Flowers, Ferns, and Vines

Flowers, Ferns, and Vines is not an official series. It is a body of joy…

Flowers and their close kin are a motif that I find myself gravitating toward when it is time to doodle or play, or when I am feeling the ache to bring something light-hearted into my life.

I find they often show up late winter, and early fall.

Late winter at the cusp of spring, I long for their color and reminder of new life. That is the time that I often reach for the paintbrush to urge them along, painting flower after flower. Once the buds burst through and the vibrancy of true color is all around, I often find myself putting down the paint and picking up the pen. Poetry is my springtime creative home.

Then again, as autumn arrives, before the leaves fall, but once the earth’s colors are mostly green… the reds and violets and pinks of spring and summer blossoms merely a memory, I paint them again.

Late winter a hope, early fall a memory.

They also show up during big personal shifts, and major world events that feel too big to handle…the early days of the pandemic, in times of war, anytime cruelty or hatred is on full display.

Painting flowers… whether from life, from bouquets, or from my imagination… centers and calms me.

The flowers that I draw and paint tend to grow wild and free, even when contained in a vase. They are expressive, stretching this way and that in a dance for the sun.

Several of my flowers are already in private collections. As new work emerges, it will be available for sale.