Originale - AVAILABLE

Still lifes were once about making the most of limited opportunity. I’m more interested in abundance. In this painting, flowers spill and swell until the image feels almost explosive—like pleasure refusing to stay contained.

Title: Originale

Year: 2019

Acrylic on Canvas

4ft x 5ft

Status: Original and prints available

I made this piece after learning more about the history of women in art. Its no secret that women have been excluded from public life and work across the ages, and the few that managed to become artists usually had a father or husband who indulged their “hobby”. Even so, they were banned from the academies where artists studied live nude models and learned about anatomy to create realistic portraits and figures. Confined to domestic spaces, women gravitated towards still lifes, capturing the subject matter around them. As women so often do, they took the limited opportunities afforded to them and took them to the next level - artists like Rachel Ruysch in the late 1600’s created masterpieces that still feel just as relevant today. Paintings like hers were not merely decorative. They weren’t saying “oh look a pretty flower” ; they were saying “you gave me crumbs and still I ate.”

The idea of participating in this long tradition of female painters capturing flowers, but turning it on its head, really inspired me. I wanted to take the still life motif and dial it up to 11. Infuse it with unrepentant textures and colors that make you feel alive, with pure unadulterated female joy. The Darkbloom series shines in spaces where women are bold and unafraid, even when the world outside is black.