Nature’s Best Art, located in southeast Michigan, offers inspirational Watercolor original paintings, Limited Edition Giclée prints of Pressed Floral designs, and Artistic Accessories created from some of these images.
The Beginning:
Nature’s Best Cards & Gifts began one August day in 1995 when Vicki took a pansy and placed it on top of a Queen Anne’s lace. “Wow! it was fantastic.” Vicki wondered, “How could I preserve such beauty?” Soon Vicki was making and selling cards with original flowers on them. This evolved into working with bigger flowers and more intricate designs that became framed art. At this point Vicki’s husband, Tom, suggested that she make limited edition prints to preserve the designs and allow many to enjoy lasting color. We changed our name to Nature’s Best Pressed Floral Art to reflect our unique style of art.
The Art of Pressing Flowers:
Pressing flowers is an old art with uses ranging from preserving the beauty of nature to botanical studies. Many examples of this old art from previous centuries are still available today. Although some flowers have been known to hold their color for 80 years or more, others fade in much shorter time. Nature’s Best creates Giclée prints to preserve the color that looks like the real flowers are behind the glass. Time and again people come right up close to the design, even touching the glass, trying to determine if the flowers are real. These wonderful colors are designed to last a lifetime.
Original Pressed Floral Prints:
The Pressed Floral designs are printed as limited edition Giclée prints. Giclée (“g-clay”), is derived from the French verb gicler meaning “to squirt or spray”, Giclée, is used to describe a fine art digital printing process combining pigment based inks with high quality archival paper to achieve prints of superior archival quality, light fastness and stability. Small edition sizes help maintain their uniqueness and value. Each print is hand signed and numbered in pencil by the artist.
The graphic design talents of her husband Tom complement Vicki’s work. Together they turn Vicki’s original designs into all kinds of accessories – cards, bookmarks, magnets, small framed art, and more.
Original Pressed Floral Designs:
Nature’s Best occasionally sells the original Pressed Floral design with the customer’s understanding that colors may fade over time. Since fading is dependent on light, heat, and moisture; Nature’s Best uses conservation glass and other archival techniques to preserve the color. As with all art work, care should be taken to avoid extremes of heat, cold, moisture, direct sunlight, and fluorescent light whether it be a print or original.
Watercolor Art:
In October 2015 Vicki expanded her artistic journey to include Watercolor painting, and with this expansion our name was changed to Nature’s Best Art. Watercolors allow Vicki to greatly expand the subject matter of her art. Vicki started out using watercolor pencils. Watercolor pencils offer the control of a colored pencil but can be mixed with water to create interesting color flows. It wasn’t long before she began using watercolor tubes. She loves her paintings to be rich with color and expresses realism. Vicki continues to be inspired by nature as reflected in many of her designs.
Past Art Shows:
For the past 20 years Vicki & Tom prepared for those awesome Summer Art shows. Awesome, what?! The heat, the winds, sometimes the rain or heavy storms, rising early, getting home late, the heavy tent; yes it was all awesome. They would be so exhausted by the week-end but ready to do it again the next scheduled show. There were many good shows Nature’s Best participated in; Art & Apples in Rochester, Mi., The Ann Arbor Art Fair in Ann Arbor, Mi., Art on the Lake in Troy, Mi., Art in the Village in Rochester Hills, Mi., and many more. The crowds brought so much joy. They looked forward to meeting other art enthusiasts. Vicki and Tom truly have appreciated everyone’s support and are so thankful for their encouragement. Getting to know and working along side hard-working, talented artists was also truly amazing. They are now ready to begin another chapter of their art journey; the Website.
The Website:
Wow! the Website, communicating with the whole world – that’s amazing! Vicki & Tom’s son, Chris, developed the first website awhile back, but they had to focus on the art shows. Chris is an amazing Computer Engineer and did a wonderful job. He has given Tom insight on developing this new website and continues to help him whenever he needs help. Vicki & Tom are looking forward to serving your art and gift needs for many years to come.