Claude Monet was famous for saying, ” I perhaps owe having become a painter to the flowers.” I have always loved painting flowers as it is easy for me to discern what I am feeling when I paint them. I am awed by the sublime beauty of color, shape, texture and smell. I am hopeful and happy for my faith in beauty. I am inspired to believe in my own beauty, and to create beauty. All my senses become deeply satisfied and peaceful in the presence of beauty. Flowers seem to possess a certain magic. They are used to celebrate the joy of weddings, and adorn the grief of funerals. As such, they are a symbol for the transcendence in the duality of life and death. The flower has power, and no other motif in nature has been the source of such reverence and inspiration. Flower paintings inspire us to go beyond the ordinary, to rise above the mundane and embrace the invisible laws of spirit that gift us with beauty.