My main objective was to use a black, dark background against the bright and lighter flower shapes. Flowers always inspire me to create a masterpiece with their interesting shapes and colors. Most of the flowers are grown in my garden.

I create many sketches and thumbnails for the preliminary design. This gets my creative juices flowing and leads to more ideas and compositions. I also use some of my own reference photos, using a variety of shapes.

In this design, I used sunflower shapes and coneflowers but used artistic license with the colors. The vase is part of my collection of still life objects. Many of them have showed up in my artwork. They are like old friends.