Les Fleurs

I find inspiration in Claude Monet and he once said, “I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers.”  It was in his gardens at Giverny when I found myself surrounded by hundreds of flowers.  I was overwhelmed by their beauty and enveloped with joy and a sense of tranquility.  In those moments his flowers spoke to me and, I too, knew without a doubt that God wanted me to follow my path as an artist and a painter.  This painting is dedicated to Claude Monet for allowing me to converse with his flowers.  I will forever be indebted to the flowers of France because they told me to never forget that I am a painter and to never stop following that dream.

Les Fleurs De La France, Ils M'ont Parlé was inspired by the flowers I saw and photographed during study abroad in Paris in May 2016.  It was developed from several photographs that I collaged together.  This was an experiment that developed from my "Color & Line Studies".  I wanted to stray from the original realistic floral images but maintain the sense of the flowers without the shadows and hyperrealistic details.  It is meant to be a representational and abstracted depiction of a garden that emphasizes movement through color and line.  True to my style I kept with a vibrant palette but decided to also include some chromatic greys to balance the vivid, bright colors.