Plant Migration (The Last of Seven Pieces: Part 2)

Second in a series of 7 paintings, this one depicts an introspective sunflower going for a walk at sunset, perhaps heading home after a hard day of photosynthesizing? Chlorophyll aside, this humorous take on migration was based on some doodles I made back in 2013, during a very stressful time in my life. Many of the drawings have that element of introspection and escapism.

I'm often inspired by impressionism paintings or paintings done in that era. There was a movement in France just before impressionism where the goal was to depict normal people in their communities usually farms, working laborers instead of debutantes and rich people, or Greek mythology themes, as the academic painters of the 18th century and earlier preferred to do. As a result, there are some incredible paintings of farmers fields, with the most spectacular light and shadow affect, for instance Millet's "The Potato Harvest". I learned a lot of this stuff in art history class in high school, a notable teacher was Mr. William Clarke. In this painting, I tried to capture that feeling in the field underneath the sunflower.

7.5 x 11" (19 x 27 cm) cold press Watercolour, July 2016