Old Wick flowers brought back to life by Thurso artist
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A Thurso artist came across boxes of pressed flowers from the late Margaret Clyne in a Wick charity shop and has brought them back from the dead for her Oshibana pictures.
For around a year, Elaine Rapson-Grant of Rapson Art has been making Oshibana pictures in which she utilises pressed flowers and other botanical materials to create pictures.
"However, I started drying and pressing flowers and leaves about a year-and-a-half before that in preparation for my creations – so it’s a long and laborious job," said Elaine.
"Well, the other day I was contacted by the [Highland] Hospice shop in Wick to say they had a couple of boxes of dried and pressed flowers that had been handed into the shop. They asked if I might be interested in using them in my artwork.
"To my utter amazement when I went to see what they had, it turned out to be two ginormous boxes with thousands and thousands of flowers and leaves of every kind imaginable!
"Indeed, I would say, it was a lifetime of work safely stored in two cardboard boxes. Each box was catalogued with notes of its contents numbered and neatly typed on white paper. Every flower and leaf was sorted into species, varieties, colours and size between sheets of thick blotting paper. Every time I delved into one of the boxes, opened the envelopes and parted the blotting paper, my mouth would drop open in sheer disbelief at the beauty unfolding before my eyes."
After doing some research, Elaine discovered that it was indeed a "lifetime of work" undertaken by the late Margaret Clyne of Noss Farm near Wick. She noticed how each leaf and flower "had been lovingly dried and pressed" by Margaret over her lifetime before she died in 2009. Her husband died nine years later in 2018 but Elaine heard that it was not until last month that the estate was finally cleared by a relative.
"Later I searched online for a photo of Margaret and luckily I eventually found one. When I saw her happy face collecting daffodils that she had planted some 20 years earlier I just felt she was a kindred spirit. "So I smiled at my iPad and silently said to myself 'thank you Margaret. Now your flowers and enormous hard work will live on forever through my artwork and I promise you that nothing will ever go to waste'.
"Margaret had to wait a long time to find the right person to fall heir to her life’s work, but now, I do believe, that they have at last come home."
When Elaine shared the story in a public post on Facebook several people shared their memories of the late Margaret Clyne including retired headteacher Pat Ramsay who wrote: "Margaret was my great aunt and her passion was for flowers, wild or from her beautiful garden. I learned all about the wild flowers in our area from her when I was a child."
Sally Crowe also shared a memory and said: "I remember going to see Margaret's garden with my mam when I was wee and her showing us the dried flower picture she was working on at the time. It was beautiful. I am certainly sure she would be delighted to know her flowers have gone on to someone who appreciates the time and talent that goes into even drying the flowers."
"I’m so glad the flowers are now getting used," said Nicola Giacomelli. "Margaret was my great aunt and I have fond childhood memories of her showing me how she dried the flowers. Now, whenever I see a begonia I always think of her."
Elaine also received an old black and white photograph from Colin Gilbert with Margaret who he called "his most favourite aunt”.
The Thurso artist regularly exhibits her work at various events in the county and recently showed some of the Oshibana pictures, using Margaret's flowers, at the Royal British Legion Scotland's Thurso branch. She also shows her work as part of the Society of Caithness Artists.
