The In-Between: Flower Power

"Earth laughs in flowers. "

-Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Hamatreya"

Here are several paintings I did on Board. They are of various flowers that I see a lot around the city, the only one I don't have, which should be there is the butterfly bush. If you look they are all over the city, growing out of chimney's and out of roofs. They are hard to avoid. Unfortunately I ran out of board, It was badly planned.

"If you've never been thrilled to the very edges of your soul by a flower in spring bloom, maybe your soul has never been in bloom. "

-Terri Guillemets

The boards are 71/2 x 51/2 inches. I cut out various bits and pieces from newspaper articles and magazines, with negative words and sayings, and glued them to the boards, then I painted over a thin layer of gesso.

"The flower is the poetry of reproduction. It is an example of the eternal seductiveness of life."

-Jean Giraudoux

The first three flowers I painted were done in acrylic. I didn't like how they turned out. I wasn't spending time on them, nor was I being very pathient. The only one I liked was the daffodil, I think what really turned me off was the fuchsia. So I decided to use watercolours instead. I wasn't sure if it would work or not, I'd never used watercolour on gesso, and I wasn't sure if the surface would be suitable. Turned out it worked out quit well. The flowers are slightly faded, which is good it sends the right message. That even though nature is fading as the urban world is growing, its still there, refusing to leave, it will find a way to fight back.
All in all I think they worked out well.

"Flowers are without hope. Because hope is tomorrow and flowers have no tomorrow. " -Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin

Dying Daffodile in acrylic

"Flowers have spoken to me more than I can tell in written words. They are the hieroglyphics of angels, loved by all men for the beauty of their character, though few can decipher even fragments of their meaning."

~Lydia M. Child

Dying Rose in acrylic

"The flowers of late winter and early spring occupy places in our hearts well out of proportion to their size."

-Gertrude S. Wiste

Dying Fuschia in Acrylic. I really dont like this one!

"Can we conceive what humanity would be if it did not know the flowers?"

- Maurice Maeterlinck

Dying Daffodile in watercolours

"I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance."
~William Wordsworth, "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud," 1804

Dying Fuschia's in watercolours

"Bread feeds the body, indeed, but flowers feed also the soul."
-The Koran

Dead and dried out Hydrangia in watercolours

"The flower offered of itself
And eloquently spoke
Of Gods
In languages of rainbows
Perfumes
And secret silence..."
-Phillip Pulfrey, from Love, Abstraction and other Speculations,

Dying Marigold in watercolours

"Let us dance in the sun, wearing wild flowers in our hair..."

-Susan Polis Shutz

Dying Rose in watercolours

"Why do people give each other flowers? To celebrate various important occasions, they're killing living creatures? Why restrict it to plants? "Sweetheart, let's make up. Have this deceased squirrel."

-The Washington Post

(I thought this was really funny!)