Lindsey Taylor's 'Art in Flower': A New Book on Floral Arrangements
When garden designer Lindsey Taylor worked as an editor at Martha Stewart Living in the ’90s, one of her tasks was to create the floral arrangements for the desks of senior editors at the magazine. Floral arrangement photographs by Stephen Kent Johnson, from Art in Flower. Art in Flower hits bookstores November 8. Through her imagination and artistry, Lindsey is able to amplify something of the essential spirit in each work. Lindsay chanced upon Ito Shinsui’s Rain While the Sun Is Shining (1917) in the exhibition New Women for a New Age: Japanese Beauties 1890s-1930s at the Museum of fine Arts in Boston. Japanese artist Itō Shinsui’s Rain While the Sun Is Shining (1917), a woodblock print using ink on paper. How to interpret the dynamic movement in Julie Mehretu’s epic canvas, Retopistics: A Renegade Evacuation? Inspired by Julie Mehretu Here Lindsey uses shades of blue from hyacinths, globe thistle, and muscari, all trimmed to different lengths, while shorter cuts of vivid orange tulips and pink carnations sit on the rim of the vessel along with a single vivid yellow ranunculus. Photograph by Julie Mehretu. American artist Julie Mehretu’s Retopistics: A Renegade Excavation (2001) in ink and acrylic on canvas. Inspired by James McNeill Whistler Keeping it simple with a limited palette and an emphasis on texture. This Whistler-inspired design plays on the artist’s pale, feminine canvas with a soft and creamy backdrop and vessels. For a winter arrangement, Lindsey turned to Symphony in Flesh Colour and Pink: Portrait of Mrs. Frances Leyland (1871-1874) by the American artist James McNeill Whistler. This arrangement goes big on zing, inspired by Pablo Picasso’s The Red Armchair, but it started with the vase. Inspired by Pablo Picasso A modernist masterpiece, The Red Armchair (1931) by Pablo Picasso.