Fuchsias: Nature as an inspiration for Design

      In the mid 1980’s I had the opportunity of attending a wonderful seminar, in New Delhi, on the design and construction of the architectural marvel, the Sydney Opera House. It covered the the entire process behind its design, right from inspiration, conception to construction. The Danish architect, Jorn Utzon, who designed it, was inspired by the white sail boats on the harbor. He wanted the form to be in harmony with the surrounding environment and so he designed it as a complex of multiple concrete shells covered with white Swedish tiles! And voila, a great design was born.

      Talking about inspiration, I think nature is a great provider of inspiration, especially to professionals related to the field of design. It could be the design of anything from clothes, cups, plates, stationery to buildings. One summer in the early 1990’s, I discovered the flower called Fuchsia. Now it has been around for a long time, but I had never seen it in India. So when I saw it for the first time in America, there was sheer joy in my mind. It comes in lovely colors, forms and the variation in its design is plenty. That summer I was just hooked to painting these flowers in my leisure time. It resulted in holding an exhibition, with one section of only Fuchsia paintings.

      Back to inspiration. Now that I look back on these paintings, I see more than flowers in them. I see fancy clothes, with layers of gorgeously colored fabric. If you look at them from top to bottom, the sepal head and trunk could go for a woman’s upper half, the sepals define the waist, the petals show off the flare of the dress, the stamens are the legs and the pollen ends are the shoes! The two flowers together seem to waltz to the tune of the Blue Danube. Now isn’t that a great inspiration to design a fancy dress!

Ratna