'Little Peony'

Oil on Canvas

'Big Peony' and 'Little Peony'  began, rather unglamorously, as the giant drop cloth in my Windermere, Florida studio—the one loyal companion that faithfully collected every splatter, drip, flick, and “oops” from my working canvases. One day, while dragging this paint-splattered beast around the studio, I had the sudden urge to see what it actually looked like upright. So up onto the wall it went. 

And there it was: a massive, accidental masterpiece staring back at me. Instead of tossing it aside or pretending it hadn’t been living under my feet for months, I decided to let it graduate to something far grander. That drop cloth became the underpainting for the largest artwork I’ve ever tackled—a full-wall celebration of hot pinks, vivid greens, and two gloriously oversized blooms: 'Big Peony' and  'Little Peony.'

The painting became a joyful experiment in scale, movement, and the delightful chaos that happens when you let instinct (and a very large wall) take over. The two blossoms danced together beautifully on the sprawling canvas—so much so that I eventually split them into two separate works. They stand proudly on their own or reunite as a diptych for the lucky soul with enough wall real estate to host such floral drama. 

Because sometimes creativity comes from deep reflection… 
And sometimes it comes from tacking your drop cloth to the wall and thinking, “Well, this could be fun.”