Peonies

This painting began as an exercise in light, but it turned into something gentler — a moment of calm between the shepherd and his flock. I wanted the morning to feel new, fragile, and full of quiet purpose. The figures don’t speak, yet their closeness says enough. The shepherd looks at his sheep, and not…

I wanted this piece to feel like a quiet pause… Poppies have a long history of symbolizing remembrance, especially in Europe, and I leaned into that while painting. The figure stands alone in the field, hair blown across the face, eyes hidden. It’s a moment of stillness—just you, the wind, and the red. I felt…

This was a gift for an ex—kind of. We went on a date to the koi pond at Hahn Horticulture Garden, and I was inspired to paint this. It was my first time trying to date seriously, and I did everything “right,” waiting for feelings to show up. They didn’t. He didn’t. I let him…

I painted this in one sitting—six hours straight—as a birthday gift for my mom. It began with a monochromatic reference, but the colors didn’t stay quiet. They surged forward, unexpected and insistent, like they had their own momentum. It felt less like I was choosing them and more like they were choosing me. This was…

This was the biggest canvas I’d ever worked on back in high school, and I went all in. I wanted to paint a sunbeam—one of those quiet, golden ones that slips into a dark room and makes everything feel like magic. The dust in the light was key: I painted it like specks of gold,…