While walking around Washington, D.C. this past weekend, I visited the botanical gardens there. As I was looking at the different flowers, trees, and plants, I realized that art doesn’t have to be man made, for it to work nicely and include interesting aspects.

In design, we always talk about the principles and elements of design from line to color to shapes and sizes. Looking at these gardens, each different plant has different forms of pattern, line, and shape to each. Taking a step back, I looked at the whole area as a whole, and it produced a beautiful composition. Thick trunks, small patterns, darks and lights, geometric and organic, everywhere there were elements of design, but in nature. 

For example, in the orchid to the right, there is a pop of bright color against a white flower and it sits perfectly in front of some complementary green plants. The circular shapes contrast nicely against the long thin branches behind it, making the orchids stand out in nature. Not to mention, the unique webbed pattern adds an element of interest overall.

Each and every aspect in nature can be seen as a piece of art, considering what your definition of art would be. In my eyes the unique colors of flowers, and twisting patterns of tree trunks, even the simplest curly shape of a piece of lemongrass, each and every part of nature has its own style to it that I believe we take from and use in our own work of design in other forms.