Art with heart

Story by Hannah Moloney

ABC TV’s Hannah Moloney visits Queensland floral artist Viera Keogh at her property in the Sunshine Coast hinterland, where she grows the flowers that inspire and feature in her art.

Viera’s obsession with flowers and plants is complete and deep. “Every flower is unique,” she says. “You can’t find two identical blooms. Every flower evokes different emotions. One bloom is elegant and sophisticated, another childlike and playful. You look at the flower for the first time, you see its overall beauty; you look at the same bloom the second time, you see more and more delicate detail.”

She regards the garden and plants as her artistic medium, and creates everything from bouquets and vase arrangements to dried flower wreaths, wall art, wearable art and even homemade candles embedded with her vibrant flowers.

Viera’s go-to flowers are everlasting daisies, which come in a plethora of colours and forms. Her other favourite natives are kangaroo paws (Anigozanthos spp.) and tea-tree flowers, such as the pink or white forms of Leptospermum ‘Cardwell’. She also loves working with meadow grasses and salvias, including Mexican sage (S. leucantha). “Dried flowers are one of the most delicate and challenging mediums to create art with, especially when you’re using only natural techniques,” Viera says. “If you consider creating from your own home grown flowers, you will find it can be a slow but highly rewarding process, and I promise the result will be worth waiting for.”

Read the full story in the December issue of ABC Gardening Australia magazine – on sale now!