I painted this yesterday after my morning run and my farmer’s market visit to buy flowers to paint and tomatoes to eat.

This painting is a floral piece just like all of the other fun pieces I’ve been sharing on my studio account. The flowers aren’t perfect. Some of the flowers can probably be named by their appearance, but not all. I try to paint recognizable beauty, but not perfect representations of flowers. That is not my job. I am a self taught painter. I never set out to paint perfect copies. I like hints as to what I’m painting. I like to leave an impression on the spectators mind as to what they are seeing to jog their own memory into remembering something similar that he or she remembers from some other time in their life. Flowers, I think, like music and scents cause us to go back in time—to remember special moments. I remember the first time I saw or received certain flowers. Those times are special to me. Maybe just maybe someone will look at one of my paintings and remember a good time, a sweet moment. I could only dream of such a thing. This piece is maybe my least favorite of all of the latest flower pieces as far as the colors and actual flowers go, but the stems and water and vase turned out better than I could have planned. I've been captivated by bouquets since painting Natalie’s bouquet after the wedding as a keepsake. This is a bouquet too, but one that is meant to be purchased, brought home and rearranged in a special vase to cherish for a week or so. In order for flowers to last after being cut, they must be placed in water, and water with a bit of sugar is even better. I wanted the stems on these flowers to be seen through a clear vase. There is something special about the way they distort through the glass and water that I find beautiful and wanted to show in this piece. There is distortion, but still stems and water and glass, all of which are not easy to create with watercolors. I did what I felt I should do with this piece by choosing the iridescent paint for the vase and a tint of light blue to represent the presence of water and it turned out how it was meant to turn out. When we try our best, most things do turn out as they are meant to be. It is trusting in this process that is the ongoing challenge.