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COLLECTOR'S FOCUS
FLORALS & BOTANICALSstyles, bird nests on broken ceramic plates to comment on
our consumption of the planet’s resources and, recently,
Transgenic Bouquets—The Von Humboldt.
He writes, “I have started to imagine I am a biotech fl orist,
creating single stem bouquets in my studio that grow as
a fully formed flower arrangement blooming in unison.
Through the medium of oil and pigment, various species
of fl owers have been genetically modifi ed and grafted into
root stock using hog’s hair brushes onto the surface of my
wood panels.
“These new paintings reference back to Old Master, Dutch
fl ower paintings that despite their breathtaking illusionism
do not refl ect reality as the panoply of rare petals never actu-
ally bloomed together and were a construct pieced together
from studies done when the fl owers were actually in bloom
throughout the growing season.”
In the tradition of fl oral painting, Thayer was right when
she wrote, “If the seeing is honest and the hand is well
trained, a revelation will emerge.”
There is beauty at every turn of the page in this special
section dedicated to artists painting fl orals and botanicals.
They turn to the world around them—flowers they buy at
markets, their own gardens and snapshots of life they see as
they pass by a blooming fi eld. It is in the intricacies of these
works that the artists’ individual styles fl ourish.
Bonner David Galleries in Scottsdale, Arizona, features
the works of Dyana Hesson and Kathy Lemke Waste, who
often paint fl owers and other garden fi nds. Their paintings
will be on view in the gallery for a two-artist show March 29
through April 22.
Hesson’s newest painting Sunburst, Echeveria, Huntington
Gardens, CA depicts a scene she stumbled upon last April1213 14 1516