NADINE BROWN
Music by Chris Haugen
NADINE BROWN
FLORAL ARTIST
Thirlmere, NSW, Australia
When I was doing my 30-day-30-film challenge in December 2019, Nadine Brown contacted me. She told me she loved my style of filming and wanted to show her floral art workshops through my lens. She added: “But it’s out of the question to make you work for free, even if it’s for a challenge. I’d like to pay you fairly for your film”. How nice was that! And it was the start of a 4-year close collaboration. The film you can see above was shot on one of the worst bushfire days of the horrific 2019 Australian fire disaster. You can see the very strange light, slightly apricot, on all frames of the film. We had to stop filming after a while so that Nadine could go and help save her property which was at threat… Read More
Photos I took for Country Style…
Styling by Jessica Bellef
Luckily, the fires only licked the sides of her land without going further. Her beautiful classic Australian wooden house surrounded by a veranda and the close-by Ivy Greenhouse were preserved.
At the time, Nadine had the project to build up and incredible archive of all she knew about floristry. An immense knowledge she has acquired during more than thirty years working in the industry as a florist, wedding floral designer and teacher to thousands of students at TAFE (Technical And Further Education: an Australian government-run system providing education after high school in vocational areas like floristry).
Together, we created more than 60 videos averaging 35-minute in length, covering all areas of floral arts with a strong ecological ethos. While being didactic, each little film is designed to be visually stunning, showing all the beauty of the plants and the craftsmanship involved in Nadine’s work. Moments of teaching facing the camera blend in with slow moments of waltzing flowers and shiny glimpses of Nadine’s beautiful tools like her famous handmade Japanese secateurs.
Nadine knows so much about sustainable floristry that she is the (unrivalled) easiest speaker I’ve ever worked with. She’s a natural! Very rarely we have to do a second take. When that happens it’s usually a dog barking, a fly buzzing too close to the frame, or the microphone. It often is a little plane doing loops over our heads, or a plant stem that breaks spectacularly when it shouldn’t. Lots of laughter follow and sometimes a bit of swearing, I’m French after all…
This phenomenal body of work and instructive archives are available to learn from via Nadine’s Greenhouse Membership program designed to help earth-conscious florists, designers, and floral solo-preneurs to up-skill and grow their business.
Her project and her unrelenting work with various communities around Australia, have made Nadine a central figure in the world of sustainable floral arts. The iconic Australian magazine Country Style has decided to celebrate this achievement and made Nadine their cover story for “Love of the Land” their sustainable issue which I had the pleasure to photograph (see gallery above). My first magazine cover! It was beautifully style by my dear friend Jessica Bellef.
I’m very proud and thankful that Nadine chose me to take care of the visual side of her story for the last 4 years. It’s been a very rewarding creative journey and the start of a beautiful and precious friendship. Today, I loved learning more about Nadine with the interview below and I hope you do too.
Connect with Nadine
INTERVIEW
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Picture an ancient cathedral, long forgotten and left to nature's whims, where sunlight filters through the overgrown vegetation & cracked stain glass windows. The ivy, symbolising loyalty, devotion, and binding connections, gracefully takes over this man-made structure, infusing it with life in a harmonious collaboration with mother nature. In contrast to traditional, contemporary floral education that incorporates harmful processes & products with a seemingly disregard to the very nature we love, The Ivy Institute stands as a metaphorical 'Cathedral,' embodying principles of loyalty and devotion to a more sustainable and respectful coexistence of floral design and business with the natural world.
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Orangeville, Ontario Canada - Southern highlands NSW.
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Floral designer, educator, mentor & founder of the Ivy Institute, helping floral designers create a business that is aligned to their core values & is sustainable in every way.
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To spend my days in nature in some way, not in an office.
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Travel the world with our son for the last 10 years for his sport, wakeboarding.
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Ride my horse, read a great book & designing with botanicals.
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The cover of Country Style magazine - sustainability issue.
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Growth in members & international traction.
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Serendipity, those serendipitous meetings, events & miracles seem like gifts from the universe to me & feel a little magical when they happen.
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Authenticity, nature focused, curiosity
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Vases & vessels
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In the Ivy Greenhouse - my Japanese secateurs, we found the maker of these in a tiny cobbled street in one of Japan's oldest towns, Nara.
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A lover of food can absolutely not pick just 1!
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Wayward - Emilia Hart
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The utterly beautiful Lost Flowers of Alice Hart based on Holly Ringwood’s excellent book.
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Instrumental, chilled bluesy rhythms.
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More established than emerging… There are some amazing Asian designers coming through floral design such as Hong Kong based Jaynee Lam of Miluna Studio.
There’s also Sue McLeary in the US who I admire very much.
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Where I am, home.
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There is one but I can't share it just yet.
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Painter
Cronulla, NSW, Australia