Flower Spells

The story of the name

Hello Friends,

Welcome to Flower Spells :)

I have been thinking of doing this for a while. Combining my love of writing, making mood boards and talking about the many things which inspire my work as an artist. I love sending out my studio newsletter, but I wanted to make something creative that feels like more than just a marketing bulletin of my career. I will continue to send out studio news, of course, but I wanted to also create a space to write and scrapbook my many interests - flowers, art, colours, herbal medicine, reading, astrology, feelings, how to combine motherhood with life as an artist, fashion - I actually began my career as a fashion writer! And also my thoughts and stories behind the paintings.

Basically, I am going to be brave and share more of me and my world.

Here is a recent painting (which may or may not be finished, still deciding) amongst the snowdrops. Whilst working on this painting I was talking to my good friend Chloe in Brooklyn. We send voice notes back and forth often and she is so good at reflecting my work back to me, helping me to articulate my ideas. She said something to the effect of - your flower paintings feel like the wildflowers reclaiming the earth back from capitalism, back from humans. That by painting the flowers over and over I am casting flower spells against the patriarchal machine. That this is my small act of resistance.

I said that casting flower spells is exactly how the painting process feels to me.

When I feel fear trying to consume me (often) or anger at the state of the world (often) or panic about my lack of control over my life or the protection of our planet (often) I paint. I paint the flowers frantically as an act of radical hope. To try and shift energy. To calm myself down. To channel magic. If I paint enough wildflowers will I save them? Is this magical thinking?

Maybe, but it helps.

The physical act of painting also helps - making this work is personal medicine for anxiety. On a good day I slip into a meditative state, I channel the freedom of the wildflowers and I sink down into the physicality of using my body to paint. It is a personal rebellion for me. A rejection of a lifetime of learning to be in control, to fear authority, to paint in the lines and be a good girl. The wildflowers don’t care about any of that. I am listening to them. Slowly casting off the need to please everyone or have things look a certain way - neat and tidy. They are teaching me to listen to my intuition, instead. To feel freedom in my body. It is such a relief. It is scary. It feels fucking great.

These paintings contain my prayers for the wildflowers, my reverence for their soft power. I want to celebrate their joy, their resilience, their Divine Feminine energy. I want to channel it. I want to be my true witch self.

I paint their diminutive beauty on a large scale so they tower above us.

I like to stand in awe of them, as if before a goddess.

I like to cast flower spells.

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I will aim to send these newsletters twice a month ish. We’ll see how things evolve. I won’t spam you! I will be sending an extra one later this week to launch a studio sale of small works on paper. Paid subscribers will get this first - you can upgrade your subscription now if this is something you are interested in:

Thank you for being here.

Katy x

PS. thank you to Chloe for gifting me this name! which was the seed I needed to start this project…