Blumenhaus Collaborator

Flowers makes the world a better place, bonding people and enlightening our daily lives.
- Illustrator, Chloé Weinfeld

Chloé Weinfeld is the French artist behind the Blumenhaus illustration.

Working with gouache mixes and colourful lush landscapes Chloé combines organic shapes with geometric forms paying attention to detail and patterns.

The Blumenhaus illustration is a perfect example of Chloé’s work, creating complex and joyful images.

1. Present yourself
Im a French illustrator based in Lyon, after few years spent in Paris.
I grew up in Réunion Island, a tropical French island located between Madagascar and Mauritius Island.
I paint colorful landscapes using the gouache technique, inspired by my travels and childhood on the island.

2. Talk about your creative process?
For commissions, I make sketches first : a black & white composition and a color sketch. It’s important, in order to have a direction to go. Then I start painting the final illustration. Otherwise, when painting for myself, I rather paint and create in a more intuitive way : directly on paper.

3. How do you define your style?
I paint lush and colorful landscapes, where cohabit organic elements, enigmatic architectures and objects of daily life. I pay great attention to details, patterns, and contrasts. My compositions are both complex and joyful and are an invite to escape and dream.

4. Where do you find inspiration and which flowers inspire you the most?
I dig a lot of inspiration from my homeplace and my travels. I’ve been strongly influenced by the stunning & steep landscapes of Reunion Island : the rainforest, the volcano, the endless ocean below. The light is so strong over there, underlining the volumes and strenghtening the colors.

I’m obviously influenced a lot by its colorful and extremely graphic flowers : anthuriums, alpinia, ginger torch, allamanda, hibiscus, frangipani flowers, etc. And when in France, I like painting tulips, buttercups or anemones, for the same reasons.

5. If you were a flower, which one would you be?
I'd be probably an Hibiscus.

6. Any scent memory or anecdote related with flowers?
The scent of frangipani blossom is very significant to me. Its scent brings me back under the tree of my garden, 10000kms away from Lyon. It activates this very comforting memory of home, but awakens also travel memories of discovery & adventures. It’s a flower I’ve found at every part of the world when travelling : Australia, South-East Asia, South America.

7. Do you have a favourite garden or place related with flowers?
I really love the Jardin des Plantes in Paris. Almost 400 years old, this botanic garden is always filled with seasonal flowers, at any time of the year. It’s surrounded by amazing architecture where are displayed geological & botanical collections. I love the Peony Garden and the Grandes Serres. It’s also a unique place to see and learn about flowers, nature and science, thanks to several venues such as the Galerie de l’Évolution.

9 . ‘Why do flowers make people happy?’ or why flowers make the world a better place?
Flowers bring light, life and colors. Wether it’s a bouquet at home in a vase, or growing outside in a garden or into the wild.

We’re looking forward for them to bloom at spring, nature is celebrating its reborn, meaning that the cold winter is over. At the same time, flowers are a symbol of caring and giving through simple acts of attention. That’s the reason why it makes the world a better place. It bonds people and enlightens our daily life.