FLOWER POWER - North Finnis

an overwhelming overdoor North Style

In looking at Marianne North's beautiful works of art, true labors of love- I am overwhelmed by the volume of work and the love. Marianne North waited until she was 40 to start fulfilling the work of painting some 900 botanical specimens. North was independently wealthy- having been sole heir of her family's estate-something necessary for such an undertaking especially for a middle aged Victorian woman.

Her passion led her and her brushes to North and South America, Southeast Asia, Europe, Africa and the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand, India and Sri Lanka. Armed with a few painting techniques, she traveled and painted: to record what she saw- not to paint beauty. The result of her travels- Both, an unprecedented record and beauty.
Her final journey led her to create a gallery with its interior modeled on a Greek temple for the nation of Britain at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (click to see the restoration)

one of the 900

Room with a View I

detailing Beauty
(photograph by Tobias Harvey)

one of the 900

Marianne North

(all photographs from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew unless noted) See all the paintings at this link

why not your own North Gallery- Finnis Style?

Wall Flowers
the inspiration of horticulturist Valerie Finnis.

photograph by Jan Baldwin

A hall enlivened by horticultural photographs cut out of magazines in the Nottinghamshire home of the late Valerie Finnis. Pale Blue Muscari (grape hyacinth) and the silver-grey Artemisia bear her name. Valerie Finnis created gardens, specifically-after teaching at the Waterperry Horticultural School for Women for 30 years- Her own. Still- lifes by Finnis, more 55,000 transparencies survive, along with photographs of her gardener friends. To see Valerie Finnis' photographs (click)to read this wonderful post by Each Little World:Dressing for the Garden.

Room with a View II

photograph by Jan Baldwin

Valerie Finnis Pale Blue Muscari

Valerie Finnis Artemisia

Valerie Finnis amongst her work

photograph by Jan Baldwin

North and Finnis created their own worlds - abroad, at home: Both leaving their own lasting impressions on us. Think about a Finnis wall in your own world.



RESOURCES- the Telegraph UK , Marianne North: The Flower Huntress by Kathryn Hughes
World of Interiors January 2008, Female of the Species, by Frances Spalding
www.kew.org, Restore a Painting, Save Our Heritage
World of Interiors, April 2009, Snug with a Pug and a Trug, by Amicia de Moubray