FLORAL COMPOSITIONS
Some time ago, I developed an interest in creating dual versions of the same painting. They look alike because of their identical subject, composition, and colors, but each version differs by the tone of my feelings. This series of paintings encompasses a range of techniques, from an amorphous watercolor, through acrylic, to a sharper drawing style. Looking at these “mirrors” of internal emotional landscapes brings me to a realization of how much our projecting selves matter in our perception of “reality.” This construct of “reality” is something that we actively create for ourselves.
Even though all the paintings in this series are botanical, I am not intrinsically interested in floral composition. I merely used flowers to show the subject: double versions of the same composition inspired by the artist’s feelings and observations of the objects or memory of the image.
As a result of a long observation or a memory of the actual object (in this case, a vase with a flower), the image often almost dissolves in memory. It becomes sketchy, or an object reshapes itself due to the play of light. In fact, it almost doesn’t exist anymore as a standalone object, but rather merges with the background. It is more about “knowing” that the vase is there, than seeing it in a traditional way. For that reason, contrary to a traditional painting, sometimes new and unexpected things come to life; a background and a foreground exchange roles in some parts of the painting, or flowers no longer play the starring role; rather, the attention is on a vase or on a game between movement and background stillness.
In the collection Floral Compositions, I am focused on creating reality on an emotional level, rather than on flowers, as understood as an object of beauty. It’s interesting to me to see how our emotions can translate our memories or actual real objects into a visual reality.