The garden has been a theme in art for a thousand years. With such a long history, and works from so many cultures across time, the question is what more can I add? The short answer is I don’t know! But the only way to find the answer is to start painting/playing. The pleasure of the pursuit might be enough, but maybe someone else will find pleasure in these paintings too, and that would be even better. More than that, only time will tell….detail below. Enjoy.

Technical painting notes: I started by rolling a thinned, payne’s grey oil paint on the panel with a soft roller, using the roller marks to block out the lights and darks. Selective wiping clarified some shapes. I let this layer dry, then used alkyd glazes to bring in color masses. From this point, it was a game between painting the “correct” details and taking advantage of the scattered and arbitrary roller strokes and accidents to build an interesting image.