Wanting to give myself another challenge, I built a highly textured underpainting using acrylic gels and pigments, layer over layer, working with trowels and crumpled foil to apply the thickened paint. Since I knew I’d be building up that much surface, I chose cradled hardboard instead of canvas, something stable enough to work into heavily. Once that ground was ready, I glazed the Lotus over it, thin and translucent, so the flower floats above all that texture the way it floats on water. The water below and the cosmic sky above echo each other as they both blend, support, and elevate the Lotus flower.