Lucille Guder "Madame Fleurs / Beige"

"This is the second work dedicated to my friend Anna, whom I admire very much and to whom I owe a lot. Anna is from France too and she had the courage to open a naturally dried flower store here in Berlin, called Madame Fleurs. In Paris such stores are quite common - but in Germany, people are more used to fresh-cut flowers.

When I got a big box of leftovers from Anna's production as a gift, I started to glue and scan these dried flowers on my paintings. I learned, that not all types of flowers are good for making dried flowers out of them - but if you do it right, drying brings out the beauty and complexity of a plant all over again. I like to make miniature bouquets from these flowers and plant parts and paint a lady behind them to match the bouquet.

And I like working with these flowers because it gives new use to the small off-cuts that would have otherwise ended up in the trash. Overall, dried flowers are much more sustainable than fresh flowers - they will remain beautiful for a very long time and do not have to be thrown away after a few days.

The gift I received from Anna inspired my art - but so did her courage to try something new. Her example has reinforced me to consistently follow my path as an artist. To give up my old office job. To put all on one card."

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