Mary Palmer meets Scarlett O'Hara: The Bougie Wars

6"x4" oil on raymar panel • What makes this painting unique is not the flower selection, but the fact that I elected to do it in the first place. You see, most of my flower paintings are executed by royal decree. Usually, The Spousal Unit (a.k.a. The Queen) is in the garden (lopping off the heads of her subjects) and as a result, I get flowers shoved in front of me with the silent, but ever so strong suggestion (command) to paint them. This time, I was just looking at the bougainvilleas growing against our wall and thought to myself, "Self, you should paint some of those. They will drive you insane, and insane is where you live."  •  For all of you botanists out there, the white bougie is called Mary Palmer's Enchantment (though when being pruned, they do not seem so very enchanting to me) and the red/purple(ish) is Scarlett O'Hara or, as it is known in some rather seedy dives down in Tijuana, San Diego Red.
 
Posted September 13, 2013

sold • private collection new york, ny