Rudbeckias

Original oil painting on board
50 x 50 cms, 19.5 x 19.5 inches
Ready to hang,
Signed and dated on reverse

50% of the profits from the sale of this painting will be donated to MND research, to find out more, click here, https://artistsagainstmnd.org.uk/

Every year I grow Rudbeckias as these golden flowers brighten up the pots and the borders attracting clouds of butterflies. Rudbeckias create amazing shapes as they begin to die, the petals droop and the black centre becomes a prominent cone. These shapes remain in the garden throughout the Autumn and Winter as they slowly decay and release their seed for the following year. As a gardener, I leave these seed heads to provide food for the birds swinging around on their stalks with weight of the goldfinches eating their seeds.

This oil painting is part of the “Fading Bloom” series which highlights the importance and beauty of flowers that die but give vital resources to the ecosystem around them. It is not the end of their life but a part of the carbon cycle and regeneration.

“Rudbeckias” is inspired by my many photographs I take throughout the year documenting the lifecycle of the plants and in this case, the flowers that I grow from seed. My art studio, based in the countryside in West Sussex and my garden has a wonderful microclimate enabling flowers to live for many months. The colours in this painting are inspired by my love and experimentation of colour that is present in many of my artworks. These often have inspiration from the Fauvist movement, where colour theory is taken to the extreme and I often use these colours in my shadows to create a sense of depth.