Mother Nature Inspires This Artist's Beautiful Botanical Artwork
Courtesy of Bridget Collins
Whether it's a peacock with a vivid cascading tail or a colorful portrait of Frida Kahlo, each piece of whimsical artwork created by Bridget Collins is unique and extraordinary. It leaves you wondering, does she use watercolor paints to create every color of the rainbow? Or maybe she uses papier-mâché to create the 3D textures on the paper. Collins actually creates these masterpieces with foraged plants and flowers, which has helped her become known as Flora Forager.
Collins, a mom of three boys, started making pieces back in 2008. "I was walking through my garden one day, with my first little boy, who was 1, and saw a goldfish in the flowers," Collins explains. "Then, I looked again and realized my brain was playing tricks on me. It was an orange poppy whose shiny petals looked like fins. I brought it inside and put the petals on a page like fins and painted the body. Over the years, I played around with other animals and scenes, started posting on Instagram, and Flora Forager came about," Collins says. "It started as my Instagram moniker, and it's stuck!"
On her Instagram, @Flora.Forager, which boasts more than 200,000 flowers, Collins showcases her botanical artworks and paintings as well as other parts of her life, like her home-baked treats, flower fields, and selfies displaying her DIY flower crowns. Collins forages from parks, gardens, and other spaces in Seattle. "When I am foraging, I generally only take one or two flowers for an artwork, and only if they're sustainable," Collins says. "It's best to leave nature as close to how it was when you found it." Collins also uses flowers from bouquets and her garden, which has lavender, foxgloves, hydrangeas, hollyhocks, and more for her art. "[My] mom has a rose garden filled with David Austen and old world roses that you can wade through and walk under," Collins adds. "I am the luckiest girl in the world because she is generous, and I have access to hundreds of roses in the summer!"
Along with her art, Collins has also published two books, Flora Forager ABC ($13, Amazon) and The Art of Flora Forager ($14, Amazon), and two journals: Metamorphosis: A Flora Forager Journal ($15, Amazon) and Flora Forager: A Seasonal Journal Collected from Nature ($17, Amazon). She's working on another book, as well as creating art, spending time with her family, and encouraging others to discover the beauty in their surroundings. "I do encourage people to find green spaces around where they live," Collins says. "Especially in the Pacific Northwest, there are lots of hidden patches of wildflowers, city park trees, and oodles of pinecones and acorns on the ground for you to find. You'll find flowers in cracks in parking lots and weedy abandoned lots."
