If you love flowers, you’ll know that actual blue flowers are rare. Horticulturalists try to develop true blue blooms, and sometimes they come up with a purple and call it blue. And even though some flowers are blue, like a Cornflower, a Delphinium or a Forget-me-not, you can’t find a blue Zinnia or Daisy.

Except if you are a painter, and you can imagine it. You can paint the flowers any colour you want to.

So this is my end-of-summer painting where I insisted on blue flowers. And not just any, but Daisies and Zinnias. I have been thinking for a long time about fabric design. Like for 50 years. ha ha. I think this painting gave me some ideas and hopefully I can speed up the time between the painting and taking action in that direction.

I started with a palette of favorite colours along with a bouquet of the last of my garden blooms and applied the colours in a random even way. I worked from left to right, top to bottom. It was a meditative process and it felt more methodical than my usual painting.

Unfortunately, the photos don’t show the gloss on the painting or the high texture, both created by the use of a thick, transparent acrylic medium. It creates a sparkle when spotlit on a wall.

You can read more about the painting experience of Breathe In Breathe Out here.

The title “Breathe In, Breath Out” is a reminder to all of us that we are alive now on this spinning blue planet in the vastness of space. Our breaths of life need to be appreciated and celebrated. We all are experiencing various levels of uncertainty and stress from over two years of pandemic and now also from the deadly turmoil in Europe. It is vital that we stop, take a deep breath and appreciate that we are all alive in this moment together. Now is the time for humanity to hear each other, to support each other and to go forward together in peace and compassion.

There is no future in division, contempt or war. Breathe In, Breathe Out.