About the floral paintings:

Most recently I have found myself embracing a subject matter with built in, even cliché beauty and joining the ranks of artists who have painted flowers.

These paintings stem from the seasonal observation and documentation of flowers from my urban garden. They begin with a group of embellished flower portraits entitled the ‘Tiara Series'. With this series (some of which are shown on this page) I embrace these magnificent floral specimens and exaggerate and beautify them in multiple ways - dressing and adorning a single bloom with a headdress or tiara.

The tiara paintings have led to other flower 'arrangements' which include an ongoing Four Season 'Bouquet' series. Winter, the first of the Four Season paintings was completed in 2014 and Summer was completed in 2018.

Like much of my previous work, the imagery in these flower paintings continues in a naturalist vein tweaked into unnatural but pictorially believable contexts. But with these paintings I allow myself to embrace, rather than subdue, utter beauty in the execution of the imagery.

- Holly Sears