Flower Portraits

Classic examples of a still life often include a vase of flowers (if they hadn’t been picked, then it would be a landscape!). They are captured in a moment of ephemerality and immortalized. If we agree that the flowers are still, yet alive, then how is this captured moment any different from a portrait which also captures a person in the same way? Alice Neel showed me that portraits can conjure the subjects’ truest and most honest self to the surface. Can this not be accomplished with “still life” subjects as well? Does a camellia have no personality? Does an apple have no attitude? This series of Flower Portraits is a study in pulling forth the personality of the flowers during this time of their lives.