Plants and Colour - Flora Arbuthnott - BS046

My name is Flora Arbuthnott. I make dyes, inks, and paints out of plants for drawing, painting, printing, and dyeing textiles and paper. I explore wild and cultivated plants to produce a variety of vibrant colours. Observing and learning from the plants that grow around us, I came to this practice through a desire to connect with the land where I live. Plants such as meadowsweet and buddleia flowers, oak galls, and dock roots, or growing dye plants in my garden such as madder, woad, and coreopsis.

I grew up in the countryside in Gloucestershire and was taught to paint and print by my mother when I was a child. I then moved away to study product design at Glasgow School of Art. Following this, I sought to reconnect with my roots and with the natural raw elements of where the materials of my work come from. I was drawn to Devon to study permaculture (Earth Activist Training), horticulture (Schumacher College), and wild plants (Ffyona Campbell & Rhizome).

I created Plants & Colour to bring my love of nature connection and visual art & design together through the craft of plant based colour. I have a studio near Totnes in South Devon where I explore and play. Creating drawings, paintings, and prints. These are all one-off explorations of plant-based surface application bringing together natural dyeing, ink and paint making, and printmaking.

I now work with artists and crafts people around the world who wish to transition their practice to working with locally available plants. I share recipes, and a process for exploring the possibili… Read More