Fabulous Flower Paintings

The paintings in the fabulous flower series are bright, bold, and colourful. I wanted the viewer to feel light and happy when looking at them, and to sense how much fun I had creating them.

Flowers are fabulous, take orchids for example – they don’t need soil to grow! They get all the nutrients they need from air.

Much can be conveyed through flowers. Chrysanthemums have been said to symbolize joy and optimism. Peonies are thought to symbolize love and happiness. Different coloured roses have different meanings – red for love and romance, yellow for friendship and joy, and pink appreciation and gratitude.

But flowers only appeared 140 million years ago. Before flowers, tree bearing cones and ferns dominated the earth. A bouquet of cones and ferns for Valentine’s Day? Takers anyone?

Flowers are the reproductive structure of flowering plants. When insects, birds or bees come to take nectar from a flower, they pollinate it by moving pollen from one flower into another's pistil, the female part of the flower. That little talk about the birds and the bees?  Well, the birds and the bees are literally the many, many lovers of flowers.