The message of flowers.........

Some people love painting flowers, I, however, am not one of those people.

But the other day, a little vase with a few tulips in it, 

standing on a small book case in front of one of my living room windows, caught my attention.

Perhaps it was the way the sun was streaming through the bamboo blind behind it heightening the vermilion red in the petals that drew my attention to it?

Whatever it was, it stirred me enough to get up off the couch, grab some paper, 

water colours, a few brushes and do a quick sketch.

A friend of mine once told me that she considered me a "message art" painter,  

and when I asked her what she meant with that she answered: "For me, all your paintings seem to have an underlying message "hidden" in the images you paint."

Art, in any form, for me is an outer expression of an inner experience, so perhaps she was right?

This is another "flower" painting, (one of the three flower paintings I have made) 

but if you think they are strange looking flowers, then I agree, because this very large acrylic painting is titled "The Artist's Hand". 

The flowers are not flowers at all, but imprints that I made on the canvas after dipping my right hand in paint. But in a world of fantasy, and by squinting your eyes, they could perhaps be perceived as flowers though, couldn't they?

In an article I read about things we take for granted and only when those things have disappeared do we realize how important they were...at the top of the list were: bees, flowers, and birdsong.

Flowers? Why are flowers important? 

Well, flowers remove carbon dioxide and toxins from the air, they provide food for the honeybees, and the honeybees promulgate food crops, which as I am sure you know, is very important for us humans. 

Flowers also play an integral part in many of our traditions and ceremonies such as weddings, funerals, birthdays, anniversaries, etc. and as tokens of love, sympathy, comfort, encouragement, friendship and appreciation. On top of this, most of them also offer our sense of smell a variety of wonderful and intoxicating fragrances. But wait, there is more.....

Can flowers not also be viewed as artworks made by nature?

 Painting my little tulips, the perfectly shaped petals, the incredibly striking and intense colours, it certainly seemed so to me.

Imagine a world without flowers, tress without blossoms, 

fields without smatterings of colours, gardens without sprinkles of all the colours of the rainbow, forest floors without droplets of hues from the "artist's" palette, or a wedding without bouquets of flowers to enhance and enchant the occasion?

Flowers, it seems to me, are not only marvels of "architecture", 

creativity, beauty, fragrance, colour and imagination, 

but they are so inherently and without asking for anything in return.

(Such is not the case with us human beings it seems, we may be able to use our creativity and imagination to sculpt works of beauty and art out of stone, wood, steel, metals, glass, paper, plastic, cotton, silk, water, paint, clay, rocks, etc.etc. but most of the time and most of us, we do want something in return.) 

The rose, a precious flower in many cultures, often has thorns, which make it beautiful and fragrant yet also potentially able to cause harm. 

(Some scientists have speculated that due to its magnificent fragrance it has thorns in order to protect itself from being eaten by animals. The thorns warn off the animals.)

Human beings, precious in so many ways yet also potentially able to cause harm, 

there is a difference though in my view

....our thorns are hidden inside of us......

(What is the "message" or meaning hidden in the second painting? You decide.)