Under The Chestnut Tree

Earlier this summer I was invited to help out with the ikebana exhibition at Oslo Rose Days. Since the exhibition took place in the Freia Hall, a room with large paintings by Edvard Munch around the walls, I decided to create a series of ikebana arrangements inspired by Munch's art.

"Under the chestnut tree".

Maple, White Singapore Orchids,

Gypsophila and Delphinium.

Along with his more existentialist motives and his self portraits, Munch also painted portraits of models trough all of his career. This portrait called "Under the Chestnut Tree" was painted rather late in Munch's life. It is one of the highlights from his 1930s production and is a portrait of the model Hanna Brieschke.

In the ikebana arrangement I wanted to catch the refreshing feeling of sitting under a large tree. The white Orchids echoes the large flowers of the Chestnut tree, and the cooling blue colour from the painting is seen in the flowers under the branches and in the water.

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Refreshing Summer Flowers

Fan palm and Sand lily.

Intertwining plant materials.

In the summertime water is an even more important component in an ikebana arrangement. Water is essential for all life. It's refreshing and calming, especially on a hot day. A container of glass with a large opening adds to the cooling qualities of water.

I'm working in South of Spain this summer, which gives me the opportunity to try out local plant materials. I found this Fan Palm leaf close to the beach and decided that it would make a nice structure to highlight the beautiful Sand Lilies. The smell of the lilies is similar to Narcissus and they are growing directly out of the sand many places.

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Spiral Garden

Akane Teshigahara, the present iemoto of the Sogetsu School, held her 10 year solo exhibition in May this year. The exhibition was called "Heartlines" and was held at Spiral Garden in Tokyo.

Browsing for pictures from the exhibition I was lucky enough to find I new ikebana blog. Sogetsu teacher Christopher James from Australia has been blogging every week while he was studying at the Sogetsu headquarters this spring. The result is a fascinating weblog giving an interesting behind the scene peek.

He has also published pictures from exhibitions on his other blog recent ikebana exhibitions. Have a look at the many pictures from the "Heartlines" exhibition. It is truly amazing (The picture posted in this post is used with permission).

Chistopher is now back home in Torquay and has started a new blog where he will publish ikebana works from Australia. It's already in my blog list!

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Flowers Are Like a Mirror

Flowers only.

White Amazon lilly and red Calla lilly.

Flowers are like a mirror.

I survey the flower.

The flower surveys me.

I - changed to a flower -

am looking at me.

(Old Japanese poem)

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