Art in Nature

As a child growing up in the busy suburbs of South London, Lucy Hunter reimagined her grandmother’s garden as an escape to a fairy world full of magic, where the unbound freedom of nature invited the vines, hedges, flowers, grasses and trees to converse with each other.

Her perennial passion for gardens led Hunter to the University of Liverpool, where she studied for a fine arts degree. Once she graduated, however, the harsh climate of reality grounded her in a “real job,” she said.  “Since a career based on creativity wasn’t as respected in the ‘90s as it is these days, my first job was working at a bank. I tried hard, but I wasn’t good at it.” On reflection, she smirked, “I actually loathed it.” 

After spending eight excruciating years behind a desk, Hunter could no longer ignore the desire to revisit her fascination with garden design. She became obsessed with the rolling countryside — meadows bursting with golden rapeseed and the dusky pink puffs of Cotinus coggygria swaying along the sand dunes of the coast. In the cities and villages, the perfume of wild roses wafted from a park while zinnias and dahlias, popping in bold shades from a window box, demanded admiration. For Hunter, the moss-carpeted forests and craggy mountains hid ancient mysteries and histories, reflected in the indigo hues of English bluebells, hyacinths and forget-me-nots. 

“There’s comfort in nature. It’s my church,” she said. “Mother Earth gets on and does her thing despite money, war or politics. It’s incredibly reassuring after a dismal winter or heavy storms that plants and trees regenerate. I take so much hope from that.”

When Hunter bought a house that came with a little garden, she enjoyed working on small landscaping jobs as she navigated around being a mother to her baby Matthew. During that time, she found bliss in her creative design processes, studying the alchemy of nature by slowing down to admire each bud and bloom. For Hunter, the old adage, “When you love what you do, you’ll never work another day in your life,” rang true. 

As fate would have it, the budding entrepreneur soon found herself in the throes of a multi-million-pound landscaping project for a client who asked her to transform his 27-acre potato farm into a park. According to Hunter, the job took four years of working every day alongside a team of 30 men. They installed two two-acre lakes, irrigation systems and woodland gardens. Caught up in the business side of things, Hunter lost her joy and creativity. When she realized she had stopped gazing at the flowers for their beauty, she began craving a way to get her wonder back. 

Enter the Covid era. Hunter was forced to take a break from her heavy workload. At that time, she was living in North Wales, where due to the pandemic, residents were forbidden to travel more than a mile from their homes. With newfound time and energy to spare, Hunter started to feel the dormant embers of creativity stirring. Her hands found their way back into the soil, her bare feet felt the soft coolness of the grass and she started painting murals on the walls of her studio. Requited with her love of gardening and painting, the restless creative began styling floralscapes and taught herself photography. 

These combined talents led her to compile her first book, “Flower Hunter: Seasonal Flowers Inspired by Nature and Gathered from the Garden.” A second book, “Flower Hunter: Creating a Floral Love Story Inspired by the Landscape,” subsequently followed. Both were published by Ryland, Peters and Small. Detailing her exploration of England’s environs, the books also display breathtaking arrangements Hunter styled with a blend of fresh and dried flowers. In each section of the books, Hunter shares her strategies for growing, gathering and drying flowers, encouraging beginners to forage their natural surroundings for elements with which to create their own museum-quality still-life floralscapes. 

For readers who are anxious about experimenting with the gardening and styling techniques that Hunter has outlined in the books, she said, “It’s not about setting up for perfection, there’s no joy or beauty in that. Why does everything have to be perfect anyway? It’s more about being authentic to yourself. You can never go wrong with that. Start small. Look around and you’ll find beauty in little things like planting a seed in a container and watching it grow on your kitchen windowsill.”

While Hunter’s roots are thoroughly English, she has always felt a connection to the South, in part because the architecture reminds her of Europe. Further, “The colors feel brighter here,” she said, gesturing at the Orangerie, where plants of all sizes and species flourish in her Charleston home. Seated in front of an exquisite mural she painted with intricate vistas that beg to be explored, Hunter explained that she has also launched a collection of hand-painted wallpapers inspired by her muses, which she finds in the local landscapes. She added, “I lose myself in painting the stories my creations tell about the Lowcountry.”

Hunter’s hand-painted murals and wallpaper, which play with eclectic Georgian aesthetics of proportion and scale, are timeless designs that enhance classic as well as modern interiors. “I think these nostalgic treatments are on trend because we are all craving a slightly happier and easier world full of possibilities right now,” she said. Bringing the outside in with her murals or wallpapers and floral creations achieves exactly that, suggesting a sense of calm and serenity.

With the imagination of a little girl playing without limitations in her grandmother’s garden, Hunter continues to foster more beauty in the world by cultivating plants, arranging floralscapes and capturing nature in real time with the stroke of her brush or a snap of her camera.

For a behind-the-scenes glimpse of Hunter’s creations, visit the-flowerhunter.com, and follow her on Instagram @lucytheflowerhunter. ϒ