Living in Brisbane, surrounded by nature, I was inspired to take my still lifes outdoors. I'm lucky to live where I'm surrounded by nature and there is green fields, trees and hills in abundance. Out here in the western suburbs, with quite a few farms, you'd be forgiven for thinking you live in a small country town.
I wanted to capture that feeling in a painting. If you look closely, you'll see I painted an oxidized, rusted table with worn-wood slatted chairs. I used metallic copper paint accents and scratches into layers of turquoise, white and grey paint to create a subtle, yet striking surface to counterbalance the vibrance of the magenta/ violet and orange flowers. Similarly, I used texture paste around the gravel patio area to create a physically rough texture that plays against the rust-like furniture.
The bright chartreuse field of grass beyond is intentionally blurry, so even though it's quite bright, it recedes rather quietly into fields of trees and sky to let the flowers sing.
Each element was chosen to create a sense of warmth, a feeling of sunshine right outside, to put the viewer close enough to almost smell the flowers, inviting them to step outside, smile and inhale deeply.