Ileen Kaplan

First Daffodils
Ileen Kaplan
Image Dimensions:  Height:  8" x Width:  6"
Unframed.  Ready to hang.
Oil on cradled panel
 
 
If you are like me, for the past months you have been waking up with
an anxious feeling: What will the news bring today? Will my loved ones
or myself get sick? When will I  be able to go back to work? And on
and on..
As a way to take my mind off of all of this, I committed to a 30 day
flower painting challenge-  20 flowers painted from life in 30 days.
While I had hoped that it would help me to feel better, I did not
realize what a profound change it would make in my viewpoint.

 I was fortunate to have a neighbor with a beautiful flower garden who
let me take as many flowers into my studio to paint as I needed. I
spent the days observing, admiring,and falling in love with the
flowers. I began to see them as gorgeous beings that I returned to day
after day and got to know intimately. Each had a personality, and as I
set them up in front of the window, or as I lit them from the side, I
felt such appreciation, both for them as part of nature and for my own
life.

Of course I still worry, and I still have anxious fears. But I also
have a place inside that knows everything will be all right. And my
flowers are a symbol that optimism.