Words: Lara Pacillo // Photos: Penny Fisher
Penny Fisher’s art is an act of immortalising flowers. She captures them in a way that preserves their beauty long after they wilt.
“Flowers will inevitably die,” explains Penny, founder of Studio Philo. “But the idea is that you can use them in a way or in a composition that will make them last forever — that’s really cool to me.”
The 25-year-old describes her practice of floral styling as “kooky, playful, and also a little bit sexy,” where she layers flowers with colours, textures, fabrics, and occasionally other objects, resulting in shots that often resemble paintings.
It’s a thoughtful and somewhat therapeutic process, born from a childhood of dancing amongst her nan’s garden of irises and roses, and a fascination with her dad’s love for plants.
Penny’s creative journey, often taking the path less comfortable, has led her to this niche practice.
“It’s scary, but it’s amazing what happens when you’re forced to put yourself out.”
Penny graduated from a degree in interior architecture last year, but it was well before this that she realised a career in floristry was what she truly wanted to pursue, and a better avenue to exercise her creativity.
Securing a job at East End Flower Market in 2021 was her initiation into the industry. She learned the ropes, and discovered she loved big attentive floristry projects the most.
This led Penny to transition into freelancing for Adelaide creative studio Hygge, where she worked on weddings and larger scale work. Her boss Isobel has been a huge inspiration in her freelance work, while Penny also gives a special mention to Melbourne-based artist Hattie Molloy for inspiring her to explore a more unconventional side to the practice.
“Hattie’s work was the first time which made me realise being a mixed bag is actually okay,” Penny says. “It made me look at floristry as more than weddings or retail.”
She began teaching herself photography, taking time out of her day to play with flowers more and tying in her interior architecture knowledge to fuel her floristry styling.
“I learnt a lot at uni with architecture and design. You learn about colours and layering, what goes together, what doesn’t,” Penny says.
“In my photos, I merge this with floristry. I won’t just use flowers — it’ll be objects and fabrics and textures. I think uni really inspired my work. It’s coming from a different perspective rather than just a floristry perspective.”
Her art elevates all that’s in the frame, from the flowers to what sits beside them. Some of Penny’s favourite collaborations to date have been with ceramic and floral brand Stem Snatcher, and chef/baker Sophie Cox of Sophie’s Sweets.
Alongside floral styling, Penny continues her freelance work and welcomes people to connect with her for custom bouquets or event arrangements.
In both her floral styling and personalised creations, Penny strives to source her flowers locally and interstate, avoiding internationally imported flowers where she can. She views this conscious decision not only as an environmental win, with less travel meaning a lower carbon footprint, but also as a creative challenge through working with what’s in season.
“The quality is better too, and it’s cooler in terms of there’s more plants that you just wouldn’t expect,” Penny explains.
“I force myself to make something out of what’s growing locally.”
Since embarking on the path of floristry, Penny remains grounded in the fact that she gets to follow her passion as a career. Things are just getting started, yet her connection to flowers is only thriving.
“I think you get to a certain age and you can choose to do what you love, and that’s been the most rewarding for me. Just finding that sense of belonging,” Penny says.
To aspiring florists, Penny advises the most important thing is not to lose the love you have.
“Just have fun with it; sometimes it all gets a bit intense and a bit serious. There’s immense pressure when it comes to handling events; in retail, you’ve got to pump out the orders and get everything spot on.
“You’ve got to fail a lot before you actually get through; but I think ultimately, if you follow the enjoyment of it, it will work out — even though it doesn’t feel like it will at times, it will. Just focus on the love of the flowers, and the skills will come with it.”
Visit @flowersbyphilo on Instagram for more on Studio Philo, and dm the account for custom work
