I love flowers, I love tending flowers, and I love painting flowers. I wanted to give these dogwood flowers an energetic look, as though they might be moving slightly in a breeze. Although this is a realistic piece, I wanted to subtly exaggerate the qualities that make this flower beautiful. I pushed the saturation of the colors to the point that it looks nearly wild, but not completely so. I tried to retain the delicate nature of the flower by maintaining a calm backdrop and floral details. I love black backdrops to showcase the form and movement of the flowers. I wanted to develop the simple elegance of the symphony of forms while giving it the appearance of a delicate glow.
I began creating realistic paintings at the urging of my family and friends. I am not sure if they wanted to see something that they could relate to in a literal way or just wanted to see if I could actually do something realistic, but I accepted the challenge nevertheless. I actually believe that these realistic paintings have helped to enhance my abstract paintings further. The colors and saturation of color is similar to my abstract painting, but what I found interesting was the challenge this flower presented to my eyes and mind. The flower is not simply PINK. This pink flower has dozens of colors green shadows, blue undertone, red highlights probably even some colors I missed!! Painting this flower was like having to see, or re-see, the flower for the very first time.