Pat Service Shares Inspiration Behind 'Single Blossoms', On View for Spring Fever in The Royal Annex
Pat Service shares the inspiration behind the 'flowery' paintings that are on view at Oeno Gallery in The Royal Annex for SPRING FEVER (March 11 — April 29).
"Many decades ago, Still Life was one of my continuing themes and Still Life paintings often included flowers. I enjoyed the challenge of trying to capture some of their essence, their glorious colour and delicacy and confidence. However, there came a time when I felt I couldn’t do any better and I stopped painting flowers. I haven’t worked with floral imagery for 20 years at least."
My.Heart.Beats.Here, Pat Service, Acrylic on Canvas, 62.75 × 62.75 in
Each painting measures 30 x 30 in
Artwork Description:
This series of florals documents a variety of single blossoms. A Grouping of four flowers are rendered in a deep purple, creamy yellow, mossy green, and smooth velvet. Reminiscent of Andy Warhol, Service’s flowers are pared down to the essentials--simple shapes without leaves or stems. An avid gardener, Pat Service has painted florals throughout her career. Displayed together, these florals make a dynamic statement.
"Over the past fifteen years or so I have been preoccupied with colour and the simplification of detail in my paintings in order to emphasize colour. It slowly occurred to me last year that if I stopped being a snob about flower paintings, I would have a very suitable framework for what I like to do on a canvas.
Working from photos taken by me, I paint small casual watercolours of the flowers. With these relaxed representations as a starting point, I lightly sketch a circle on a canvas and mark the centre. Using thinned acrylic paint, I flood it onto the canvas image and wait to see what happens. It rarely goes the way I plan but often the very ones that seem headed for disaster, the ones that force my hand leading to uncontrolled and unplanned moves, these are the paintings that end up with something unique, unrelated to a real flower but with a magic of their own." - Pat Service
These big, beautiful blossoms will be on view in The Royal Annex (just behind The Royal Hotel at 6 Ross Street, Picton) until April 29, 2023.
Read Pat Service's Bio Here