My paintings in earthy colors fit into this style. This was a new phrase to me. I’d never heard of it before and didn’t know that was even a thing. It reminds me of when I first discovered the term OOAK. Cottagecore art belongs to an ideal that embraces all that is natural, real, and evocative of an intentional life close to nature. I really like this aesthetic, but never heard of it called that. It’s a relatively new term, something that started as a hashtag. Every other style you can imagine also has it’s associated -core hashtag.
Earthy Colors and Natural Art
All of my paints are handmade. And every color except for the white came from the rocks on our property here at Wild Ozark. I forage for the rocks, crush them into powders and then make the paints that I use for each work. If cottagecore art is down to earth, mine is definitely that. (Click here if you just want to jump to the art listings.)
The Cottagecore Movement Reminds me of the Slow Food Movement
Whereas the slow food movement embraced real food as opposed to fast food. It also encompassed intentional nourishment as opposed to mindless eating. Slow Food takes longer to prepare (sometimes), especially if you consider the part of food at the seed level – growing a garden is slow. People who embrace slow food are also likely to like organic things, including fabrics and natural colors in their art or decor. Nowadays, they just call it cottagecore art.
If you are a cottacore fan, let me know if I’m getting this interpretation wrong. From my research, it looks like people who like that aesthetic will also like organic food, farm-to-table, earthy colors, and getting their hands dirty in the work of living.
Back-to-Nature Art is Cottagecore Art
Remember the back-to-nature movement? People who were tired of the rat race dreamed of escaping to homesteads. Mother Earth News Magazine was practically the bible for people learning to grow their own food and manage their own small piece of independence from ‘the system’. I would imagine that cottagecore art fits that crowd too. It’s just a younger demographic, but the ideals are very similar. A desire to interact with the earth and work with nature. To detach from a synthetic life and re-attach to a more natural lifestyle.
Some of my Wild Ozark Art that has the Cottagecore Art Vibe
If you find any of these that need to be part of your collections, they are available as archival prints (or some originals are still available) ready to ship to any US address 🙂 Each image is linked to the listing for that painting.
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Author/Artist Info
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Madison Woods is a self-taught artist who moved to the Ozarks from south Louisiana in 2005. In 2018 she began experimenting with watercolor painting, using her local pigments. She calls them Paleo Paints. In 2023 she began her journey into the world of oil painting with those same pigments. Her paintings of the Ozark-inspired scenes feature exclusively the lightfast pigments foraged from Madison county, Arkansas. Her inspiration is nature – the beauty, and the inherent cycle of life and death, destruction and regeneration. Wild Ozark is also the only licensed ginseng nursery in Arkansas. Here’s the link for more information on the nursery end of life out here.
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ive never heard the term “cottagecore”, before but the comparison to Slow Foods explains it, although I imaigine interpretations of what is nourishing might vary. 😉. I like both your gallery and the example gallery you shared. At least I’m guessing the food isn’t your work but correct me if I’m wrong.
Thank you 🙂 Yes, there are a lot of gray areas in defining what ‘nourishing’ might be, ha. I am doing some slow food, but it’s not my art. Right now my food is so slow, I may starve to death if it doesn’t start feeding us more than onions, lettuce and strawberries, lol. Cottagecore is not just the art, but the whole concept of going back to basics. And, cottagecore art has a look to it that appeals to that aesthetic. I’m still trying to figure out where my art falls in the spectrum of styles, though. Not all of it might fit this category, either. I don’t really care, except for when it comes to marketing tactics… I don’t know where to look for potential customers, hahahaha.
Look everywhere!