Art I'd Hang in My Own Home (My Favorites: The Looking for Wildflowers Collection)

Everyone says they love all of their children equally. I only have one child, but my mom friends who have multiple tell me that there is actually a favorite, and it usually changes daily.

That’s a little bit how I feel about my newest original paintings - the Looking for Wildflowers collection. I truly love all of them - but, there is 1 (or 2… or 3…) that I just keep coming back to. Like my child, my work reflects me back to myself, so I often find that the work I create is work I would hang in my own home. If I don’t love a piece, it doesn’t feel good to offer it up into the world. At the same time, creating, for me, is a practice in letting go of perfectionist tendencies - proof that something doesn’t need to be perfect to be loved. 

This collection is made up of 11 pieces, but it was designed to contain smaller mini series of coordinating pieces which could be displayed together. Each mini series was organized by a time of day, indicated by the color of the sky.

I first painted the daytime pieces, and became obsessed with “A Melody and the Taste of Sea Salt”. I love the expansive sky, that the wildflowers take up a smaller proportion of the composition, but there are still enough to keep your eyes moving through the piece. 

Next, I changed the sky just slightly to paint something that reminded me of dusk and a fog settling over the ocean- and “As the Memories and Seconds Pass By” took over my favorite spot. It’s a little bit moody, and reminds me of the ethereal ambiance that fog can evoke. 

But then! Sunrise - maybe my favorite time of day. “What it Takes to Feel Alive” quickly took up a spot in my heart. There is something youthful about these pieces, and I could see them in a nursery just as much as I could see them in my own office. I even put one on my own gallery wall to see how it felt to live with it in my space - and it really worked (video below)! What it Takes to Feel Alive and Finding the Shore are special pieces because they are wood panel, framed in acrylic, and I’ve painted on top of the acrylic frame to add depth to the work. 

And then, finally, midnight. If you know me, you know I can never resist the night sky when it’s full of stars. I will stay up into the very middle of the night in a cold winter to get the perfect astrophotography shot, or just to stargaze. “We Met Where the Land and Sky and Stars Did” was my first favorite - I love the pop of teal ocean against the stark night sky, and shimmering stars. A few days later, at the very last minute, I spotted a half done canvas from several years ago in the corner of my studio. I’d already photographed the work and drafted a preview email to my collector’s list, but I knew as soon as I saw the piece - it was meant to be in this collection. It already had a deep blue background with a foreground full of texture and even some gold leaf - it just needed a few tweaks and an abundance of wildflowers to make it complete. And, surprise - “In a ____ State of Mind” took over the spot as my favorite. It is so lush, and the luminance in the sky reminds me of the Milky Way, highlighting the ocean and fields of wildflowers below.

The collection releases this Friday, January 31, at 3 pm EST (Noon EST for my Collector’s List) at www.jocelynelizabeth.com/wildflowers. I’d love to know if you agree with my favorites or if something else is calling to you!