Floral Paintings

I had never painted flowers until the beginning of the Covid Pandemic in 2020. Unable to travel or meet with people for portraits, one day I tried painting a single daffodil in a water glass against a window. It was such a meditative and satisfying experience that I couldn't wait to try more! I approach each floral painting as a color study, examining the refraction of light through glass, the subtle tones of grays and whites, and the brilliance of the flowers. I hope you will find peace and solace from looking at them. Click each image for more details about the work. Images with a link are available for purchase. While painting this series, Maud drew her inspiration from the insights of American painter Charles Hawthorne (1872-1930), recorded in the book Hawthorne on Painting. Here are some of her favorite passages: “Beauty in art is the delicious notes of color one against the other. It is just as fine as music and it is just the same thing, one tone in relation to another tone.” “There is nothing in the world so helpful to a young painter as a study of white, if he will but be honest.” “Let the objects in your study be simple in form—few in number—and let the arrangement of them be simple.” “To see things simply is the hardest thing in the world.” “Don’t think of things as objects, think of them as spots of color coming one against another.” “Get into the habit of doing what you see, not what you know. Human reason cannot foresee the accidents of out of doors. Humble yourself before nature, it is too majestic for you to do it justice.” “The surprise of truth…It’s a sad commentary that nothing is so startling as truth to human beings—in a canvas too.” “I don’t know a better definition of an artist than one who is eternally curious.”