Floral Art is Always in Bloom, Never Needs Watering

Art gallery marketplace www.DiscoveredArtists.com reports that portraits of flowers are second only to landscapes in popularity among artists and art buyers.

Floral and botanical artworks range in style from anatomically correct fine art photos of wide open blooms, to wild abstract and surreal art composed of smatterings of color suggestive of buds, leaves and stems.  Media formats also are widely varied.  Art gallery images of flowers and plants range from fine art photographs to hand painted watercolors and oils, and even to dried flowers that are pasted into montages and collages.

But, three main categories of floral art are most popular with artists and art buyers. They include fine art photographs, traditional oil paintings, and classic watercolors.

Fine art photos typically are photographed at high resolution in extreme close-ups.  Artists use special, macro lenses to magnify and capture the tiny details of a flower's anatomy and hold it in sharp focus.  Capturing a drop of moisture on a petal, a spec of pollen on the stamen, or a flower's delicate filaments in exactly the right light is what creates a magnificent artwork prized by the artist and by the art buyer.

When professionally enlarged for use as wall art these photographs can be striking, and are especially popular with interior designers, collectors, and of course, flower gardeners.  Limited editions of these artworks signed and numbered by the artist heighten the value and the excitement in owning them.

But, floral artworks that are printed on stretched, wrapped canvas are quickly becoming the most popular format of home decorators.  This format combines the look of a traditional oil painting with the impact of a fine art photo, and is especially effective for showcasing floral art.  The method called Giclee processing preserves the color and detail so important to the artist and the art collector.

Study in Blue by fine art photographer Kevyn Moss is a triptych on canvas.  The digitally enhanced photograph depicts different personalities of the same flower type with a variety of fascinating shapes and textures. The subject of the photograph is a blue waterlily of the family Nymphaea.  The three separate artworks measure 14" x 37" when hung as shown.  As an example, a floral artwork on canvas like Study in Blue will sell for around $250.  Fine art prints on paper typically sell for under $50.

While fine art prints effectively capture nature's intricate details, traditional oil paintings are a close second in showcasing the color and texture of florals and botannicals.  Hand applied brush strokes that create lifelike, colorful copies of complicated blooms continue to challenge artists and to please art buyers.

Much study goes into learning how to paint a flower.  Each bloom is unique, made up of a number of different complex parts, soft, rounded shapes and subtle shades of color.  The learning process prompts many artists to paint series of the same type of bloom in the same position and light over and over again.  Each painting in a series becomes more accurate and more striking as the artist perfects his technique.



Praise by fine artist Stephen Hackley is a beautiful bright gerber daisy, painted with a view of a flower we don't normally see.  The oil on canvas is an oversized 60" x 48" of the bloom which in the words of the artist "has her petals outstretched, acknowledging life and singing out to whoever will hear."

On a different level in intensity than oil paintings like Praise, watercolors can be the most abstract of popular types of floral art.  Watercolor artists typically paint in an impressionist style where details are less important than the impression or the idea of the artwork.

Watercolor paint and the process lends itself to blurred lines and muted colors, and is especially apropriate for painting natural subjects.  Its delicate transparancy is well suited to images of equally delicate, transparant petals and leaves.  But, when combined with pen and ink a watercolor can show as much or more detail as an oil painting.  Illustrators who use watercolor to enhance pen and ink drawings of botannicals create highly prized, collectible artworks by integrating impressionism with technical drawing.

Grace is a 16.5" x 22.5" fine art watercolor by artist Patrice Dobyn.  The painting won third place in a juried competition for its color and composition.  The artist's works sell in the range of $300 to $400 for an original watercolor like Grace, which is hand painted on acid free paper.

With lovely artworks like Grace and a passion to recreate the color and shapes of natural flowers it's clear that floral art will continue to be most popular with artists and with art buyers.  The varied shapes, vibrant colors and uniqueness of each bloom offer a wonderful challenge to artists.  And, for art buyers, owning or collecting floral art creates a year round bouquet that never fades or wilts.  A floral art gallery is always in bloom and never, ever needs watering.

About DiscoveredArtists.com
www.DiscoveredArtists.com is a marketplace for buying and selling original and limited edition artworks.  Independent artists sell directly to the general public.  Prices are set by the artists and artwork is shipped from the artist's studio.   All major credit cards are accepted.  Artwork may be purchased online and is backed by a satisfaction guarantee of a full refund plus return shipping expense.