"Rest Stop" 11x14" Painting

This is an 11x14” oil painting on a gallery thick, 1.5” hand stretched canvas, depicting a cluster of pink echinacea, or cone flowers, and a bee taking a rest on one of the flower's seed head.

"Rest Stop" was painted as a sister piece to my 2023 painting "Mom's Garden". Both painting's reference photos were captured, a year apart, but from the same garden bed at my childhood home which is busting with pink echinacea flowers in the summer time. 

Every time I visit home in the summer one of the first things I do is head outside with all my mom's available vases and make seemingly endless flower arrangements.

I adored painting the photographic perspective in "Mom's Garden" and wanted to chase a similar effect in this painting, blurring out the more distant blooms and hyper focusing on those in the foreground. This painting feels like nostalgia to me and when I look into it I can feel the humid Ontario summer, smell the grass roasting in the July weather and hear a cicada beetle singing in the trees.

The bee that landed while I was shooting pictures seemed like the perfect companion to the scene, taking a quick pollen break in the late summer afternoon.

The edges of this painting have been painted a deep red, emphasizing the warm burgundy tones from the scene.