Jeffrey Ripple, Greg’s Sunflower, oil on panel, 26 x 19”. Courtesy Tory Folliard Gallery, Milwaukee, WI.

Alex Katz’s yellow flags are believable despite their lack of detail. He highlights the basic morphology of the blossoms against a featureless black background. The familiar fleur-de-lis shape appears in minimalistic form, and our brains recreate them in their fullness. Katz writes, “My paintings are, in fact, realistic, but I want nothing to do with realism...My work is more about perception than representation.”

Jimmy Wright, Black Leaf, 2005, pastel on paper, 29½ x 22½”. Courtesy the artist and DC Moore Gallery, New York, NY.

The German renaissance painter Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) wrote, “Simplicity is the greatest adornment of art.” Along with his painted portraits and extraordinarily complex drawings and engravings, Dürer made detailed studies of praying hands, a hare, and flower blossoms isolated in negative space. Study of a Lily, painted shortly before his death, is a little-known example of the genre. 

Margot Glass, Two Dandelions with Bud, 2023, 14k gold on prepared paper, 12 x 9”. Courtesy Garvey | Simon, New York, NY.

“Some of the most exciting art and design comes from putting things together that don’t seem to belong together,” she says. “Inspiration comes from new technology or a new technique. It comes when an idea is not working but you keep on pushing until it comes to life.” A Quick Study in the Passage of Time 497 Years Later Ode to AD came to life 497 years after Dürer’s Study of a Lily. 

Top: Andrea Johnson, Varied Thrush and Iris, 2024, acrylic on panel, 14 x 32 ½”. Courtesy Winfield Gallery, Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA. Above: Alex Katz, Yellow Flags 2, 2018, archival pigment inks on Museo Max fine art paper, ed. 81 of 125, 16½ x 45”. Courtesy NüArt Gallery, Santa Fe, NM.

I first saw Jeffrey Ripple’s paintings in 1998 at a gallery in San Francisco. After perusing several other galleries I returned for a second look and ran into the artist himself. His botanical still lifes were often individual specimens isolated in a nebulous field, bringing our attention to flora we might have overlooked. “These things are worthy of our notice,” he says. “Their texture and their color are somehow more than just pretty. They’re magical.” His painting Greg’s Sunflower is majestic in its isolation. Sunflowers are possessed of their own magic, being heliotropic, their blossoms following the sun. I first experienced this on a train running south of Carcassonne in France. As we travelled west in the morning, fields of sunflowers were facing east. Returning, later in the day, they were facing west. 

Larry Preston, Dandelions in a Brown Bottle, oil on panel, 12 x 12”. Courtesy William Baczek Fine Arts, Northampton, MA.

Sunflowers became part of Jimmy Wright’s oeuvre when he was caring for his partner during his battle with HIV. The sunflowers are records of time passing. In Black Leaf, the fading flower is as majestic as Ripple’s flower is in its prime. The withering leaves and petals are elegant in their shapes and the laden seed head promises a future.

Top, left to right: Maret Hensick, A Quick Study in the Passage of Time 497 Years Later, Ode to AD, watercolor and mixed media on paper, 15 x 22”. Courtesy Greenhut Galleries, Portland, ME. Carol Maguire, Roses, 2023, oil on panel, 11 x 14”. Courtesy Somerville Manning Gallery, Greenville, DE. Bottom: Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528), Study of a Lily, 1526, watercolor, 97⁄10 x 118⁄10”. Collection Musée Bonnat-Helleu, Bayonne, France.

Margot Glass finds the beauty in dandelions from a different point of view. She says, “A central theme in my work is the exploration of ephemerality, focusing primarily on weeds, ‘waste plants,’ and other plants generally considered to be undesirable to highlight their beauty in all of their imperfection and asymmetry as we navigate the disrupted landscape that we find ourselves in today.” In Two Dandelions with Bud, she draws in 14 karat gold on a black ground, bringing the delicate filagree of the plant’s seed heads and the veins of its leaves to a different level. 

Jane Sutherland, Tangerine Rose, oil on panel, 10 x 10”. Courtesy George Billis Gallery, Fairfield, CT.

