When I first started on Instagram one the first accounts I came across was Cristina Colli. Her beautiful, peaceful floral compositions mesmerised me. Cristina is an artist, photographer, and teacher in love with creativity, visual storytelling, flowers, simplicity, and slow living. She lives in Oxfordshire with her husband and two cats, and drinks an awful lot of tea – a kindred tea drinker – I knew I was going to like her!
I’ve been lucky enough to meet Cristina and share a cuppa with her in Brighton and she is as wonderful in real life as her beautiful floral photography. Cristina was kind enough to give me an insight into her work:
There’s so much beauty in flowers, and yet they’re often overlooked…flowers make me happy, and with my work I try to capture their ephemeral beauty and give back some of that joy.
Flowers, leaves, twigs, a cup of tea…simple things that give solace, soothe the soul, bring some grace and beauty into our daily life…and beauty matters, art matters.
Beauty and art are like a flame in the dark, and I think that now more than ever the world needs their light. Every time we focus on beauty, every time we create, for a little moment we shine, we become light, and hopefully inspire others to shine too.
Cristina has also always been a very supportive fellow creative and always keeps me inspired with her words. I was feeling rather down a few weeks back (bad things were happening in the world and Trump had just been elected 
) and mentioned this on a photo I posted. I felt in those moments the pretty creations I was sharing seemed so unimportant in the greater scheme of things. I think I used the word ‘vacuous’ on my post.
Cristina, was one of the first to respond and she poetically replied “…I’m also thinking that now more than ever it’s important to keep creating and being a light…beauty matters, art matters” Her response struck a cord with me. (I’ve even repeated that quote in a previous blog post!). Sometimes we need some validation for what we’re doing from our peers and fellow creatives. And in a moment, this comment changed my thinking and made me realise, ‘designing pretty and illustrating gorgeous’ as I describe in my bio on Instagram, IS important. Thank you Cristina!
Well, if there ever was a creative light whose beauty and art we should all follow, it is Cristina Colli. She’s a wonderful artist and soul and I’m very happy she is in this world sharing her creative wisdom and stunning work, making it a far prettier place in the process.
Cristina posts her floral images daily on Instagram (@c_colli), and shares her general musings on her blog.
She also writes a monthly newsletter, Creative Notes, and teaches the e-course ‘Visual Storytelling – Your story, Your voice’, the first of a series of courses on visual storytelling.
The post Its Friday, I’m in Love: Cristina Colli appeared first on Georgie St Clair.