Joining Parklane Gallery in Kirkland has opened my senses to new ways and opportunities. The exposure to various media and many techniques has me wanting to try all I see. This piece was influenced by a couple of the artists there, Sobia Shuaib high contrast striking pieces with monotone backgrounds and Marcus Howell use of color and layers are both inspiring. I just had to try a little of each.

This piece is unusual but true. Unusual because of the unconventional color palette, adding green and blue was exciting! True, because it is a close representation of a real tulip. I borrowed one of the flowers from a picture my husband took while visiting the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival in Mount Vernon, WA.

The detail piecing and the size of this flower, about x10 the real size, made it into an intricate and fun puzzle to solve.
The flower has so much going on that a stark plain background was the best companion.

Stepping back and noticing how the different colors gave shape to 1 flower, made it seem that the colors were good friends talking and hanging out nicely with each other.

It felt good to focus on 1 subject and to have that challenge of breaking it down into pieces and putting it back together. I love how slightly geometric shapes constructed a unit that reads as a flower and stands strong being unique. That lesson of breaking things down to tackle anything bigger, keeps coming in handy in many other aspects of my life. Moving forward and one step closer.