Roses are, perhaps, the archetypal floral still life subject. In fact, Matisse wrote, “There is nothing more difficult for a truly creative painter than to paint a rose, because before he can do so he has first to forget all the roses that were ever painted.” Jane Sutherland’s Tangerine Rose zeros in on a spectacular blossom and the infinite gradations of its color. She writes, “I choose subjects that interest me intuitively or that I am drawn to, or that I admire; and I concentrate on the details and slightest variations in color and light in order to show how extraordinary are things we think we know and take for granted.” She invites the viewer to experience more than the tangerine rose, to observe her subtle brush strokes emulating the gradations of color in its petals. 

Nancy Balmert, Victorian Rose, oil on canvas, 24 x 24”

In Roses, Carol Maguire eschews subtlety for a passionate application of paint that captures different qualities of the bloom. An avid gardener, she understands the essence of the world around her from the soft gradations of light to bold forms and colors. She explains she is “always seeking the perfect balance of light and color. I am fascinated by the patterns created by the light...and driven to capture that moment in time.”

From left:  American Impressionist Society, Roses In Golden Light, oil, 12 x 9”, by Olga Hegner.  American Impressionist Society, Scent of Spring, oil, 8 x 6”, by Arena Shawn.

In the remainder of this special section, we will introduce you to more talented artists who create florals and botanicals, and the galleries who carry their work.

Kevin Box, Consider the Lily, bronze, ed. of 100, 3 x 9 x 3”  

“Painting flowers has taught me that painting from life is not about capturing that perfect moment on canvas, but instead about really living with something and synthesizing a thousand little beautiful moments of it as it slowly moves and opens in front of me,” says artist Arena Shawn, whose recent oil Scent of Spring depicts a vase of fuschia flowers surrounded by crimson cherries. “Unlike photographs which are snapshots in time, painting flowers from life, whose changes are rapid and cannot be stopped, makes the finished piece a tapestry woven with time,” she says. 

John Meister, HAPPY, oil, 16 x 16”  

A pastel titled Fireworks by Jeanne Rosier Smith features vibrant pinks as well. “Flowers are tiny but mighty, packing a vivid punch with intense color, dynamic natural design and when lit up by the sun, positively luminous,” says Smith. “As a landscape painter, I gravitate to the ‘found’ still life: blossoms in the garden, fruit on the trees. Nature is the supreme composer, and it’s up to me to discover the painting.” 

From left:  Nancy Balmert, April Dawn Dahlia, oil on canvas, 20 x 48”. John Meister, AGAVE IN GREEN, oil, 20 x 24”

Both Shawn’s and Smith’s pieces, as well as a stunning oil painting of golden roses by Olga Hegner, will be a part of the American Impressionist Society’s upcoming Small Works Showcase at Fallbrook Art Center  in California running through March 29.

From left: Nancy Balmert, Crystal and Magenta Orchids, oil on canvas, 14 x 11”; Kevin Box, Growing Together, bronze and stainless steel, ed. of 100, 10 x 8 x 3”; Kevin Box and Michael G. LaFosse, Perennial Peace, bronze, ed. of 50, 13½ x 5½ x 7”  

Recent paintings by passionate floral painter Nancy Balmert feature orchids, roses and dahlias in shades of purples, pinks and whites. In Crystal and Magenta Orchids, delicate orchid petals lay next to a clear glass. “I’ve been a collector of glass from as far back as I can remember, and nobody likes flowers more than me,” says Balmert. “The shiny smoothness of glass wonderfully complements the texture and color of flowers. That’s why I love combining them in a painting. Together, flowers and glass create such a classic look. You can find these as subjects in paintings dating back to the early 1700s, and in the late 19th century, French impressionists made them popular.” Balmet’s paintings are available at Amsterdam Whitney International Fine Art Gallery in New York City  through the end of March and at Prellop’s Fine Art Gallery in Salado, Texas.

American Impressionist Society, Fireworks, pastel, 6 x 10”, by Jeanne Rosier Smith.

For sculptor Kevin Box, represented by Kay Contemporary, “the blank page is the archetype of the creative challenge.” The artist feels that the purest expression of gratitude is a simple bouquet of flowers, representing a sincere and heartfelt gesture of appreciation for something the recipient has done, or simply an acknowledgement of who they are. Box creates unique Origami-like sculptures of flowers in bronze and stainless steel. —