This latest 3D oil painting features plenty of my favorite plant life media: ferns! There are four different kinds in this work collected during my hikes in O'ahu and while strolling around the grounds at my Artist Residency at the Highlands Art League in Florida. In order to use plants in my work I first press and dry them for at least a month, and I'm always delighted when they keep their color for so long.
The 'orange' part of the 'Orange Daggers' is a certain type of bird of paradise flower that I saw abundantly on da 'aina, however this one that I photographed and painted I actually found on top of a yard waste refuse pile while I was on a morning run. I love the way their super solid petals cup up to form teeny ecosystems of collected rainwater and delicate insects when found in their natural environments.
Last but certainly not least, there is one beautiful and stately French preying mantis surveying the scene. And how do I know this particular preying mantis is French? Well because he unfortunately expired in my apartment while I was staying in Argenton-Chateau for an intensive figure painting atelier in 2015. This lil guy was collected three years before I even began creating my 3D paintings! I'm not sure what I was thinking at the time, I must have just known a perfect specimen such as this would play into my art one day.
Yes! This piece is available for purchase here
3.7.2020