My inspiration for this painting was garden flowers, a source of beauty and a cheerful pick-up in our lives. Flowers are an ongoing creative inspiration with many different types and irresistible array of colors and shapes. I love painting flowers because they have distinct personalities and my garden provides fresh and beautiful samples most of the year.

I use my arrangements and photograph them, besides drawing them from life in my studio. In this painting, my goal was do approach it using more water on top of the painted shapes, blending and softening the colors instead of using mostly hard shapes to define their characteristics. Sometimes it is better to leave some areas mysterious and leave out some of the details. My initial drawing was detailed, but as I worked towards a finish I used a large brush for the background shapes and floated lots of pigment and water over the bouquet, allowing areas to blend softly. This creates depth and loose realism and yet maintains a freshness of the watercolor medium.