Daisy Love

 

14 x 11

oil and cold wax on Ray Mar panel

Whenever I am at a museum or art gallery, I enjoy looking at floral paintings. I look for composition, texture, and a sense of beauty and poetry in the fragile tissue of the petals. Fechin, Van Gogh, Renoir, they all do a great job with flowers, but it is Manet who steals the show every time.

Floral painting by Fechin

Palm Springs Art Museum
floral by Nicolai Fechin

Whenever I see that a museum has paintings by Nicolai Fechin, I make sure that I give myself plenty of time to drool, er, I mean, look at them. Study them. Try to figure out why they are so beautiful and captivating.

Today was no different. Fechin, Russian born but American emigre, is known for his portraits. But, every so often I see a landscape or floral of his and it takes my breath away. Like this painting I saw today at the Palm Springs Art Museum. The calla lilies glowed with light and I didn't want to stop looking at it.

Even if I didn't paint (but I did sketch some palm trees and a few folks playing shuffleboard!), it was an artful day.