Botanicals

I grew up in a rose garden.

My mother’s rose garden, that is. Roses of every variety and colour poked out of the earth that surrounded our bungalow in Thorold.  She had a way with roses. In fact, she may have been obsessed with roses. To make a rose bush from scratch, all she needed was a small cutting, a glass jar and about six months.  As a result, our garden was brilliantly bright with colour and a great source of joy and pride for my mother.

So, when I think of roses, I always think of her.

Roses have never ceased to be significant in my life, even after my mother died and I moved from home. I was a professional florist for 20 years. Those days are done - I’ve since retired from the business but I haven’t lost my fascination with roses, especially those fluffy and gorgeous David Austen garden roses.

I’ve always felt that there’s a best practice in experiencing a rose. You see, there’s so much more to a rose than it’s outer beauty. For example, when I encounter a rose, I gently cup it in my hand and put my nose right up to the petals. Then I breathe very deeply. I exhale. And then I breathe again. I imagine all that beautiful scent filling up my lungs, making me just as sweet as a rose.

As with all my series, I’ve collected many photographs in my travels. Some photos are from the garden down the road from my home in Jordan Station while others are from the Village of Eutin in Germany and Flanders Fields in Belgium. (I found it interesting that Flanders is planted with red roses - not poppies, as one might assume)

Occasionally, I made record of the floral notes like you would at a wine tasting. I diligently smelled each rose, noting the unique differences from one bloom to the next. The red roses reminded me of herbs, moss and cut grass. The white ones brought to mind lemon drops and sweets from the candy store of my childhood. I wrote down many notes ... “watermelon, tart ‘n’ tiny’s, hot lips, cotton candy, green apples, cinnamon spice, vanilla and honey ” ... and so on.

You can see that I came to name the paintings from my floral notes.

These paintings are an expression from my life and from my heart and I like to think they would make my mother smile.

Feisty Feisty

Feisty

36" x 36" acrylic on canvas

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Original Sold
Bold Bold

Bold

36" x 36" acrylic on canvas

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Coy Coy

Coy

36" x 36" acrylic on canvas

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Bearded Iris #1 Bearded Iris #1

Bearded Iris #1

16" x 16" acrylic on canvas

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Bearded Iris #2 Bearded Iris #2

Bearded Iris #2

16" x 16" acrylic on canvas

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Yellow and Purple Iris Yellow and Purple Iris

Yellow and Purple Iris

16" x 16" acrylic on canvas

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