Rosewood has been sharing beautiful art for garden lovers ever since we started our blog and social media posting.  In 2021, we shared a modern flower painting each month.  For 2022, we plan to bring you images by the German sculptor and photographer Karl Blossfeldt (1865-1932).  The artist is most famous for his incredible photos of plants.  He took these in close-up detail of a sort that hadn’t been seen before.  Plant photographs by Blossfeldt have a quality that elevates even common weeds into art.

What makes his pictures so good?

When he took these images, Blossfeldt attempted to do something very special.  He photographed magnified details of the plant surfaces in a way that had never been done before.  He developed home-made cameras with features that allowed this close-up photography.  This enabled him to bring out the patterns and textures in nature that he was so interested in.  He originally intended them as teaching aids for his students at the art school.  However, he published a book of his images in 1929, Urformen der Kunst  (Art Forms in Nature).  It was an international bestseller and Blossfeldt became famous almost overnight.

The photograph we’re sharing for January is of the male fern Dryopteris filix-mas.  The image shows the intricate detail of the uncurling fronds, with their amazing shapes and patterns.  Of course, ferns are a great group of plants to use in living walls that are installed in shady areas.  Blossfeldt’s picture shows you just how beautiful the dryopteris genus can be when you look closely.

Next month we’ll bring you another picture, but if you’d like to know more about the artist, just click through to the Karl Blossfeldt Wikipedia Page.  You can read about his life and work, and look forward to seeing another of his wonderful photographs in our February blog posts.