Exploring Still Life

I picked this arrangement.

I first drew circles to represent the individual flowers and their basic positioning and design within the arrangement.

Artists are often asked to submit their work to themed group shows. I'm usually the one who never has something to submit within the required theme.  Sometimes, it is as simple as needing a landscape or a still life. Sometimes, the theme is based on a current event, or something in popular culture that can be transmitted through art. 

I recently found a fascinating book while shopping in a local bookstore, "Flower Color Theory," authored by Darroch and Michael Putnam.  I am obsessed with color theory.  If you have been following my work over the years, using color to convey a message has been at the center of my work.  So how to use this book?  I had no clues, but I bought it anyway.  Nothing better than a new reference book to ignite an idea in the studio.

So this past week, I was thumbing through the pages and thought to myself, "I wonder how I can translate a few of these floral arrangements, staying true to my current style/series?" Then I thought about an upcoming call to artists that I read about requiring a modern still life! Yes!  I set out to create a still life inspired by one of the arrangements in the book.  

​Using the floral arrangement as my guide, I designed a floral still life of my own.  I tried to keep as close as I could to the size and volume and basic color of the different elements.  In some instances, the limit of the vast colors that I had on hand forced me to let go a little bit. I had to wing it along the way.  No worries though because why not allow a little bit of my artist-child play, too?  I can almost smell the fragrance jumping off the surface of the paper. 

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Still Life with Flowers.