About

‘Lorenz has moved the traditional depiction of flowers away from the twee, decorative, the domestic and the aesthetically conservative on to a more complex and ultimately satisfying level. Her work transcends the ordinary and communicates an experience of nature on a higher, even spiritual level.’

Giles Sutherland, The Times

My work is inspired by nature, specifically flowers and plants, a subject both resilient and profoundly fragile. Making art is my way of praying for its future, of loving it, of thanking it, of being connected. Painting and drawing are at the center of my practice, although I have used video, textiles and sound in installations. Visually my work is informed by my observation and research of the plants I depict but I seek to go beyond the representational through a conceptual context for the work, and recently in becoming more stylized and expressive in my depictions. This stylistic shift has been informed by research I have been doing at Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh, The Royal College of Physicians, Kew Gardens Library and Archive and The Linnean Society, into the history of plants in healing and plant illustrations in 15th, 16th and 17th century herbals.

Ongoing projects include:

‘Plants, Medicine and Magic’ paintings inspired by old herbalist recipes using plants and flowers to create remedies for physical, emotional and spiritual ailments. More info in these blog posts.

‘Votive Offerings’an ongoing series of portrayals of flower posies I have made and left around Scotland, and further afield. The work explores the motif of the posy as gift, prayer or message, as well as the poetics of the act of making and leaving the posies in different environments or locations. The flower posies as a Votive Offering are ephemeral in themselves, quickly wilting and dying, but the portrayal of them renders them more permanent.

For PRESS articles about my work click here.

I studied Art and Art History at Goldsmiths College, London 1989-92. I am based in rural Fife at my unusual studio on Platform 2, Ladybank Railway Station. Ladybank Railway Station is a functioning station on the line from Edinburgh to Dundee. Built c.1850, my studio used to be the old station restaurant rooms looking straight onto the platform, I renovated these rooms to create the studio in 2009.
Kirsty Lorenz in her studio