Ikebana is the Japanese art of flower arranging. I saw this display in a flower shop/cafe in Japan in 2020, and I knew right away I would paint it. Glass is one of my favorite things to paint. But this piece drew me in, because like so much of Japan, it is full of contradictions. It's a complicated arrangement of glass shapes, colors and reflections. Yet it appears incredibly minimalistic to my western eyes. It's technically a flower arrangement, but if my husband brought me home that bouquet, I'd be looking for the rest of it. It's full of saturated color, but I painted it with a limited palette. It's beautiful in its shape, form, color and value, yet it's really just a few shapes, forms and colors repeated. And there are really only three dominant values.
All this technical stuff is fun to notice, but I paint the art that makes me feel things. This arrangement made me feel calm, happy to live in a world with interesting reflections and lovely colors. How does it make you feel?
Ikebana is the Japanese art of flower arranging. I saw this display in a flower shop/cafe in Japan in 2020, and I knew right away I would paint it. Glass is one of my favorite things to paint. But this piece drew me in, because like so much of Japan, it is full of contradictions. It's a complicated arrangement of glass shapes, colors and reflections. Yet it appears incredibly minimalistic to my western eyes. It's technically a flower arrangement, but if my husband brought me home that bouquet, I'd be looking for the rest of it. It's full of saturated color, but I painted it with a limited palette. It's beautiful in its shape, form, color and value, yet it's really just a few shapes, forms and colors repeated. And there are really only three dominant values.
All this technical stuff is fun to notice, but I paint the art that makes me feel things. This arrangement made me feel calm, happy to live in a world with interesting reflections and lovely colors. How does it make you feel?
Funny, isn't it, how less is more?
Framed to 16" x 19"