Summer School: Inspired by Flora: From Botanical Gardens to Persian Carpets, Matisse and O'Keeffe

About

In this course students will focus on drawing flowers from life, in the studio, and from art at major summer exhibitions, considering the representation of flora in both Eastern and Western art and poetry since ancient times. Students will start their journey looking at flowers in the work of the Persian poet Hafiz and Indian miniature painting and literature. Students will have the opportunity to draw from Persian carpets in the collection at the V&A Museum whilst considering perspective, both real and imagined, as well as the flatness and decorative harmonies that are found in the work of artists such as Matisse and the Indian miniature painters. Focus will then shift to the West as students begin to draw British wild flowers both in the studio and from life, working with the collection and in the herbarium within Kew Gardens. We will discuss the works of John Clare, George Crabbe, and Shakespeare whose poetry has been inspired by flora as well as considering the millefleur tapestries, English Jacobean embroidery, and the work of artist/poets William Morris and David Jones. The course will include a visit to the Georgia O’Keeffe exhibition at Tate Modern.

http://royaldrawingschool.org/courses/public-courses/inspired-by-flora-from-botanical-gardens-to-persia/