Floral Oil Paintings

Each painting begins in the garden.

Long before the growing season begins, I'm planning the garden and starting seeds in late winter—months before a painting can even be imagined. As I tend tiny seedlings until they're ready for the garden, the conversation has already begun.

It continues throughout the life cycle of each plant, whether annual or perennial. My process is rooted in quiet observation, patience, and reflection.

Painting from life, one stem at a time, the flowers dictate the narrative. I don't arrange flowers into a composition—I allow it to reveal itself over time. Woven into many paintings is the unfolding life cycle of each flower, observed over weeks and months and gathered into a single composition.

Like my skull and bone work, each painting has a story to tell.

Flowers have accompanied nearly every significant moment in our lives. We give them to celebrate, grieve, express love, or simply bring joy. Across cultures and generations, they have gathered symbolic, spiritual, and deeply personal meanings.

They also carry memory. Ephemeral flowers like tulips and daffodils are passed from one family garden to another. When they bloom each spring, the memories bloom with them.

In the garden, I am reminded that nature is always teaching us. Through quiet observation, flowers become gentle lessons in impermanence, hope, renewal, and the beauty of paying attention.