Botanical Drawing VI, White Peonies, 2015 / Graphite & Chalk Pastel on 14″ x 10.5″ Paper

Flowers are great seducers; masterfully alluring by design. It’s easy to see them as soft and sensual, light and lovely. And they are all of those things, of course. But there’s something else. Something darker. Flowers are a bit sad. Tragic, really. Pretty in bud. Voluptuous in bloom. They quickly wither and die.

After getting a bit of distance from my work in horticulture, I’ve come to see the garden’s great coquettes with a more critical eye. The botanical world is filled with drama: struggle and victory, promise and failure, mystery and suspense, chaos and serenity, life and death. It’s all there. Nothing trivial about a flower. Not at all.

 Dark Beauty in Black and White. Dark Beauty in Color.