Blooming Exotics
After being away from my practice for months, I entered my studio towards the end of Spring well-rested and buzzing with excitement to work.
With all of the ideas swimming around in my head, there was one thing that was consistently growing in my spirit.
In our creative fields, I believe the heartbeat of the work we share with the world runs parallel to how we are growing and expanding as humans. It is a natrual overflow for these realizations to influence our work and become the underpinnings of what we create.
When I entered my studio on an early Spring morning, the natural light that spilled onto my work table was bright and clear - a welcome invitation for an artist inspired by light. Excited to express the ideas that echoed a vibe of spring, I immediately began pulling bright-colored pigments.
To start, I felt most comfortable beginning on small canvases - this size allowed me to express myself within the ‘boundary’ of the intimate space of the paper. Somehow, I desired to express an energy that was delicate, feminine, and joyous. Thinking of flowers was a natrual leap for me, so I began to identify flowers that were beautiful and rare. I knew I would express them abstractly with gestures of watercolor.
The first brush strokes of watercolor on paper are both exhilarating and scary, but the ease of this painting practice slowly calms the spirit. The first layers of pigment on the small canvases are gestures of transparent and opaque washes. And then my favorite part of the painting process happens…colors begin their magic of merging and blending to create new moments. I spent the afternoon painting the vibrant colors on each canvas. Afterward, I allowed the paintings time to ‘breathe’ before incorporating a second layer. My initial idea was to express the spirit of exotic flowers in abstract ways with watercolor. Once the paintings were dry, I would then incorporate white ink on top of each expression. I loved the subtlety of the white ink; with a focus on the line contours and names of flowers on each painting. A few of the flowers expressed abstractly are Frangipani, the White Egret orchid, and the Sacred Lotus Flower.
The goal of the collection was to express the beautiful and rare things that are within all of us. Those rare and beautiful things are best seen when we choose to ‘bloom’ unapologetically - standing firmly in who we are.
Blooming Exotics is a collection of 9 original paintings expressing the rare and beautiful abstract interpretation of 9 exotic flowers.
