What Passed

“What Passes” is loosely taken from work by 17th Century Dutch artist Rachel Ruysch — a woman who in the 1600s made a full-time living painting flowers. I love that about her. She wasn’t just talented. She was commercially successful. At the time people were commissioning floral paintings for their own homes because they had their own money. It was a time of growing individualism, and with that came a deeper awareness of mortality.

Vanitas paintings were reminders that beautiful things don’t last. Flowers bloom and die. Life moves quickly. Nothing can be kept.

Ruysch would often paint flowers that never bloom at the same time, bringing different seasons together in one impossible arrangement. There’s something magical about that, especially when you consider how ordinary that feels now.

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Jessica Mazlin is a Brisbane-based oil painter whose work explores the quiet beauty of life’s impermanence through detailed studies of the natural world.
Influenced by the still-life traditions of the Dutch Golden Age, she draws inspiration from artists such as Caravaggio, Vermeer, and Rachel Ruysch, whose mastery of light and symbolism continues to inform her practice.

Jessica’s paintings reinterpret the vanitas concept for a contemporary audience — reflecting on the fragility of life and the grace found in transience. Through layered oil glazes and a restrained palette, she captures native botanicals and organic forms against deep, moody backgrounds, revealing how beauty endures even as it fades.

Grounded in her background in Art History (University of Queensland), Jessica’s work unites classical technique with modern minimalism. Her compositions invite quiet contemplation, encouraging viewers to slow down, notice subtle shifts of light, and rediscover meaning in impermanent moments.

Each piece becomes a meditation on stillness, presence, and the delicate tension between decay and renewal.