Books that inspired me

Last week I had the luxury of doing nothing but reading, for the first two days I felt a twinge of guilt, but soon hurdled this, the more I read and couldn't put down the divided heart by Rachel Power and The PAPER Garden Mrs Delany (Begins her life's work at 72) Molly Peacock.

To quote from The Divided Heart - Whatever have been the circumstances of their life, and however they have  dealt with the revelations and the constraints posed by motherhood, all of these artists have been willing to expose themselves in searingly honest, provocative and passionate accounts of the private struggle that exists behind their work -Rachel Power.

It is very honest and for me it alleviated the guilt that sometimes reared its head when trying to balance ones art and life, as mother and artist. It consists of interviews that Rachel conducted over a period of time with women artists from all varying media.  

 
The Paper Garden is just wonderful for its sheer involvement of research into the Georgian period (1700 - 1788) of Mrs Delany. It's the true story of this woman, Mrs Delany whom created all these 985 paper mosaikes inspired by the love of botanicals and the urgency to lose oneself in creative endeavour.

 Just the sheer volume of work at this age is remarkable, where they are a direct copy of plants that were brought to her by botanists at the time such as Joseph Banks. Meticulously the shading and details are all handcut, painted coloured paper by Mrs Delany.  They are all housed in the British Museum and one day I may see them first hand.

So my gorgeous mum, whom is a great gardener and has the beautiful skill of botanical drawing and watercolours  will be receiving this for a late mothers day pressie to be inspired from.