FLOWER POWER was inevitable for me. My aunt was an artist, and her greatest passion was painting flowers. As a child, I cherished visits to her home where she would whisk me off to her crowded studio and show me all her latest creations. The tiny room was bursting with flower-filled canvases: sunflowers, roses, tulips, gardenias - all so vivid you wanted to pluck them off her canvases and inhale them.

As I began to tackle this series, I knew that I wanted to create a contemporary body of work, abstract, voluptuous, alive with color and calm. I began looking at flowers differently. It wasn’t going to be about arranging them in vases for a still life. Instead, I wanted to experiment. I started with vibrant backgrounds onto which I’d build a collage, aiming for dimension, grace, texture, and color, playing with angles and light.

How I wish my aunt were still here. She’d be overjoyed to see my “’Ode to Aunty Muriel.” Flower Power: a contemporary, sometimes otherworldly spin on blooms.

“WHEN NATURE TAKES MY BREATH AWAY -
I WANT TO CAPTURE THE ESSENCE OF THAT MOMENT.
AN ABSTRACT SOUVENIR. A GIFT.”