Gloxinia

Recently in my watercolor class with Reinike Leenders, I have been working on painting flowers. It all started with my green leaf studies.

Painting flowers is something I have always loved. They are the first things that I painted and I go back to them often. Sometimes I think that I should, certainly could, specialize in flowers. But of course there are too many other things that I see and am compelled to paint.

There are so many things about flowers that make them a great subject. First of all they are beautiful and beauty is something I strive to capture in most of my paintings. There is so much beauty in the world and I often try to fill my art with it. They have wonderful colors, textures and shapes that are challenging to create. They also have their own distinctive personalities that make them a fun subject.

In my art studies there are learning phases. First you learn something intellectually and then at different times you achieve different levels of being able to perform what you have learned. This keeps going. I don't think I have ever reached a place that I can say I've learned all that I can about a certain faction of painting. This applies to both techniques and composition as well as transfering inspiration to a completed piece of art. Then in the learning process once I have learned a certain amount in one area I become open to new avenues of learning. I think this is something that I am going through with my flower painting.

Right now I'm preparing for art shows that I feel I should be painting ocean related subjects (after all I live in Virginia Beach) and I am painting flowers. I guess that's the way it is.