Marilla Palmer
When looking at Marilla Palmer’s artwork it can be hard to tell the difference between her botanical renderings, bits of silk and actual pressed flowers from one of her resource gardens in Lakeville, CT and Brooklyn NY. This blurring of boundaries between nature and artifice draws attention to the environmental question: Is there any place on our planet where we can experience nature without human intervention? Every artwork begins by capturing the fragile blooms in watercolor, then transformation through adornment with stitching, glitter or photographic prints. Palmer has said that “nature is always elegant and always gorgeous. Nature is fragile and dramatic.”
Marilla Palmer’s recent solo exhibitions include The Wasp in the Garden, Daphne’s Night Out and Nature Burlesque at Kathryn Markel Fine Art, NY, Debauchee of Dew in a Concrete Landscape at Fringe Exhibitions in Los Angeles, Optimism Reigns and Rains at Pierogi, NY. She has had numerous exhibitions in New York, Dallas, Los Angeles and the Hamptons. Her exhibitions have been reviewed in the New York Times, The New Yorker, Time Out NY, ArtNews and the Lakeville Journal. She has large commissioned pieces at Marsal Caregivers Center at Burke and Sloane Kettering. She received her BFA from Philadelphia College of Art.
Thumbergia and Zebra, 2020, Watercolor, velvet, sequins, stitching, pressed flowers, Durabrite prints on Arches HP paper. 30 x 22 inches
Cimicifuga's Delicate Geometry, 2020, Watercolor, pressed foliage, sequins, stitching on Arches paper, 30 x 15 inches
Visiting the Vine, 2020, Watercolor, pressed foliage, sequins, stitching on Arches paper, 15 x 11 inches
Illuminated Passiflora, 2020, Watercolor, pressed foliage, sequins, stitching on Arches paper, 15 x 11 inches
Recognition, 2021, Watercolor, pressed foliage, glitter Durabrite print on Arches cold press paper, 22 x 15 inches
Unscripted, 2021, Watercolor, pressed foliage, glitter Durabrite print on Arches cold press paper, 22 x 15 inches
Double Paradise, 2021, Orchid foliage with birds of paradise has been painted with mushroom spores, Columbine and abuliton petals, Watercolor, spores, glitter, pressed petals on Arches paper, 30 x 22 inches