’ harsh reviews with some romanticism). Enjoy this behind-the-scenes glimpse of still lifes and their hidden roots!

“I am following nature without being able to grasp her, I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers.” – Claude Monet

“I must have flowers, always, and always.” – Claude Monet

“A painter can say all he wants to with fruit or flowers or even clouds.” – Edouard Manet

“How right it is to love flowers and the greenery of pines and ivy and hawthorn hedges; they have been with us from the very beginning.” – Vincent Van Gough

“I am working at it every morning from sunrise on, for the flowers fade so soon, and the thing is to do the whole in one rush.” – Vincent Van Gough

“What seems to me to be one of the most important things about our movement is that we have freed painting from the tyranny of subject-matter. I am free to paint flowers and call them flowers, without having to weave a story round them.” – Pierre Auguste Renoir

” . . . I think that nothing is more difficult for a true painter than to paint a rose, since before he can do so, he has first to forget all the roses that were ever painted.” – Henri Matisse

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