About

Be inspired by Keats House through a creative workshop with artist Elaine Duigenan on ideas and techniques for contemporary flower pressing. Learn how Keats’ poetry was informed by his knowledge of plants and go home with your own artwork made with flowers. Materials are provided.

Elaine introduces you to the poet and the ideas that inspired her own works. She shares her pressed flower originals and illustrates how to press well. She then introduces ideas of what to do with pressed flowers. Elaine is particularly interested in finding ways of working with this craft in a contemporary way. Make your own piece from a range of beautiful specimens provided.

Elaine Duigenan was drawn to Keats House by its beautiful garden, the inspiration for ‘Ode to a Nightingale’. As artist in residence during the Keats200 bicentenary, Elaine learned that Keats was not only inspired by flora but was knowledgeable due to his training as an apothecary. Floral imagery is dispersed broadly throughout his works. Pressed flowers have always been beautiful markers of time, nostalgic keepsakes and deeply romantic. The session also considers the love of Keats’s life, Fanny Brawne, who was a maker and excelled in the art of fashion.

Elaine is an artist who often works with museums. She is interested in how objects, whether found or made, create meaning. She took Keats’ flowers as her inspiration and began to collect and press specimens including ones from Keats’ grave in Rome. She considered how Keats yearned for success, but dying at 25, he could have had little knowledge of his future reputation. Elaine was lucky enough to be working at Keats House during the Keats200 bicentenary, which celebrated his life, works and legacy. The works she made show him as a laureate crowned with flowers. These images are printed as textile hangings in key rooms of the house, which you can enjoy on the day of the workshop.