FLOWERS IN CONTEMPORARY OIL PAINTING: PORTRAYING MOTHERLY LOVE

Abstract

Floral still lifes, floriography and floral symbolism were historically part of the way society communicates values and feelings visually, using them as a language that signified virtues such as loyalty, truth and love. Today, maternal love is mostly represented in contemporary painting through figurative works. Nevertheless, flowers can express love and intimacy in close relationships and on significant occasions. Buchmann writes that there is an opportunity to revisit the importance of floral visual art and how they are “worthy of artistic rendition, have been rediscovered and rehabilitated” although to some parts have receded into the shadows of contemporary painting (2015, p. 247). In this research, the language of flowers takes on a new and revitalized form to present a new approach to a visual representation of love and human connection in contemporary painting. Here is an opportunity to emphasize the importance of floral visual art as a symbolic language of maternal love, emotions and character traits. Revitalized, the language of flowers takes on a new form, strengthened by a composition that strikes a balance between stillness and movement of the brushstrokes, while the overall experience is intensified by the monumental scale of the canvas. This research explores whether and how flowers show their maternal love in contemporary oil paintings in which flowers are embedded in a winter snowscape as an ambience. The methodology involves the tonal painting on a scale from white to dark gray, by day and night, visual analysis of paintings that serve as case studies, a compositional study underpinned by the idea of the non-finito or the unfinished, to reflect on the beauty of imperfection that reflects how a mother’s love may not be perfect but brings security and unconditional love that is boundless. Primarily, this is a practice-based research that encompasses textual and visual analysis of historical floral artworks. The artworks are developed with jasmine to explore transparency, scale, dry brushstrokes, texture through lines, curves and intensity. Guided by a wintry ambience, the flowers take shape working with a palette of ‘white on white’, ‘white on gray’, ‘white on dark’ and ‘dark on white’. Flowers, particularly jasmine, which symbolizes mothers in Thailand, express maternal love in the context of this research, which defines the final artwork in a series of large-scale floral oil paintings. Flowers as a form of visual language can be successfully used to convey aspects of the human experience and the bonds of connection and relationships.

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