I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine:
There sleeps Titania sometime of the night,
Lull’d in these flowers with dances and delight.
~ William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2.1.255-60)

Have you ever wondered what the inside of a rainbow smells like? Me neither, until recently.

A few weeks ago I saw some photographs of Rebecca Louise Law‘s floral installations online, and they took my breath away. The extravagance and generosity of these canopies of flowers are just extraordinary! I can barely fathom the vision, and the attention to detail, that it must make to create these all-too-fleeting interactive works of art.

Rebecca is a London-based installation artist who mainly works with natural elements, like wood, fruit and flowers. Her work is exhibited in galleries and museums, but she has also been commissioned to create high-end fashion displays. It always makes me happy when artists give me a “why didn’t I think of that?” moment. Like, WHY do we always display flowers facing up? Because JUST LOOK at how beautiful they are when seen from underneath! To my mind, it’s this kind of creative, out-of-the-box thinking – alongside talent and hard-won skill, of course – that sets a true artist apart from a clever copy-cat.

I am trying to imagine what it must be like to stand inside one of her amazing works. The best I can come up with is that it would be a sensory overload of the most beautiful, colourful kind. And perhaps provide the answer to what it smells like inside a rainbow.

All images and permissions generously provided by Rebecca Louise Law