It’s all in the name of love!
A new and exciting collaboration between two artists to create unique beautiful pieces of art using a mixed media of paint and flowers. A catch up with Dean Lincoln @theterracelondon & Gavin Johnson @artbygav to see how this came about and what’s in the future for these two and their mix of floristry and art
Q: Tell us a little about yourselves?
D • After years of working in an office, I took a leap of faith and became a florist as I have always had a passion for flowers and the beauty of nature. I had been working at a prestigious Mayfair florist for around 14 years and have been lucky enough to have decorated beautiful venues and help create stunning parties here and abroad. Then in November of 2019 I decided to launch my own business as I wanted to create beautiful bespoke flowers. My style is very much a clean and simplistic look as I want to showcase flowers in their natural beauty.
G • Growing up in an artistic family and coming from a sporting background, lockdown suddenly allowed me to pursue my love for painting. A friend of mine suggested for us to start painting, having not done any art for a while I decided to give it a go. After exposing myself to fluid art, it became an addiction mixing thinned acrylics in various patterns not knowing how the colours where going to react to each other become intoxicating. I became insatiable, wanting to paint at every opportunity, each time growing in confidence.
Q: What’s the idea behind this collaboration?
D • I think lockdown has given us such an opportunity to discover the things we love and passions we never thought about. It can bring strangers together and I have always loved and admired artists. I thought as a positive in all this uncertainty how amazing it could be to combine two creative souls as one and create beautiful unique pieces of art.
G • I was at the time developing a range of fluid hearts, wanting to promote more love in the world after the terrible things that have been happening. It then came to me what goes well with hearts and themes of love, flowers! So, I communicated this to Dean and he immediately loved it, seeing the potential, recalling previous similar projects with flowers incased in blocks of ice for a private event.
Q: How did it come about ?
D • I love working with flowers and working on weddings, events and creating photoshoots. I wanted to push the idea of floristry and how something can be created in such simplicity but so beautifully fluid. I had seen Gavin’s work and instantly fell in love with his talent and use of colour and thought what a perfect partnership.
G • I have my own studio in central london and started manipulating the paints and styles in ways I had not seen before. Not satisfied with just paints I was seeking a way to push this style further and through Instagram Dean approached me admiring my work as I did his. We started talking and found we shared a passion for our respective art and thought why not meet and find a way of combing our passions. He came into the studio and I immediately felt a good creative energy from him and got excited by the prospect of working together.
Q: What’s been happening since you met?
D • I have become obsessed with drying petals, and it’s a constant process in my house. It’s really exciting for me to see as they dry how they create some beautiful colours and textures. I constantly look for different floral materials, foliages as well as flowers to use and see what works.
G • We got started straight away, Dean came back to the studio armoured with a box of beautifully dried petals and we begun creating stunning unique mixed media pieces.
Q: What’s in the future?
We have many more plans and designs to implement over the coming year and we believe the two styles gel very well and create a big show stopping impact.
If you want to see more of Dean and Gavin and their amazing collaboration,
make sure to check them out on www.theterracelondon.co.uk and wwwartbygav.com
