Flower Stamped Linen Panel (2nd Edition) by Caitlin Parker                                                 12"x12" ($225 each)
Salud to spring! We’re ushering in the season of sprouting with a radiant remix of Caitlin Parker’s bestselling Flower Stamped Linen Panels. Last year we introduced these botanical beauties as Parker’s first Artist-Made edition with us. Hand-stamped using real plants (!) that Parker foraged—often from her own garden!—and pressed herself, these are not your garden variety art additions. The panels quickly became a crowd favorite, inspiring Parker to create two brand new styles to celebrate the start of the season: California Chaparral and Ferns, Ferns, Ferns are Parker’s ode to her beloved SoCal surroundings.Â
They're stretched on a wood panel and ready-to-hang—a meditative nature moment on your wall in minutes. While all four panels measure 12”x12” and make for a perfect quartet, they each have a personality of their own. Parker’s newest edition Flower Stamped Linen Panels (2nd Edition) are made with a slightly lighter-toned linen, with warmer greens in Ferns, Ferns, Ferns and sunny pops of yellow and orange in California Chaparral. In contrast, the original Wild Western Flora and Curative Botanicals are stamped on a darker, taupe-toned linen with a cooler color palette accented by blues and purples.Â
You could choose one, but we particularly love the look of them hanging side-by-side—or heck, snag all four for a verdant array of West Coast chill. But don’t sleep on these stunners, Parker’s original Flower Stamped Linen Panels will be retiring come Mother’s Day. And speaking of! These panels make a perfect Mother’s Day gift with a floral flourish. Since each is hand-made to order by Parker herself, get those gift orders in by this Friday 4/22 to get yours in time for Mother’s Day. Â
Now that’s enough from us. Parker herself has penned a few lovely words to introduce these fresh-pressed linen lovelies. So read on, go forth and forage with the ever-amazing Caitlin Parker. —Team 20x200
California Chaparral. The sound of those words together conjure a kind of magical incantation, like something I might overhear in one of my son’s D&D sessions. In reality, chaparral is a native shrubland ecosystem that covers most of the coastal foothills and inland mountain slopes around where I live in Southern California. But there is something magical in the way the plants in this unique ecosystem have adapted to drought, heat and fire, learning to thrive in long, hot, dry summers and mild, wet winters. Some of these adaptations involve the ability to obtain water through their leaves, large taproots to reach deep water reservoirs, and fire-resistant bark. Many of them have thick, waxy leaves that prevent dehydration, and some can shrink in size or even cut off water supply to entire branches during drought. This piece is a celebration of an amazing biome that I’ve come to appreciate and love.  Â
On hikes through the Santa Monica Mountains I’m often surrounded by mixed chaparral, along with Riparian oak woodland and magical elfin forests. Right now, after some much needed rain, the chaparral plants have greened up and are blooming in brilliant reds, yellows and purples. The undergrowth is alive with native spring ephemerals, birdsong and animal activity. Many of the plants used in this edition I grow myself or have collected mindfully from friends’ property along the California Coast. Some plants you will find in this edition are: Chemise, California Peony, California Buckwheat, Buckbrush, Broad Leaf Lupin, Black Sage, Deerflower, Wild Hyacinth, Golden Yarrow and Sagebrush. Once pressed, each plant specimen will be used again and again to print onto the fabric. Â
Ferns, Ferns, Ferns is an ode to the ancient fern and its many different manifestations. It has always been one of my favorite plants to grow, collect and print. This particular image is a fern fantasy, a bi-coastal mash up of plants that would never grow all in the same place but look beautiful together. Some were collected from my garden and the surrounding woods where I used to live in the Hudson Valley. More recent specimen were collected here in California. The whispery maidenhair fern, the California Cloak Fern with it’s underbelly of lemon yellow, the coffee fern which grows impossibly in the hot dry chaparral. These are mixed incongruously together with New York and Rock Cap ferns. On first glance, most of these ferns appear uniformly green, with only slight variations in shade. But on closer inspection they reveal a far more varied palette, which I’ve enhanced in the paint to bring out their true beauty. —Caitlin Parker