The Calathea Plant: Living Art for Your Home
If you’ve ever seen a Calathea plant, you know it’s not your average houseplant. It doesn’t just sit quietly in the corner and grow — it performs. Its leaves twist, unfurl, and shift with the light, showing off intricate patterns that look almost painted by hand. There’s a reason it’s often called the “living plant art” of the tropical world. And if there were ever a plant that could embody the same spirit of abstract art, it would be this one — full of bold colors, striking contrasts, and natural rhythm.
It’s no surprise then that the abstract painting Calathea by Shawn McNulty feels like a perfect visual partner for the plant itself. The painting captures that same sense of energy and layered texture, where organic shapes seem to pulse with life. The rich greens, rhythmic patterns, and shifting tones could easily be seen as the spirit of the Calathea — a modern, artistic echo of nature’s wild design.
So, let’s dig in (pun fully intended) to the beauty and personality of the Calathea family, especially four of its most stunning varieties: Orbifolia, Makoyana, Ornata, and Lancifolia. These are the showstoppers of indoor jungles — plants that demand attention but reward you with a visual experience that feels alive.
A Plant With Personality
Calatheas are native to the tropical rainforests of South America, where humidity is high, light is soft, and the ground stays moist but never soggy. In their natural environment, they live beneath the jungle canopy, soaking up filtered sunlight while their leaves stretch toward the diffused glow.
What makes Calatheas especially fascinating is their movement. Many species are part of a group known as “prayer plants,” which means they raise and lower their leaves depending on the time of day — a natural rhythm known as nyctinasty. In the morning, the leaves open wide to catch the light, and at night, they fold upward like hands in prayer. If you listen closely, you can even hear a faint rustling as they shift positions. It’s like having a plant that breathes with you.
That sense of movement and rhythm mirrors McNulty’s Calathea painting — layered strokes of color that seem to sway, blend, and fold in motion. The visual rhythm of the artwork and the natural rhythm of the plant both feel alive, both dancing to an invisible pulse.
Calathea Orbifolia: The Gentle Giant
Let’s start with the showstopper — Calathea Orbifolia. If you’re looking for drama, this one brings it in the most elegant way possible. Its leaves are large and circular, with silvery-green stripes that shimmer like brushed metal. Each leaf can grow nearly a foot wide, creating a lush, tropical vibe that instantly makes any room feel like a spa retreat.
Orbifolia loves humidity and indirect light — think “bright shade” rather than direct sun. Too much light will fade its gorgeous stripes, while too little will slow its growth. It also prefers distilled or filtered water, since tap water’s minerals can leave unsightly marks on those perfect leaves.
With its broad, round leaves and soft, silvery tones, Orbifolia has a sculptural presence that feels both bold and calming — much like a circular rhythm in an abstract painting. In McNulty’s Calathea, you can almost imagine those wide brushstrokes as echoes of Orbifolia’s leaves — large, serene, yet full of motion.
Calathea Makoyana: The Peacock Plant
If Orbifolia is elegant minimalism, Calathea Makoyana is pure flamboyance. Often called the Peacock Plant, its leaves are like stained glass — deep green ovals with feathery, translucent patterns that look almost painted. The undersides are a rich purple-red, which peeks out whenever the leaves move.
Every leaf looks hand-drawn, with a feathered design that seems to glow when the light hits it. It’s the kind of plant you can stare at for a long time and still find new details. The patterns are so intricate that they almost look like brushstrokes — natural abstractions that perfectly connect to the layered texture of McNulty’s painting.
Makoyana prefers conditions similar to its cousin: bright but indirect light, high humidity, and evenly moist soil. It doesn’t appreciate cold drafts or dry air, so a humidifier or a pebble tray can make a world of difference. With a little care, it rewards you with an ongoing art show of shifting colors and forms.
Calathea Ornata: The Pinstripe Perfection
Calathea Ornata, also known as the Pinstripe Plant, is sophistication in leafy form. Its deep green leaves are decorated with thin, pinkish-white lines that look like delicate brush marks from a fine-tipped paintbrush. It’s the kind of plant that manages to be both bold and refined, almost like a minimalist painting done with perfect precision.
Over time, the pink stripes can fade slightly, but under the right lighting — bright, indirect, and consistent — they’ll remain vivid. Ornata is a little sensitive about its water, so using filtered or rainwater helps prevent leaf spots. It also loves humidity but doesn’t like sitting in soggy soil.
If McNulty’s Calathea painting could speak, it might echo the quiet confidence of this variety. There’s balance in its chaos — a careful layering of lines and tones that mimic the plant’s controlled vibrancy. The pink and green interplay in Ornata’s leaves feels like a painter’s perfect harmony of color and contrast.
Calathea Lancifolia: The Rattlesnake Plant
The Calathea Lancifolia, or Rattlesnake Plant, brings a completely different vibe — playful, bold, and unmistakable. Its long, narrow leaves have wavy edges and a striking pattern of dark green ovals running along lime-green veins. Flip one over, and you’ll see a vivid purple underside, a signature trait of many Calatheas.
Lancifolia is one of the hardier varieties, tolerating lower light and a little more variation in humidity. Still, it thrives when you treat it like the tropical diva it is — gentle watering, consistent moisture, and protection from cold air. It’s perfect for adding height and movement to your indoor jungle, with its leaves rising tall and curling ever so slightly.
In McNulty’s Calathea, you can imagine that lively, wavy energy reflected in brushstrokes of bright color — the rhythm and sway of a plant that always seems to be in motion, even when it’s still.
Caring for Your Calathea
No matter the variety, most Calatheas share the same preferences:
- Light: Bright, indirect light — never harsh sun.
- Water: Keep the soil moist but not soggy; use filtered or rainwater if possible.
- Humidity: The higher, the better. Misting, humidifiers, or pebble trays help.
- Temperature: Warm and stable — they hate cold drafts.
- Soil: A loose, well-draining mix (like peat, perlite, and bark).
Calatheas can be a little finicky, but that’s part of their charm. When they’re happy, they thrive — growing new leaves that slowly unfurl like scrolls of art in motion. When they’re unhappy, they’ll tell you with brown edges or drooping leaves, so you can always read their moods.
Living Art
There’s a poetic connection between the Calathea plant and Shawn McNulty’s abstract painting Calathea. Both are alive with movement and energy, both built from layers — of color, texture, and rhythm. The plant transforms light and water into pattern and motion, while the painting transforms pigment into emotion and atmosphere.
Together, they make a striking pair: nature’s art and human art, each reflecting the other. The painting celebrates the plant’s wild, organic beauty, and the plant, in turn, embodies the painting’s spirit — vivid, mysterious, and ever-changing.
So whether you’re nurturing a Calathea Orbifolia in your living room or admiring McNulty’s Calathea on your wall, you’re engaging with the same essence: a reminder that beauty is not static. It grows, moves, and changes — just like the leaves of a Calathea dancing gently to the rhythm of light.