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A review by bookalong
Flower Diary: In Which Mary Hiester Reid Paints, Travels, Marries & Opens a Door by Molly Peacock
5.0
It has been some time since I read a Biography and this one didn't disappoint. FLOWER DIARY recounts the life of Mary Heister Reid (1854-1921), an American born, Canadian artist. MHR is best known for painting floral still lifes and was looked at as one of Canada's most important flower painters.
Peacocks poetic writing captured me at once. Transporting me back to the time of MHR, an artist who I knew nothing about before this book but now know and appreciate her for her art and the time in which she created. She was the wife of a painter as well as herself being one, trying to find a place separately for her art in the world reminded me a bit of another artistic couple in history, Frida Khalo and Diego Rivera. How do two artists exist separately in work yet together in life?
I loved all the pictures and artwork included. How Peacock explains the paintings with a keen eye. I am no art expert but I do enjoy art and it was so fun to read about MHR's work. I will never look at a floral painting the same way again. I thought how Peacock structured this biography was brilliant, unfolding it with a piece of art for each chapter in her life. And how she wonderfully mixes biography with art appreciation and inserts her own life while also explores subjects of marriage, women, creating, society and death made for a very interesting biographical account of a Canadian, female artist!
Thank you so much to the publisher for sending me this book opinions are my own.
For more of my book content check out instagram.com/bookalong
Peacocks poetic writing captured me at once. Transporting me back to the time of MHR, an artist who I knew nothing about before this book but now know and appreciate her for her art and the time in which she created. She was the wife of a painter as well as herself being one, trying to find a place separately for her art in the world reminded me a bit of another artistic couple in history, Frida Khalo and Diego Rivera. How do two artists exist separately in work yet together in life?
I loved all the pictures and artwork included. How Peacock explains the paintings with a keen eye. I am no art expert but I do enjoy art and it was so fun to read about MHR's work. I will never look at a floral painting the same way again. I thought how Peacock structured this biography was brilliant, unfolding it with a piece of art for each chapter in her life. And how she wonderfully mixes biography with art appreciation and inserts her own life while also explores subjects of marriage, women, creating, society and death made for a very interesting biographical account of a Canadian, female artist!
Thank you so much to the publisher for sending me this book opinions are my own.
For more of my book content check out instagram.com/bookalong