When I got married over 12 years ago, wedding planning was a lot different. Wedding blogs weren’t really a thing yet. The only wedding shows you could attend took place in a banquet hall and were filled with cheesy DJs and big box bridal store fashions. Boy have things changed! Back then the ‘on trend’ way to preserve your wedding bouquet was to let the flowers dry out, then mix up this goo to spray them with, “preserving” them as a dusty, dried-up reminder of your wedding day. Even my wedding photos were before digital was really a thing so each frame of film was slightly precious. With digital, photographers are more free to shoot liberally and that includes getting gorgeous detail shots of things like the flowers that can be hung up as art long after the party is over. Another way you can have a keepsake of those gorgeous florals is with the ever growing trend of custom bouquet paintings.
Bari J. is an artist that I have known of for many years, not from her bouquet paintings but because of her fabric designs. My mom is a quilter and passed on that love of sewing to me. From a young age, she taught me to sew. She made her own wedding dress so it only seemed natural that I do the same when I got married. When I’m looking for fun projects to sew, whether it is a pillow for the living room or a dress for my daughter, I love bright, bold fabrics. That is exactly what Bari J. designs. She is first and foremost a painter. It is from those paintings that her fabric designs are created. When I saw that she was also taking commissions for custom bouquet paintings I was so excited. Prices for these custom originals range from $225-$690 which is actually a great price for a custom piece of art.
I love how gestural her brushstrokes are. She has also been working a lot with thick textures in her paintings too which are even more amazing. Her Instagram feed is a constant source of happiness.