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Mankind is destroying the planet. This destruction has made artist Brandy Kraft fascinated with preserving nature. She started with painting flowers - thousands of flowers in all states of life and decay. She wanted to preserve their beauty and prevent their extinction. Then suddenly in her dreams and in her subconscious she started having visions of new flowers. Non-existent flowers. She started painting these strange new hybrids and realized she was creating not only new species of flora but she was building a new world of her own. Flower by flower, petal by petal.

Equally inspired by the nature of Sweden and one of its most famous scientists, she left life in New York City to move back to Sweden. Now she follows in the footsteps of Carl Von Linné by naming and officially documenting each new hybrid flower species she creates. She is building a new, magical hybrid world and this is just the beginning...

HOW IS YOUR CREATION PROCESS?

When I begin a new hybrid, the flower takes shape in my imagination. I conjure up as many possibilities as possible and then go out on a hunt for petals to fulfill my vision. After pillaging the local flower markets I come back to the studio and rip the flowers apart. I then spread them all over the studio floor. This stage is vital to my visualization process and it helps me to see all possibilities at once. I spend quite a bit of time in this stage as I explore possibilities within the realms of composition, texture, and color in order to bring my new species to life.

The flower slowly comes into fruition in a physical three-dimensional form with a little glue, needles and some luck. Once I’m happy with it, I set the new creation into a black photo box and then light it for its portrait. After I’ve captured a photo which matches closely enough the vision in my mind, I get to work on the painting.

The first part of the painting is the drawing. I like to make 2 or 3 thumbnail sketches of the flower to familiarize myself with the new creation. It helps me to visualize a clock and think about what lies at the points, 12, 3, 6 and 9 o’clock. Once I get a feel for the new flower’s components, I draw it on a larger scale. I work freehand, using my sketches and the original photo as references. I sketch an outline of the hybrid flower directly onto the black canvas using a white chalk pencil. The soft chalk is forgiving, as in it’s easy to wipe away mistakes.

After this I fill in the outline of the hybrid with white gesso. I find that the underlying bright white really helps the colors reflect the most light, and what is color without light? After the white gesso dries, I use my references again as well as my visualization clock to lay down a road map for the rest of my journey. I don’t need a lot of detail, but I like to mark with pencil, some of the major compositional elements sort of as landmarks, so I don’t get lost once I start to paint.

When I start painting there are a lot of things that I think about. Color, light and shadow are the most important. All of these things work together to contribute to the success or the believability of the painting. Overall, I feel like my paintings and my painting practice are in step with the fragile balance of nature. All of the elements work together, from each fundamental ingredient in the flower’s form to the interplay of light, shadow, and color, all of which coexist on the canvas. I try to stay in tune with these aspects in all areas of my life, and hope that they are the most visually evident and appreciated in my artwork.

WHAT IS YOUR INSPIRATION?

Nature!

This interview was featured in Luxiders Magazine Issue 4. To buy the Magazine, click here.