Join the Wildflower Art Trail fun!
’Create A Wildflower Color Palette’
If there’s one thing Flowers are about it’s Color! Floral pigment & Pollinator perception are a fascinating dance. Wildflower colors help us ID the plant. Even a simple ‘red, pink, white, blue, etc.’, might direct us to the name of a plant.
* Sometimes, to learn a plant well, it helps to describe it further, say it’s a light pink. Or a dark pink. Yet another might be light lavender, or then again, is it a deep purple?
Here’s a fun way to study Wildflowers’ color & help you become their true friend:
1. Find a flower you want as BFF & do some color matching.
2. Choice an Art material(s). It might be colored pencils, colored transparent papers, water colors, oil paints, yarns, various colored fabrics… whichever you’re most comfortable playing with — this exercise is about color exploration, not technique. I like colored pencils because they blend easily to vary color and pack light on Wildflower hikes.
3. Look closely at your Wildflower. Is it a light color (more white than color)? Or a bold color? I hold a color pencil directly next to the flower. Does it match? Need to pick a different color? Or, combine a 2nd color with your 1st? Hold both colors next to your Wildflower. Squint your eyes, do the flower’s color and your color choices look similar? Pick a combination of 2 or more colors that make the closest match.
*TIP: Color is Pigment. More Pigment makes a bolder, darker color. Pressing harder with colored pencil puts more pigment on the page for a bolder, darker color. It works well to start pressing light then add layers as needed.
4. Make a color swatch: cover a 3×3” area with color to match your flower. Hold it next to your flower. Does it match? Layer more color(s) until you have a color match. Label the Swatch with the name of your flower or draw the flower’s outline sketch inside the Swatch.
a*) Some people like to make notes of the colors they combined. This makes it easier to mix in the future.
b*) Make a swatch for each of the Wildflowers you find. Label if you like, it becomes part of the Wildflower Art.
5. When you have a bunch, trade them around in Little Free Art Galleries during April
6. You can combine them into a Color Wheel and frame! Or, play in another creative way with your new Wildflower Color Palette.
7. Use some of the colors you’ve discovered as colors for your Wildflower sketches.
Did you have fun with Wildflower color? The flowers did! After all, Wildflowers love to attract attention.
Bring your Wildflower Art to the Wildflower Show, May 1-3 and trade your Wildflower Art in the Little Free Wildflower Galleries throughout the month of ArtShare April. See Little Gallery locations & about the May 3 Art Swap at the California Native Plant Society, North Coast Chapter website.
https://northcoastcnps.org/2026-artshare-april/
🌺 SEE Wildflower Art other’s are making:
🍀SHARE to everyone your Wildflower Art on Instagram using littlefreewildflowergallery
🌸SHOW others your Wildflower Art on Facebook using @littlefreewildflowergallery!
🌼Send us your Wildflower Art to and we’ll post to NOTHCOAST CNPS social media!