The motivation for Wild Flowers was my sister's patio. I was drawn to the flowers with their bright colors of reds, oranges, purples, yellows, and different shades of green. Plus, the spruce trees framing the house in the distance - caught my attention. It is easy for me to get pulled in by the colors and the shadows.
Every artwork presents a challenge, at least for me. The challenge of Wild Flowers was the marigolds! You can see the yellows of the marigolds; however, to capture the three dimensional view of the flower, I have to be able to represent shadows. In every other color, I can adjust the shadow and depth by moving from light to dark with the paint, by combining water and pigment. However, with yellow, there is only one shade - yellow! So, I had to use white pigment for light areas and combining red and blue with the yellow for the shadows to provide depth. Since I am working in two dimensions, the light and dark areas provide the depth or third dimension. When you look at an artwork, and you 'see' the image, the artist has created an illusion of space. For me, creating that illusion makes the artwork 'pop' and it tells a story.