During the pandemic, Marita Wai remembered the fun she’d had as a child and bought a Cyanotype kit to do with her children. She opened it up and used the entire kit. Now, she grows flowers from seeds to make her art.
How did you find yourself on an artist’s path? Always there? Lightbulb moment? Dragged kicking and screaming? Evolving?
I would say I’ve always been on the ‘artist path,’ it is something that has been there my whole life but I haven’t always been comfortable using that title. Maker, yes I’ve always been that. The term artist took me a lot longer to be able to use.
I actually come from an island of artists.
In the 70’s my parents moved to a remote island on the West coast of Canada. It was a place that attracted people who were seeking a different, less traditional life.
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My childhood was filled with creativity and nature. In school, we had something called Art’s afternoons, and all the children were able to spend time with different, working, professional artists. It was fabulous! I painted silk, made lifesize puppets, and learnt the basics of silversmithing. I have always gravitated towards making things with my hands and nature. I am sure this is because of where I started off in life.
As a teenager I loved sewing and wanted to be a fashion designer. I did end up getting a diploma in fashion but then I found floristry and it combined my love of making and colour and nature. I ended up with a career in London, England, in the over the top, extravagant world of event floristry. I’ve created floral decor for Royal weddings, Presidential palaces, the Cannes film festival, Box office films and star studded premier parties.
When the pandemic hit, this world came to a crashing halt and I found myself homeschooling my two young daughters. I panic bought art supplies for our endless days in isolation (in the U.K. we were only allowed out of the house for an hour a day.) That was when I rediscovered Cyanotype.
Why cyanotypes? How did you get started?
I had done those magic paper kits as a child. I can still remember it. On a hill that sloped down to the ocean, we gathered pine cones, wild onion flowers and moss in the heat of the summer sun. So when I saw a similar kit, I remembered. I bought one to do with my daughters. I ended up using the whole kit myself and that was the beginning of my obsession.
I tend to get really into things and research them heavily. In my Cyanotype research I discovered Anna Atkins, who was the first person to publish a book illustrated with Cyanotypes. It was a folio of British ferns and algae. Unusual for a woman of the time,
She had quite an academic upbringing. She had been predominantly raised by her father, who was an amateur scientist and therefore exposed to his world. Akins was a friend of John Herschal, the inventor of the Cyanotype process, so amazingly, she had very early access to his method. Only a year after its invention, she published her first illustrated works. She was a member of the Royal Botanical Society and spent much of her time illustrating the flora native to her home.
Discovering this really cemented that Cyanotype was my medium. I am fascinated by the botany around us. Even a weed growing through a crack in the pavement has its own story. I’m constantly telling my daughters random plant facts, I think it helps our connection to the environment.
How does your environment influence your creativity?
Everyone’s environment has a huge impact on their lives.
I am very sensitive to beauty and happiest when my surroundings are full of nature and lovely things to look at.
Where I grew up, is probably one of the most beautiful places on earth. You are either in the forest or by the sea with sweeping views of far off snow capped mountains and vast skies. The colour blue is everywhere.
Living in a city is different. The beauty here isn’t always so obvious, you have to look harder to find it but it is definitely there. There is also more diversity here, every postage stamp garden in our neighbourhood has a completely different feel to it.
Living in the city has forced me to consciously bring nature into our lives and create beauty myself. I have a tiny London garden and an allotment nearby which are a constant experiment of which flowers I can grow, and which ones will work well in my Cyanotypes.
Do you plan your work out ahead of time, or do you just dive in with your materials and start playing?
Unfortunately, my creative time is limited, I usually have only two days a week where I have a 3 or 4 hour window to work on my cyanotypes. I always prefer to use the sun so this is very weather dependent and seasonal.
We are just at the beginning of what I think of as ‘Cyanotype Season’ So although my actual time to create is limited and fairly set, I spend a lot of time thinking about what would work well in my art and the collections I want to create. Sometimes they take years to come to fruition as I like to grow most flowers from seed, and they can take a year or two before they bloom.
How often do you start a new project? Do you work actively on more than one project at a time?
I try to batch work, which sounds very industrial but it’s not at all. What I mean is in one printing session I will try to use the same type of flower. This allows me to tweak the timing after I have seen the results of each print.
Because the Sun and weather are not consistent, I cannot assume that what was the perfect exposure time on one day will work for another, even a cloud passing over the sun will result in another few minutes in the sun. So although I am working on more than one print in a session, to me they usually have the same subject and theme. I like to work in collections.
Can you tell us about the inspiration and process of one of your works? How does a new work come about?
I am endlessly inspired by nature.
This could be a walk in a beautiful bluebell meadow or a weed growing out of a sidewalk crack. Usually it is something from a garden, mine or someone else’s.
I suppose I see a flower, decide to grow it (this might take a few months to two years later) I test to see if it will print well and go from there. I might make 10 prints and decide none of them were any good. Some flowers are just magic, and every print you make with them is beautiful, I’m thinking of the Fawn Lily here.
Do you critique your own work? What is your process?
I try not to. I know half way through my process if something is going to be really good but I also think 50% of my work is terrible! I try not to be too hard on myself. It took me a long time to feel comfortable showing my work to people. I’ve built up my confidence now, but that took a long time. Artists are their own worst critics.
What do you do to keep yourself motivated and interested in your work?
Research, constant research, reading about plants, plant history and folklore always interests me.
Travel, visiting gardens and beautiful places makes me want to capture that environment.
Sharing, actually sharing my work, my perspective, how amazing and beautiful our world can be and having people react to that is a really beautiful thing.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve received?
Do one small thing every day. One creative act or one thing to move yourself forward. It won’t seem like much at the time until you look back and see how far you’ve come. Also never stop learning.
Where can people see your work?
On instagram @maritawaistudio
Interview posted May 2025
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