For artist Rachel Land, Posie Meadows was part of a magical mural her mother had painted in a play area in which she and her sister spent countless hours. Her colorful, whimsical and joyous art is an extension of that time. As she says, "many of my illustrations were born out of a desire to capture that part of my childhood."
We love her artwork, and are pleased to let you get to know a little more about Posie Meadows.
Where are you from? I’m a Pacific Northwesterner for the most part, but am currently residing in Virginia.
How did you get started as an artist? I’ve loved drawing - specifically illustration - ever since I was a little kid. Picture books with intricate detail fascinated me, and I would devote hours to dreaming up magical worlds and creatures and putting them on paper.
What inspires you? Nature and animals mostly. I’ve always been drawn to the more organic side of things, whether it’s a roly-poly caterpillar or an interesting twisting tree or a majestic horse. I find a great deal of inspiration in music and books as well, and consume a disproportionate amount of fantasy literature, which helps build my imagination.
What inspires your work? The first answer to come to mind was “joy.”It really is the joy that I experience in seeing the beauty in nature, or music, or a good book that inspires me to try to capture and share my feeling of joy through art.
What do you hope people feel when they see your work? Not to be redundant, but I hope that they experience that same joy that inspires my work. There are many directions that I have taken my art, but feel that art that is whimsical and child like has proved to be the best expression of this joy. Children experience the most pure joy, unfettered by all the hang ups that we adults have accumulated with life experience. We forget how to experience true delight in the world around us. I hope to evoke a return to that joy in my art.
How many different ideas or pieces are you working on at any one time? Tough question! Typically I try to limit myself to one to two pieces for clients at a time, but I always have ideas vying for my time and attention. I also sew, so currently have several dragons, at least five unicorns, a pig, and a fox in the works. So guess the true answer would be “lots and lots."
Your work is on note cards – do you send handwritten notes to people? If so, do you use your own cards? I do! I also sell prints of my work, and frequently include a notecard with an order, expressing my thanks. I’m always honored when people choose to purchase my art, and it’s fun to be able to include an additional piece of art in notecard form.
Where did the name “Posie Meadows” come from? In my house growing up there was a cubby hole under our stairs where my sister and I used to play. My Grandpa, being a handyman, had discovered the space and cut a hole through a wall to make it accessible, hung drywall, put down a scrap of old brown carpet, and put little shuttered doors on it. It was every kid’s dream. My Mom was an artist, and she painted the walls and ceiling for us to look like a forest and a meadow, with mountains in the distance. We called it Juniper Wood and populated it with all kinds of little toy animals and a tree house that my Dad made (it actually looked like a tree stump, with real bark on the sides). We later called the meadow in the mural the Posie Meadow. My illustrations were born out of a desire to capture that part of my childhood.
Browse Posie Meadows art on Note Card Cafe
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Instagram: @rlandillustration
Facebook: /posiemeadow/
