Georgia O’Keeffe, my unconscious teacher and inspiration about flower photography, said in interviews that her style of flower photography came from the fact that most people didn’t look at flower photos anymore because they saw so many photographs that they had lost excitement or interest. Flower photos had become boring. That was true of me.
“Nobody sees a flower,” O’Keeffe told an interviewer, “really. It is so small, we haven’t got any time. And to see things takes time – like having a friend takes time. I decided that you could not ignore its beauty if I could paint that flower on a huge scale.”
(My assistant often looks like the devil he can be. When I go out to paint my photos, he comes along with me. He sits outside the back door window if I am late, glowering at me until I come out. I call them “Devil Eyes.“)
I am no Georgia O’Keeffe, but seeing her ideas creep into my work and creativity is an extraordinary experience. I’m ever grateful for the chance to try and do it. She helped awaken the hiding artist in me.
I rarely looked at flowers in one piece or any other traditional way. They also have to be original to me. And I present their hearts on a bigger scale.
O’Keeffe’s idea was to go inside the flower, choose one part, and magnify it in her paintings and pictures. The color could accompany it or be mixed with other colors to bring different flowers together.
Since people had not seen flower photos presented in that way, they began to look again.
So she kept painting the sense of it – the inside and soul, if you will – of the flower; suddenly, it was different.
Good advice; it is what I am learning how to do. On my end, it is mesmerizing and compelling. According to the messages I get from readers, flower lovers are paying attention. I can’t take any credit; it wasn’t my idea. But I am slowly and carefully exposing different versions of her idea to present flower photos differently. Day by day, I’m putting my stamp on that, which is both scary and exciting.
“I know I can not paint a flower,” O’Keefe said. “I can not paint the sun on the desert on a bright summer morning, but maybe in terms of paint color, I can convey to you my experience of the flower or the experience that makes the flower significant to me at that particular time.”
That’s the idea. I look for the spirit of the flower and try to convey the experience.
I call it Abstract Flower Art, art that goes deep inside and is colorful and different, almost like a photo painting. Thanks for coming along on the ride and supporting me. I hope it deepens, and I keep learning how to capture the heart of flowers differently and hopefully beautifully.
