Blossom II

Gallery 18

Brassia Orchid

Martha Griener

30” x 20” graphite
 
Each time my husband, Ken drives the 17 hours from Ohio to our home in Florida I meditate by drawing.  I choose the “Brassia Orchid” from the local grower because of its spider-like petals hanging gracefully from stems reflecting movement.  I put on some quiet Barry Manilow music and two hours later the drawing was complete.  I do a complete graphite tonal reference drawing for future paintings. However, upon completing this drawing I realized it was also a final piece of art.  Thanks to Ken and Barry I accomplished this sensuous drawing.   

White Cattleya Orchids

Suzy Smith

28” x 22” oil
The intricate details and delicacy of flowers is what facinates me. Every flower is so different, and the way the light helps define that detail and at the same time the delicacy, just enhances each bloom’s beauty. When I first started painting, I painted flowers. Over the years my paintings have evolved, but I have continued to add flowers to still life paintings, and even figurative paintings. Recently I returned to painting flowers by themselves, in all their glory, and it has been a kind of coming home for me.

Sunflowers

Kristy Asaros

20” x 27” pastel
Flowers always inspire me to create art because of their organic silhouettes and vibrant colors. My inspiration for this piece came from a bunch of sunflowers that I had given to my best friend. Sunflowers usually have a bright and warm energy, but the way the light was hitting them gave off a dark aura I found mysterious.

Firecracker Flowers –Shaving Brush Flowers

Megan Kissinger

18” x 22” acrylic on rag matboard
This illustration is the flowers, fruit, and leaves of the Shaving Brush Tree (Pseudobombax ellipticum) It is part of a series I am doing on the flowers and fruits of the Edison and Ford Winter Estates. This is a botanical portrait of a tree in Thomas Edison’s research gardens in Ft. Myers, Florida. I am honored to illustrate the plants and trees that Mr. Edison and his family loved so much.

Summer’s Last Call

Mara Schasteen

20” x 15.5″ oil on belgian linen
On the morning I painted “Summer’s Last Call,” I had plans to paint a late summer landscape en plein air. As I walked around the location I had chosen, complete with a perfect view of the Big Horn Mountains and many multicolored aspen trees, I kept passing this tiny, little rosebush just inches from the ground modestly displaying a few old fashioned roses. Most of its blooms were well past their prime and soft petals were gently falling into the grass. I had set out that day to paint the last bit of the Wyoming summer colors, but this little rosebush was singing my song. As I sat in the grass and recorded this tiny bit of the world in paint, I witnessed a few of the smaller buds bloom before my eyes and I watched as the larger flowers lost petal after petal in the breeze. Two days later, these roses were gone and so in painting this rosebush, I learned the significance of just a moment in time and how to seize it and celebrate it forever with my brush.