The Floribunda Series

Thanksgiving of 2021 was a joyous time. Relaxed Covid restrictions allowed us to host our extended family once again in a real celebration of abundance. As I was deflating the air mattress in my studio and setting up the worktable that had seen little use in several years, I felt the urge to make something. Picking up paper and scissors, happy to be using my hands again, the flowers just emerged. This project consumed me for the next three and a half months, resulting in thirty-six floral collages.

I have a long-time appreciation for scraps, leftovers, and false starts. There is a freedom as well as a challenge in using or re-using materials in ways other than their original purpose or imagery. These floral collages almost never use actual floral or botanical images but create the idea of plant and flower arrangements using abstract designs and images.

Nat Thomas is an artist in a wide variety of media living in Margaretville, New York. He has a printmaking degree from Louisiana State University. He moved to New York City in 1978 and concentrated on collage and paintings on paper and canvas. After leaving the NY metropolitan area in 1984, he turned his focus more to textile art, first silk- screening and hand painting fabrics, and then moving to hand dying all the fabric for his quilted creations. Since moving to the Catskills in 1986, Thomas has combined all these artistic endeavors in a wide-ranging body of work, including theater design, large-scale non-objective paintings, landscapes in oil, mixed media collage, utilitarian and art quilts, and some wearable textile art.