This painting was the first fully realized piece in a goal I had set for myself. After years of training in botanical illustration, I wanted to loosen the brushwork and surface of my paintings. I struggled to reduce the precision I was comfortable with and had practiced over the years. I felt drawn to abstraction as a way to break that cycle. The galaxy images that NASA posts online helped to inspire me toward this new adventure.

Working with acrylic paints and mediums, I used brushes, trowels, and various types of crumpled papers to break the smooth surface of the canvas and create an interesting underpainting. Building upon that layer, I used oil paint with a thinning medium, brushing gently over the acrylic underpainting to add my flower, careful to keep the transparency I wanted. This layering and weaving of the cosmos with just one flower from my garden speaks of the thoughts and meditations that daily fill my mind about life and balance. I felt that the cultivar’s own name, “Immortality Iris,” was a great fit for this breakthrough painting.