Inspiration for Marguerite Alpert’s pressed plant art springs from many influences. As a young girl she spent time gardening with her Italian grandmother who grew a beautiful garden in an unexpected city oasis. Marguerite’s mother encouraged her to pursue art and sent her to summer drawing classes. In college, she started off as an art major and later switched to horticulture. Marguerite’s work years spanned farming, community gardening, writing about gardening, and teaching. Her current artwork reflects her continued fascination with nature and its beauty.

Marguerite has always had a garden wherever she lived. She first began pressing flowers and leaves inside heavy books to see if she could reproduce some of the botanical pressings she had admired in her botany books. She starts with fresh plants that are either grown in her gardens, foraged from roadside, or collected from friend’s landscapes. The plants are often deconstructed into component parts and then pressed and dried.

The results captivated her because the details in the plant material were highlighted beautifully after the pressing and drying process. Marguerite has been making art out of pressed plants for 30 years, using five beautiful handmade wooden presses by her husband. The Flowered Press was established in August 2021 and features her pressed plant art in cards, prints, and originals.

Marguerite’s art prints and cards can be purchased online, in several stores in the northeast region including the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum Store and the New York Botanical Garden Shop, and at select art events. Originals are also available for purchase. Two of her designs, Oxygen and Deb’s Doily, were selected for a national juried art show at NorthWind Fine Arts Gallery in Saranac Lake, New York in March 2023. Another, Anahata, was selected for the Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts in Old Lyme, CT for the 2023 June-July exhibition. Zen was selected for their November-December 2023 CAFA+ Emergence virtual exhibition and Infinity was displayed in the January 2024 CAFA+ Members virtual exhibition.

Marguerite is a member of the Connecticut Academy of Fine Art and the Wethersfield Art League.