Painting series · 2025–2026
Tulips
In "Tulips", I return to a familiar form to discover a different possibility for it in each painting. Sometimes a single flower occupies most of the surface; elsewhere, flowers appear together among the colours. What connects these images is the movement between the recognisable shape of a flower and the marks of paint that bring it into being.
Petals emerge from layers of colour that cover one another, remain visible through each other, and, in places, blur the boundary between flower and background. Reds, pinks, purples, and whites set against greens sometimes bring the flower forward and sometimes dissolve part of it into its surroundings. Brushmarks and surface textures keep this process of formation visible.
In this series, the relationships between forms that I explore in my other paintings become concentrated within a single flower. Viewed up close, a petal can become a field of colour, a dark patch, or a path of movement; from a distance, these elements come together again as a flower. The image shifts between these two experiences.
Returning to the tulip offers an opportunity to see differences. Each time, the openness of the bloom, the density of the paint, and its relationship with the background create a different presence. The familiar form remains, yet each painting offers another way of seeing it.
Scarlet Tulips, 2025
