Art is not based on a number of static concepts, but changes and extends its boundaries in response To the shifts of emphasis in the intellectual and emotional situation of each period in history. Maurice de Sausmarez

The last decade of this century has seen an unprecedented interest in design, be it in architecture, interiors, gardens or the arts. Floral artists are part of that global movement where design is all-important. It is surely a most exciting time in floral art – we are seeing a greater willingness to push the boundaries. The question most frequently asked is ‘what next?’ Part of the challenge for the floral artist is the transient quality of the medium used. Designs can be enjoyed for just a few hours or days and even during that brief period the work itself does not remain static, subtle changes occur, buds open, flowers fade. All that may remain is a photographic record to capture a fleeting work of art. This is not an unhappy situation, as the artist has the opportunity to start afresh using different materials and techniques in a progressive fashion.

The availability of a wide variety of plant material throughout the seasons allows great scope for creativity. Today we can choose cut flowers from around the world: roses from South America, proteas from South Africa, strelizias from Isreal and a wonderful selection of Irish-sourced plants. Thankfully we are no longer dependent on unreliable and distracting mechanics. The availability of containers in a dazzling array of designs at a reasonable cost, the renaissance in wrought iron work and the use of Perspex has allowed the floral artist to be very innovative. Recent advances in rules for competitive work has spurred on this great change and encouraged individual creativity.

Floral artists are not just concerned with plant material, although it is a dominant feature, but in common with other artists they use additional components. They have long been leaders in the field of recycling. Their ‘seeing eye’ can envisage the design possibilities of almost any object, as a cursory inspection of their attic/studio will verify! A late 1990’s essential inventory should at least include rusted iron, weathered terracotta and distressed wood.

Much of the influence on our contemporary work comes from Europe – most notably Italy, Germany, France and Holland and from the southern hemisphere and New Zealand in particular. The ubiquitous phormium, once associated with the traditional massed pedestal, is enjoying a new lease of life in modern work but is now manipulated, woven and used more imaginatively. While we may think that all contemporary work is influenced only by current global trends in design, a retrospective glimpse will reveal that we are also inspired by floral artists of the past. Surely Constance Spry would be flattered to see our dining tables decorated with floating dandles and flowers. It was in the 1930’s that she sought to break away from the overpowering table decorations of her predecessors by floating flower heads in a shallow bowl.

Floral art has always been influenced by interior design and with the trend towards smaller homes and more streamlined interiors the arrangement of flowers in tall glass containers has seen a revival perhaps a return to the Art Nouveau style? The tied bunch so popular in the 1990’s bears a striking resemblance to the charming Victorian posy and indeed to the tussie-mussie of the Tudor period. In competitive work, still life and flower pieces are enjoying a revival and many are inspired by the great Dutch painters of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, such as De Heem and Van Huysum. Unlike the painters of the period who had to paint each flower as it came into season, today’s floral artists are free to create their designs at almost any time of year.

Although it seems improbable, some aspects of the Renaissance period have parallels with life in Europe today: ease of travel, urban development, global commerce, a flowering of the arts. Is it not possible then that the clipped hedgerow styles so popular today have also been influenced by the topiary of the Renaissance garden? The use of terracotta containers in floral art and gardening has never been more fashionable, as they once were in the Renaissance garden.

Taking a step even further back to ancient China and the beginning of the millennium, does not their use of linear forms and restraint in the use of plant material inform and influence the floral artist at the end of the millennium? We do not know what styles will evolve in the future, but we can be certain that today’s floral artists will strive to create new forms while keeping an eye on the past, and that they in their turn will influence floral art in the twenty-first century.