Words and Wildflowers Creative Prompts – Issue 23

We LOVE research and learning as a way to get inspired and boost ideas and creativity!! So, Kenzie and I are going to be sharing the inspiration that we collect here in our second newsletter…. once a week!!!

Here’s how it works:

We provide the inspiration. You interpret it however you wish… any medium, any size. It is meant to inspire lettering and floral art combined together. But, you can:

Just do the florals, just do the lettering, or combine them together.
Use the provided quote for your piece or select your own.
Use colors from one of the inspiration images or select your own favorites
Create the floral art… as a still life in a vase, a single flower, a border, a pattern, a bouquet

Hope you will create with us and post your work at #wordsandwildflowers2024 and tag @lorisiebert.studio and @snippetsofwhimsy

We will be checking and sharing some of our favorites. AND… there may be surprise guest judges and PRIZES!!!

Quote of the week…

‘Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.’

— Vincent Van Gogh

Inspirational Artist of the Week… Birger Kaipiainen

Birger Johannes Kaipiainen (1 July 1915 – 18 July 1988) was a Finnish ceramist and designer. He is one of the most successful and well-known ceramic artists in Finland.

Kaipiainen graduated from the School of Arts and Crafts (later known as the Aalto School of Arts of Helsinki.) After that he went to work for Finnish ceramics company Arabia in 1937, and later in 1954 for their Swedish sister company Rörstrand. Kaipiainen worked as a designer for Arabia over fifty years. As a child he was Kaipiainen suffered from Polio and was consequently unable to use a pottery wheel. It was said that his illness heightened his artistic sensitivity.

Kaipiainen was nicknamed “the king of decorators”, for his nostalgic, romantic and highly decorative ceramic designs, at a time when minimalism was the prevailing trend in Finnish ceramics. He is known for repeatedly using the same signature nature inspired motifs, such as violets and curlews. His most famous designs were made at the Arabia ceramics factory. For example, the Paratiisi (Paradise) series, designed in 1969, which is still in production. Paratiisi was one of the first silkscreen printed series made by Arabia. Another noted design by Kaipiainen, the Sunnuntai (Sunday) series designed in 1971 was brought back into production by the Arabia company in 2019.

Handlettering Inspiration of the week… Squeak

Squeak Carnwath (born 1947) is an American contemporary painter and arts educator. She is a professor emerita of art at the University of California, Berkeley. She has a studio in Oakland, California, where she has lived and worked since 1970.

Carnwath has a distinctive and recognizable style which combines diaristic and personal elements with universal or existential themes. Her paintings “combine text and images on abstract fields of color to express sociopolitical and spiritual concerns.”