Cherry Blossoms

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oil on gessobord
Unframed
5″ x 7″

Growing up, we had an ornamental cherry tree in our back garden.

Every year, it would explode in a riot of pink blossoms and I would happily sit outside as often as I could during that brief period, just looking at it. I couldn’t get enough.

I tried several times as a child and teenager to capture its magnificence, but never could; I didn’t paint at the time and pencil or oil pastels just fell wildly short of the soft voluptuous quality of the blossoms.

In the spring of 2020, I discovered that the neighbour’s tree that grew next to my second floor balcony was a cherry tree.

Cue my delight.

And because the pandemic meant my schedule was wiiiiide open for the first time in years, when I said “I’m gonna spend the afternoon painting the cherry blossoms”, I actually went and did it.

The first painting wasn’t the greatest – it took me a while to get the hang of those clusters of petals and the overcast day meant that the blossoms often got lost against the white-clouded sky.

The second day, the sun came out and I tried again; this painting is from that day.

The third day, wind and rain overnight had blown most of the petals off.

It’s a moment I’m glad I seized.

$325