Georgia on my mind

2022 - oil on canvas

70 x 100 x 4 cm

This painting was the first painted from a live model. Until the model withered away and I had to rely on photographs.

It’s incredible beauty only lasts ‘forever, until it’s over.’ The death of an orchid is sudden and quick after beaming in full glory as if frozen in time.

Alas, the fate that begets us all.

I have always been good at keeping orchids. Somehow the right amount of neglect comes easy to me. In my previous home, I had a perfect spot to put them; on top of an old electrical heater. They loved it on that purring, hot air -puffing beast, and some bore flowers for at least four years in a row.

Yet it was only recently that I looked into an orchid and saw what appeared to be a semi-comical figure, suspended in the heart of the flower. It was like a little tiger head on the body of a sage. I had never seen this before, not with actual awareness, and yet it is an integral part of the orchid’s form.

‘Flower Power’ is my attempt at capturing the rediscovery of the orchid, in all it’s comedy, surrealism and divinity.

It also explores the sweet spot between experience, aura (or energy that the form exudes) and the geometric material form that is actually in front of us.

I struggle to describe the process of close examination that goes into painting. Once we place our attention on something, it deepens into an entire universe. There is always a chasm between what one thinks they see and what one actually sees. Yet the subjective interpretation is part of the whole equation. For if there were no observer, then what good would those forms be? Would they even exist without an observer?

This dialogue between observation and interpretation is a constant source of wonder and discovery. There is an endless source of mystery and miracles just waiting for our attention.

Women painting flowers

Very quickly in the creation process, my orchid reminded me and others of Georgia O’Keeffe’s flower paintings.

It appears that when women paint flowers, the result is similar and carries the vulva likeness.

It is inspiring that she continued to grow as a painter until she was well in her 90s. I titled my piece ‘Georgia on my mind’ as an ode to this great woman painter.