Two images have been combined into one rectangle. On the left, artist Julia Einstein is standing in her studio amidst paintings of flowers. A clear glass vase of red and yellow flowers is in the foreground of the image. On the right, a hand is getting ready to trace green farm vegetation that has been laid on a white piece of paper. The edges of small planters that have purple flowers sticking out of them are to the right.
On the left, Julia in her studio. On the right, a page from the artist’s sketchbook.

Throughout 2022, artist Julia Einstein and our frequent partner Raleigh City Farm worked together to create the Raleigh City Farm Artist-in-Residency program, allowing Julia to create work and hold educational workshops at the nonprofit urban farm. Julia stops by the blog to talk about her idea for this project, how it has transformed her studio practice and how she uses inspiration from nature in her own work.

An image of a placesetting at Raleigh City Farm's annual Harvest Dinner fundraiser. A napkin with Julia's floral design sits to the right of a cream china place setting with silver silverware. A card lays on the plates sharing a blurb about Julia's work and design.
A Raleigh City Farm Harvest Dinner place setting featuring dinner napkins with Julia’s design Herbarium.

How the Raleigh City Farm Artist-in-Residency Program Started 

Julia: As a new North Carolina resident, the Artist-in-Residency program grew out of a desire to know my new city, and to combine the art of making, growing and learning. I make paintings from bouquets gathered from where I know the farmer or the gardener. For many years it was my own flowerbed from which I cultivated a body of work called “From the Artist’s Garden.” There’s a certain thrill in selecting flowers firsthand and composing them as my subject in the studio.  

On the left, six small squares have been drawn on a piece of paper in a grid. Within each square is a close-up study of a flower, all drawn in hot pink. On the right, two small vases of pink, magenta and yellow flowers with green leaves.
Flowers in Julia’s studio, next to some of her botanical drawings. 

Raleigh City Farm welcomed me into their community of ideas, hard work and high energy. It became my place of inspiration. There were two special paintings created for this inaugural season, one painted in the colors of fall bounty that was donated to the auction at the Annual Harvest Dinner, and another printed by Spoonflower onto the dinner napkins. From my own perspective as an artist, this farm feast celebrated my painting as a tablescape.  

Creating Educational Workshops and Learning Experiences

I fell for the farm—from the very first seed sown in a planting row dedicated to flowers. The farm became an extension of my studio. My paintings, like the plants and flowers on the farm, range from quite large to tiny, with names like, “Modern Botanicals,” “Flower Power” and “Flower Portraits.”  

On the left, a hand is pressing a flower into a round slab of clay. Lavender, white and pink flowers have been pressed into the clay in a circle shape. On the right, an easel is set up on a small urban farm, the paper on which has a drawing of flowers. To the left of the easel is a field of small red flowers.
On the left, pressing flowers into clay for a workshop. On the right, sketching on an easel in the garden.

Educational workshops were part of the creative process. It was through them I shared my herbarium of preserved flowers, books on my favorite floral artists and the pages of my sketching journal. Workshop participants got their own books to take home, filled with flowers and their notes on the day. All through the season, all ages participated. As a result, all spots on the farm were visited. I brought my easel to the farm for a pop-up studio with an oversized sketchpad to make a towering drawing of a tiny flower.  

Workshop attendees delighted in learning the technique of “drawing from life” set to birds singing and bees buzzing. I asked them to mark the location of the flowers they selected, to notice the insects, or wildlife and wonder about the lifecycle of the plants. I brought in other media—we pressed flowers into pottery and recited a bit of poetry inspired by the growing and tending of flowers.  

This work traveled to an exhibit at Portland Art Gallery in Portland, Maine, and further afield in social media postings. If you follow #artistrcf on Instagram, you’ll see views into my studio, inspirations and lots of behind-the-scenes process pics. I look forward to Artist in Residence Year Two at Raleigh City Farm, and will continue to share! 

From pistil to painting: A Look at the artist’s process

Flowers have been arranged on a white surface. All shapes and sizes, they are blooming in orange, purple, red and yellow. 
A sketch on paper of Julia’s painting Herbarium. The paper has been drawn into eight rectangles in a grid. Each grid has a different flower drawn in it with the name beside.
Image of Julia’s painting Herbarium in process on an easel in her studio. Paints lay in a box to the right with city buildings outside the window behind them.
Image of Julia’s finished painting Herbarium. Pink, mauve and orange flowers have been painted on a white canvas. 

Becoming a Spoonflower Artist 

I make walks on the farm to collect specimens of the flowering plants “on view” each month! I arrange the specimens on paper, sketch the arrangements to capture the gesture of each flower, study the details and translate onto canvas where, after several stages, a painting emerges. The initial picking of each flower is an act so simple, yet reveals itself as critical to my process.  

On the farm, I’m attracted by how the flower stands, moves in the wind and entangles with another plant. In the studio, I’m in the painter’s world creating corresponding color palettes to express the delicate curlicues, upright patterns or natural rhythms.  

A table is set with a white tablecloth, clear water glasses, silver cutlery and cream plates. The dinner napkins have been printed with Julia's design Herbarium, which features several different bright painted flowers.
Julia’s Herbarium design adorns linen cotton dinner napkins for Raleigh City Farm’s annual Harvest Dinner fundraiser.

Each fall, Raleigh City Farm holds a Harvest Dinner fundraiser. For 2022’s event, I created a painting, which was then printed on Spoonflower dinner napkins.  The story behind the Harvest Dinner painting starts with its title “Herbarium,” which describes a collection of plants. My exploration and fascination into this as an artful science led to a study of history, poetry and the everyday naturalist.

My fabric design Herbarium, Pink recreates the illusion of a painted surface. I especially love how the painter’s hand is reproduced on fabric in marks, brushstrokes and daubs. What makes the fabric unique is the way my painting has been composed to create a napkin which, when folded multiple ways, creates a different flower for each table setting for the effect of a profusion of flowers in highly saturated colors—taking a visual cue from the abundance of flowers in rows, beds and patches grown on the farm.  

Great news: I’ve launched my painterly designs, inspired by what’s growing, in my Spoonflower shop

Want to meet more Spoonflower artists?

See our Artist Spotlights

About the Author: